The Manitou

The Manitou
1977 theatrical poster
Directed by	William Girdler
Screenplay by	William Girdler Jon Cedar Thomas Pope
Produced by	William Girdler
Starring	Tony Curtis Michael Ansara Susan Strasberg Stella Stevens Jon Cedar Ann Sothern Burgess Meredith
Cinematography	Michel Hugo
Edited by	Bub Asman
Music by	Lalo Schifrin
Production company	Melvin Simon Productions
Distributed by	Avco Embassy Pictures
Release date	April 28, 1978
Running time	104 minutes
Countries	United States Canada
Language	English

The Manitou is a 1978 American horror film produced and directed by William Girdler starring Tony Curtis, Michael Ansara and Susan Strasberg, based on the 1976 novel by Graham Masterton. The film is based on an old legend about the American Indian spirit-concept Manitou.

Plot

A woman named Karen (Susan Strasberg), who is suffering from a growing tumor on her neck, enters a hospital in San Francisco. After a series of X-rays, the doctors begin to think it is a living creature: a fetus being born inside the tumor. Eerie and grisly occurrences begin; the tumorous growth perceives itself – himself – to be under attack as a result of the X-rays used to ascertain its nature, which are starting to stunt and deform its development. The growth is the old Native American shaman, Misquamacus; he is reincarnating himself through the young woman to exact his revenge on white men who invaded North America and exterminated its native peoples. Karen's boyfriend, psychic fortune-teller Harry Erskine (Tony Curtis) contacts a second Native American shaman (Michael Ansara) to help fight the reincarnating medicine man, but the kind of spirits he can summon and control appear to be too weak to match his opponent's abilities.

Cast

• Tony Curtis as Harry Erskine
• Michael Ansara as John Singing Rock
• Susan Strasberg as Karen Tandy
• Stella Stevens as Amelia Crusoe
• Jon Cedar as Dr. Jack Hughes
• Ann Sothern as Mrs. Karmann
• Burgess Meredith as Dr. Snow
• Paul Mantee as Dr. McEvoy
• Jeanette Nolan as Mrs. Winconis
• Lurene Tuttle as Mrs. Herz
• Hugh Corcoran as MacArthur

Release

The film was released theatrically with the tagline, "Evil does not die... it waits... to be reborn," in the United States by AVCO Embassy Pictures in 1978.

Reception

Critical reception for The Manitou has been mixed to negative. Variety gave the film a positive review writing, "This bout between good and Satan includes some scares, camp and better than average credits". Derek Adams from Time Out gave the film a positive review, praising the film's special effects calling the film, "A successful excursion, spoiled only by the director's habit of plopping in postcard views of the Golden Gate Bridge instead of exteriors". Donald Guarisco from Allmovie gave the film a negative review, criticizing the film's script, and weak direction but complimented the film's acting, special effects, and ending. It currently has a 43% "Rotten" rating on film review website Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 4.6/10 based on 7 reviews.

Original novel series

The initial novel The Manitou has been continued by Graham Masterton with Revenge of the Manitou (1979), Burial (1991), Spirit Jump (short story, 1996), Manitou Blood (2005), Blind Panic (2009), and Plague of the Manitou (2015), altogether now called the Manitou series.

Home Media

The film was released on DVD by Momentum Pictures on Oct 24, 2005. It was re-released by Anchor Bay on Mar 6, 2007.

External links

• The Manitou at IMDb
• The Manitou at AllMovie
• The Manitou at Rotten Tomatoes