Manos Returns is the sequel to Manos: The Hands of Fate which was made in 1966 and became famous when Mystery Science Theater skewered it. While the original Manos is delightfully bad and entertaining, the sequel is just bad. It’s a labor of love done by the actress who played the little girl in the first movie, but it lacks the charm or inadvertent humor of the first one.
The plot is essentially the same as the original movie. People in a convertible get lost while on vacation and stay at Valley Lodge. Torgo says the master won’t like it if they stay, but the vacationers insist that it will be fine. Do lost travelers ever actually ask to stay at someone’s house, and then when they are told the home owner won’t like, they disregard this information and stay anyway? The premise is so bizarre.
As in the first movie, the car is approached by a Sheriff. When they tell him they have reservations at a nearby luxury hotel, he tells them to go into town because there’s nothing like that out here. They say they’ll keep looking since they already paid for their rooms. Good god, ask some questions. At a minimum ask him if he’s ever heard of the hotel. Because either you’re booked at a crappy motel who is using false advertising, or you’re about to be murdered
There’s also a subplot where one of the women just got out of an abusive relationship. She is concerned about how Torgo is treated and tries to alert him to the fact that he is being abused by the people he knows.
This is a very low budget movie. I think they raised money for it on Kickstarter. It’s not very entertaining and would probably only be of interest to those who know of the original Manos.
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