The Manitou (1978)

User Rating:

4.4/10   

Director:

William Girdler

Writers:

Graham Masterton (novel)
William Girdler (screenplay) ...

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:

CBS Studio Center - 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Mid-America Pictures

Trivia:

When this film was premiered in South Africa in 1978, the invitations were printed on vomit bags.

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)

So weird, so bad, that it's a beautiful thing. Don't miss it.

How can I begin to describe this amazing film? Random images pop into my head from memory... Tony Curtis as a dashing fortune-teller and huckster, prancing around his San Francisco bachelor pad wearing a sorcerer's outfit... one of his elderly female clients being possessed by an Indian spirit and being tossed down a flight of stairs... (you don't even need the pause button to see that the stunt "double" going down the stairs is a big dude in a dress and wig!!)... Burgess Meredith muddling through one of his last film roles, playing a senile old coot with amazing realism, to no one's surprise... an Indian shaman with a Yiddish-sounding New York City accent and a penchant for stale one-liners... a naked midget dressed up like an evil reincarnated Indian fetus covered with goo... a topless Susan Strassberg hovering in the fourth dimension and firing lightning bolts at the evil spirit using electrical energy from a huge 70's-model computer... YOU MUST SEE THIS FILM!!