The Manitou
As far as I can tell, TCM is still doing re-runs for the foreseeable future (currently up to June 29th). So I’ll just go through what little is left of my backlog and share this quaint little Exorcist inspired rip-off.
The Manitou is the story of Karen and Harry. Karen has a bit of a problem. Seems there’s this fast growing lump on the back of her neck that twitches even when you don’t touch it. The doctors initially just assure her that it’s a tumor, but since it’s grown to the size of a golf ball in the span of three days, they’ll have to get it off quick or risk it causing her more harm.
After that bit of unsettling news, Karen goes to see her beau Harry, a low on the totem pole psychic who plays creepy music and wears a fake mustache to impress his clients.
That would be the mustache on the wall on the far left…You’ve had better gigs,
Tony Curtis.
That night, Karen mutters something unintelligible in her sleep. Harry doesn’t think too much of it, until she does the same thing the next day on the operating table and the surgeon in the room reluctantly takes the scalpel to his own hand.
Harry is convinced that something’s wrong, but the doctors go ahead and try the procedure again, this time with a laser treatment scalpel. I’ll let you draw your own conclusion on how that ended.
Things take another dark turn when our inspiring boyfriend has a frightening encounter with one of his clients, who subtly informs him that things are actually much worse than they seem. And by subtle, I mean she floats down the hallway and awkwardly chucks herself down the stairs.
Really now. She’s 90. The evil thing could have given her some dignity
and made her trip of a flat surface. It would have been just as effective.
After Harry drums up a fellow (legit) psychic, a séance is performed, interviews and investigations are conducted and the truth is revealed. The horrible thing on the back of Karen’s neck is not just a tumor (after that showy death it better the hell not be). That would be too mundane.
Nope.
It’s a fetus.
Yep. That’d be my reaction, too.
And not just that. No, it’s the quickly growing fetus of a 400+ year old medicine man who wants to avenge his people by destroying a good chunk of humanity.
Of course, by the time Harry finally finds a Sioux shaman willing to try to counteract all of this he’s a bit late.
Hey Karen! I had to bribe him with money and tobacco, but I finally found someone
who’s willing to hel-….Well, f*&%
And Mr. Medicine Man is PISSED. Not only did everyone try to lop him off before he was ready to hatch (there’s really no other word for that scene), but multiple x-rays and the radiation they emit do not do a fetus good, 400 years old or not.
Ew. Dude, go back in. I don’t think you’re done baking yet.
Orderlies are butchered, demons are summoned, snow falls…
Am I supposed to be scared or laugh at this scene? I’m not sure.
It’s a veritable hell in the ICU and all the while, Harry and the Shaman are running around in circles trying to figure out a way to defeat someone who’s said to have the power to move mountains.
I’ve got to give
The Manitou props for it’s originality. I mentioned earlier that this is an
Exorcist rip-off, but that’s really the closest comparison I can make: A poor, innocent soul is being taken over/hijacked and it’s up to a small group of people to help save her. But that’s really only true for the first half of the film and that’s where the comparison ends. By the second half, things start getting kind of crazy and by the end the film sort of degrades into a more WTF type of vibe as opposed to its earlier, more serious undertones.
The acting is what you’d expect to encounter in a film like this. While there are no particularly bad cases, everyone is pretty mediocre, with no standouts. Even Tony Curtis doesn’t seem to into his role, a pity, as the film is primarily centered around him.
The special effects are a bit wide ranging. The film is undoubtedly at it’s best with the physical effects. The old lady floating down the hallway, the séance scene where a head slowly emerges from the table, the ‘hatching’…This is where the film shows some true ingenuity and creativity. And then you see things like the ‘winter’ scene above where the ice looks like it was hastily carved out of a piece of foam and your awe dwindles slightly.
The film also has a lot of digitized effects, especially towards the end, but considering this is a movie from 1978 all of those effects are very, well, 70’s. It all looks very cheesy by today’s standards.
On the plus side, thanks to those cheesy 70’s effects it also ends with one of the most psychedelic, topless, space themed, laser finger, LSD laden trips I’ve ever witnessed.
Spoiler-ed for slight nakedness (and being the ending and all):
In the end
The Manitou rides the center line of horror movies. It’s not great, but it’s not awful either. Its got a couple cool effects, but the crazy plot might turn a few people off. So if you’re a horror fan who’s more drawn or leans towards the B-side of the industry, or if you like a little WTF in their movie endings, than look more into
The Manitou. Just don’t expect too much.
The Manitou is based on the novel of the same name by Graham Masterson, a British horror author. It’s the first book of six in the Manitou series, which spans from 1976 to 2009.
PS. I can’t be totally sure, as I don’t have Netflix myself and cannot check, but my online sources tell me that
The Manitou is most likely currently streaming. So those of you with an account can check it out if interested.