The Manitou (1978)

User Rating:

4.4/10   

Director:

William Girdler

Writers:

Jon Cedar (writer)
William Girdler (writer)

Release Date:

24 January 1979 (France)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Evil does not die... It waits to be re-born!

Plot:

A psychic's girlfriend finds out that a lump on her back is a growing reincarnation of a 400 year-old demonic Native American spirit.

Plot Keywords:

Tumor | Doctor | Fetus | Hospital | Reincarnation

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Tony Curtis	...	Harry Erskine
Michael Ansara	...	John Singing Rock
Susan Strasberg	...	Karen Tandy
Stella Stevens	...	Amelia Crusoe
Jon Cedar	...	Dr. Jack Hughes
Ann Sothern	...	Mrs. Karmann
Burgess Meredith	...	Dr. Snow
Paul Mantee	...	Dr. McEvoy
Jeanette Nolan	...	Mrs. Winconis
Lurene Tuttle	...	Mrs. Herz
Hugh Corcoran	...	MacArthur
Ann Newman-Mantee	...	10th-Floor Nurse
Jan Heininger	...	Wolf, an orderly
Michael Laren	...	Michael, an orderly
Cindy Stanford	...	Neighbor

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

UK:15 (re-rating) (1991) | UK:18 (re-rating) (1987) | UK:X (original rating) | Iceland:16 | USA:PG (re-rating on appeal) | USA:R (original rating) | Argentina:18 (re-rating) | Argentina:X (original rating) | Australia:R | Finland:K-18 | Norway:18

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Mid-America Pictures

Trivia:

Last film of director William Girdler. Shortly before the film's release he was killed in a helicopter crash in the Philippines while scouting locations for an upcoming film.

Quotes:

John Singing Rock: [praying over his medicine circle] Gitche Manitou, hear me. Hear me and protect me.
Harry Erskine: [as Karen Tandy opens her eyes] John, look!
John Singing Rock: Who are you? Where do you come from?
Misquamacus: [speaking through Karen Tandy] I am mightier than you. Your medicine is of no consequence.
John Singing Rock: What is your name?
Misquamacus: My name... Misquamacus. Leave the whites, little brother from the plains. Do not help them... or die.
Harry Erskine: John, what's the matter? What... what is it?
John Singing Rock: It's Misquamacus. The greatest medicine man of all. He turned rivers, made storms. Mountains rose at his command. No spirit ignored him. No demon denied him.
Dr. Jack Hughes: My God!
John Singing Rock: Your God won't help you. Nothing in your Christian world will help. Not prayers, not holy water. Not the weight of a thousand of your churches.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Empire of the Censors (1995) (TV)

Absurdist Fun

While I must agree with many of the reveiewers of this film that say it is preposterous, silly, laughable, and the like, I must also add that watching the film is an entertaining experience. Yes, the story about a fetus growing on a woman's back and then becoming a four foot Indian ripping his way out of a tumor the size of basketball stretches the line of credibility. This pint-sized spirit has amazing powers as he can literally freeze an entire hospital ward, call forth the devil himself, and take the skin off of people's bodies through his mind. The most ridiculous aspects of the film, however, are the explanation and execution of how to fight the manitou. Apparently all things in life have their own manitou, so we see this incredibly powerful spirit temporarily beaten when Tony Curtis throws a typewriter at him. We are to believe the spirit of the machine harmed this powerful spirit. Yeah, okay. The special effects are very outdated and some of those will just make you burst out laughing. The scene where Tony Curtis(the former boyfriend of the girl with the shoulder-weilding fetus/pint-sized Indian spirit) and Michael Ansara(playing John Singing Rock or something like that who just happens to be an Indian medicine man ready, able, and willing to do battle with the most powerful Indian medicine man's spirit that ever lived...and this one apparently has ripped through the shoulders or bellies of five previous people) walk into the hospital room and see what I guess is suppose to be space will have you slapping your knee. But the very worst scene has to be the finale which I will not explain in great detail. Suffice it to say that Susan Strasberg(the poor woman aforementioned) is sitting up on a bed topless..., yes, you heard me, TOPLESS, throwing ele trical current from her fingers as she battles the manitou. It has to be seen to be believed. The acting in the film is not very good, but again very likable. Curtis plays a mystic and some of his scenes are good in the beginning. Ansara is ok, and Burgess Meredith gives the best performance in his five minute cameo. The little Indian who could was played much of the time by Felix Silla, the same fella that played Cousin It on The Addams Family and has appeared in countless horr/science fiction films.