The fact that many of his much younger coworkers started dying in last one year or so, didn’t prevent Roger Corman from continuing to make cult movies (more cult than movies truth to be told). Unexpectedly the most prolific B- Movie producer of all times decided to remake a remake of his own film, legendary Death Race 2000 (Stallone, David Carradine), now Death Race 2050!
The filming is underway right this moment in Peru staring surprisingly potent cast of Mannu Benett (Chronicles of Shanara, Arrow, Spartacus), Malcom McDowell (Clockwork Orange, Halloween, Class of 1999) and Yancy Butler (Kick-Ass, Hard Target, Witchblade).
“This is an amazing opportunity for me and millions of Death Race 2000 fans to experience the intensity, thrills and dark humor of the original, fueled by a terrific young cast, spectacular vehicles and side-splitting action, literally” said Corman.
To mention first: This movie doesn’t have anything to do with Jersey Maneater from 1916 (which will be clear to you once when you see the poster), despite the fact that the premiere was shortly after Shark Week has ended. It isn’t even an indie so-bad-it-is-funny flick. No, this movie is about cosmic and human justice putting an miserable end to the most despicable sort of people on the God’s green Earth – guidos.
But it doesn’t seem like that from the beginning. In the intro we can see some sort of mob execution style in the woods. Then it turns to horror beheading and disemboweling of mobsters while some chick tied to the tree is watching the whole show. After a zoom to sawed off body parts killer turns his attention to screaming tied up girl. Then a title of this movie pops up, followed by Beethoven’s symphony in the background (?).
Heads up!
After the intro we are switched to classic New Jersey day. A bunch of ugly sluts are at stereotypical Hispanic gay Rikardo. And of course, he is their hairstylist. One of them is wearing a word shaped necklace with a word “SINGLE”, which just screams “Please kill me, I don’t deserve tp live”. But more of that later. Right now Dina (necklace girl, played by Angelica Boccela) and Teresa (played by Danielle Dallacco) are preparing for girly weekend on the Shore. Another tramp Gigi (played by Christina Scaclione) joins them and they are ready to go. But just before they went to the journey Gigi had a fight with her ex-boyfriend Michael (his real name is not important), a guido who can barely speak out a coherent words. He swears upon something, could be revenge, but we
weren’t able to understand what he is actually saying. Anyway, 3 of them went to the Shore just to find out there that the house they’ve previously booked has been taken by 3 other Latino sluts. So all 6 of them (3 more really ugly bimbos joined) are forced to take another house, deeper in the woods. After settling down there all of them (except Gigi, who went to a meeting with Michael) went to a shore to have a good time. There they met 5 obnoxious fist-pumping guidos who prove them their muscularity by crashing a sandcastle some kid had built and beating up a mimic man who was trying to perform. Real heroes, right. Of course, tramps fell for that. And why wouldn’t they with such IQ? Their level of intelligence was determined earlier when, after learning that a price of tickets for the Devil Tour is a 7.5$ dollars each, Joanne (played by Nicole Rutigllano) said, and I quote “Screw it, we get discount. 50$ for all 6 of us.” Do the math. Meanwhile, Gigi had another fight in the woods with Michael after she ended up with her throat slit from ear to ear.
Seriously, who wouldn’t start a killing spree after seeing this?
Later that evening, after being kicked out from a club for starting a fight, girls invite their new friends to their place. There they are welcomed by the unexpected guest. No, it is not who you think it is. It is Valeries’s (played by Ashley Mitchell) tall, fat and large cousin Rosemarie (played by Leonarda Bosch), who managed to eat almost entire food supply while she was waiting for them. To kick the party rolling they watch DVD copy of Fat Camp Massacre, staring Shawn C Phillips (who may be known to you for his role in Haunted High). But not everyone find that movie interesting. Gino (played by Brett Azar) and second fattest chick around went upstairs to have some fun. While fatty went to refresh herself under a shower, Gino ignores sex invitation and goes to
tan himself (he really should feel lucky that, as a guido, he actually gets to sleep with anyone). Big mistake! Killer came, tied him up with chains and roasted him in tanning bed. Then our hero (yeah we were rooting for killer) moves forward to showers when he had a hard job of slicing fatty. A lot of fat before knife could reach an organs.
Best movie ever!
While fatty and Gino are having their inner organs removed, near the pool party is reaching it’s peak. Tony, Vinnie and Freddy are making plans how to ditch fat Rosemarie. Meanwhile, slutty dumb Joanne and Joey (played by John Michael Hastie) have already took business upstairs. Another big mistake! Killer took a sabre and impaled both of them while they were on pile. No more lovemaking for these birds.
Freddy (played by Chris Lazarro) took the bullet for entire gang and drove away with Rosemarie just in order to ditch her couple of miles away into her natural habitat – farm. When he came back he got pissed because all the girls were already taken. So he decides to take a stroll to cool down a bit. And indeed he did. Killer captured and tied Freddy in a nearby barn and made him watch mutilating of hanged Vinnie (played by Brenton Duplessie). Then it was a Freddy’s turn. Rightful punishment for his irritating laughter is slaughter. Same fate happened to Valerie and Tony (played by Giovanni Roselli) who came after Freddy. Well almost the same. You see, killer had Tony’s hands sawed off but Tony managed to escape just to get shot in the head by nervous policeman. Talking about irony.
When corpses started to pile up, 15 minutes before movie ending, Dina and Teresa finally figured out that something is wrong so they decided to call a police. That didn’t stop murderer to spill Dina’s guts out with the huge knife just a seconds after he revealed his true identity to them. It turned out that it is their old neighbor Edgar (played by Bigfoot). Teresa asked him why he is doing this on which he replied: It is a Jersey thing. Sounds reasonable to me! After a short fight Teresa managed to inflame Edgar’s head with a some sort of bug spray (?). In spite of every logic, she then headed to lake when she tried to escape in small boat. But wait, here is the twist! Edgar had a twin brother Troy who shows up out of nowhere and started to pull boat with screaming Teresa in it. Just when it seemed that Troy will finish his brother’s work, Teresa’s mobster uncle Vito (played by Dominic Lucci) also shows up out of nowhere and puts bullet into Troy’s head in execution manner. On the very end, Ron Jeremy buys the house and shoots the killer who jumped out of the lake. And yeah, Rosemarie still lives with cows on a farm.
There won’t be any reunion
Conclusion: This movie started with the intro which didn’t seem to have anything to do with the rest of the movie. It made it seem as though there was going to be another direction for the film to take. Director Paul Tarnopol (in cooperation with JWow production) firstly tried to make Godfather movie (but it turned out to be more of Analyze This sort), then switched to Friday the 13 flick, with a bunch of untalented and unattractive New Jersey girls. Also, when the only (famous) actor is porn star Ron Jeremy, who is also the best actor here, you get an idea of how bad movie this is. AS for the characters they were poorly written, extremely undeveloped, obnoxious as hell (though this might have been done on purpose), and not to mention awful acting. I sincerely hope that their characters fate happened to all of the ‘actors’ in real life (the best opportunity for it would be in Jersey Shore reality). At least in the movie they’ve got what they deserved.
We at WM Crew are of course giant Manos: Hands of Fate fans. So it’s only natural that we decided to promote the Kickstarter campaign for the long time coming sequel Manos Returns– with this awesome interview with Debbie aka Jakey Neyman Jones. Enjoy and don’t forget to visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1840778752/manos-returns
1. What’s the clearest memory you have of Manos: Hands of Fate filming?
I have lots of memories of being on the set but a significant memory for me was my first scene. It was the summer between first and second grade and I had been learning to read so Hal gave me my own script and taped it to the floor of the back seat so it wouldn’t blow away. It wasn’t at all necessary but it made me feel important and special.
Also is it true that you were the only actor that got paid for the filming, with a new bicycle and a food for your dog?
No one got paid anything for doing Manos and some, like my dad, invested a lot of their own resources other than their time. My dog, Shanka, the Doberman were the only ones on cast or crew who were compensated. I got a new red bike with training wheels and plastic streamers coming from the handlebars and Shanka got a 50 lb. bag of grocery store brand dog food.
2.One of the staples of the movie, the actor playing Torgo- John Reynolds sadly passed away shortly after the filming was wrapped. What are your memories of him? Were you close during the filming?
He was a very sweet quiet shy man in my eyes. Mostly during filming he kept to himself to stay in character or disappeared somewhere out in the desert. But when we were both there and not working, he would hang out with me on a low wall outside the house (Valley Lodge). We would talk a little and he would entertain me with silly physical comedy or simple magic tricks while waiting and watching the filming.
3.How did you decide to write a book that documents your experiences from the Manos filming? What can we expect from Growing up with Manos?
I am an artist but I’ve always written here and there and often thought of writing a book. Several years ago I decided to start a blog http://debbiesmanos.blogspot.com about Manos beginning with my memories and clarifying things I knew to be more accurate than the Manos Mythology that had been circulating for so long. It was also an experiment with myself to see if I could come up with enough for a book, be disciplined enough to complete a project, and I needed to know if I would have an audience. I was surprised when in less than a year, I was averaging 3000 views a month. I knew I couldn’t do it all alone so I found my fabulous co-author Laura Mazzuca Toops and I set to writing and research. We found a publisher with Bear Manor Media pretty much the moment we sent out our pitch letters and now the book is just waiting for publication. It took 16 months to complete and was an amazing journey of connecting with long lost people and discovering others who were involved in Manos and never credited. It’s a good story of how this famously bad film came together, who all the players were behind it, and how they not only got pulled into the project but stuck it out in spite of the handwriting on the wall. It goes on to follow the chain of events that brought it to today and the dark side that threatened future inspired projects.
4. How does it feel being back in the world of Manos- filming a sequel incredible 5 decades after the original? Tell us about the old and the new faces working on Return of Manos.
I’ve been in the world of Manos all along as the only surviving cast or crew willing to discuss Manos but that’s pretty much been all fun and games. This is fun too, but it is important to me to somehow give my dad especially a tribute for all the fandom and for the pop culture phenomenon Manos has become. He offered so much of himself and his family to help Hal get his movie done and all he received was emptier pockets and a load of humiliation. Current day Manos is a way for him to have fun with it, for us to have more time together and for the fans to see The Master once again. In the process of researching my book, I discovered the woman who sang “Forgetting You” in the soundtrack. Nicki Mathis has a wonderful career as a Jazz singer and still performs. She has agreed to re record “Forgetting You” for us. We have a few more surprises too for the cast of Manos Returns.
5. We at WM are overjoyed that the Master, your father Tom Neyman is back in the sequel. How does your father feel about Manos after all this time, and what does it feel like working with him again on the new one?
My dad has always stayed very private about Manos although he is always happy to hear about the happening in the Manos world. I enjoy sharing with him and passing messages from the fans. At 80 years old, he’s enjoying it vicariously through me. When the idea of a sequel came up, I knew I couldn’t do it without him, so when he agreed to reprise the role of The Master, it just had to happen.
6. How do you plan to recapture the unique atmosphere of the original Manos and will you include the original Torgo’s music theme, which was used so often in the first one.
I’ve studied this Manos thing for some time, and with closer scrutiny than most, and I believe that it would not be possible to successfully recapture the magic that is Manos. It was made earnestly and unintentionally bad. We are a group of talented indie film makers and professional creative types with a lot more knowledge, technology and resources than Hal could ever have hoped for. That and the Kickstarter funding gives us a great shot at creating a low budget independent film that will be a blast to make and fun for the fans.
One thing we are re-creating is the music. The soundtrack is really quite good and we intend to re record. We will do the Torgo Theme as close to the original as possible.
Worsemovies 