Episode Details

Actress, artist, and producer Jackey Neyman takes us behind the scenes of one of the strangest cult movies in filmmaking history: Manos: The Hands of Fate. Jackey was only six years old when her father joined the production and brought far more than his performance to the movie—he also provided sets, props, costumes, furniture, a car, a Doberman, and his daughter for the cast. Jackey remembers what it was actually like making the ultra-low-budget production, watching the disastrous original premiere, and seeing a movie everyone involved tried to forget suddenly find an enormous new audience decades later through Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Jackey also discusses bringing the franchise back with Manos Returns, including crowdfunding the production, assembling an experienced low-budget filmmaking team, bringing surviving members of the original production back, and working toward making the best movie possible with limited resources. She explains why they didn't want to imitate the accidental qualities that made the original Manos infamous and instead wanted to create a genuine continuation made specifically for its fans. It's a fascinating look at how an independent film can fail, disappear, become a cult phenomenon decades later, and ultimately create opportunities its original filmmakers could never have predicted.

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