The Manitou

The Manitou
File:The Manitou - 1978 - Poster.png 1977 theatrical poster
Directed by	William Girdler
Produced by	Herman Weist Melvin Simon William Girdler Jon Cedar
Written by	Graham Masterton (novel) Jon Cedar Thomas Pope William Girdler
Starring	Tony Curtis Susan Strasberg Stella Stevens Jon Cedar Ann Sothern Burgess Meredith Michael Ansara Paul Mantee Jeanette Nolan Lurene Tuttle Hugh Corcoran
Music by	Lalo Schifrin
Cinematography	Michel Hugo
Edited by	Bub Asman
Distributed by	Avco Embassy Pictures
Release dates	April 28, 1978
Running time	104 minutes
Country	Canada United States
Language	English

The Manitou is an American horror film from 1978 with Tony Curtis and Susan Strasberg, based on a 1975 book by Graham Masterton. The movie 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 actually 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. A second Native American shaman is contacted and hired 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. Reviews of the film were largely negative, with a 43% score on the website Rotten Tomatoes. For example, Roger Ebert jokingly described the film as "El sleazo profoundo trasho zilch."

The film was initially released on VHS in North America by Magnetic Video. It was later re-released on VHS by Charter Entertainment. The film was eventually released on DVD in 2007 by Anchor Bay Entertainment.

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) and Blind Panic (2009), altogether now called the Manitou series.

External links

• The Manitou at IMDb
• The Manitou at AllMovie