"The Manitou" is a fun though unspectacular film.
**SPOILERS**
Visiting several doctors, Karen Tandy, (Susan Strasberg) is unable to find the cause of a growth on the back of her neck. Visiting Harry Erskine, (Tony Curtis) a friend and tarot card reader, who reassures her that everything is alright, but despite all possible precautions, the operation goes wrong. When he goes to visit Dr. Jack Hughes, (Jon Cedar) the man who operated on her, they find that her growth could be a fetus growing on her neck and a séance is held to guide them in their quest. When they find that the fetus is a 400-year Indian Medicine Man trying to be reborn through the tumor, they call upon an actual Indian Medicine Man, John Singing Rock, (Michael Ansara) in a last-ditch effort to stop him before he comes back to life.
The Good News: This here wasn't all that bad of a film. One of it's most impressive tactics is that it tries to shock the audience with many different instances within the film. This features many scenes including the head of the main Indian emerging through the top of the table during the séance, more than one scene in which the actors seem to be blown back by the incredible force of the spirit and perhaps the one most innovative moment when Misquamacas actually breaks out of the womb. Beyond that, the shocks are often down around the level of crude circus showmanship, including doctors plunging scalpels into their wrist, the freezing hallway scenes at the very end and several other scenes towards the end which are plain weird more than anything else. This is handled with the final confrontation of the spirit, the several attempts to handle it with Indian magic and the realization that modern technology might have an effect and race to use it against the creature. The middle scenes play the Indian mysticism with such an engrossing conviction that suspension of disbelief triumphs entirely over the crude shocks. The incredibly eerie scenes with the good medicine man trying to build protective circles around the bed, the moments where the Manitou speaks through the heroine's mouth, its emerging from the tumor, and bringing a dead orderly back to life all work at a level of otherworldly spookiness that is very hard to shake. Above all, this film has perhaps the best séance scene ever put to celluloid. It's full of twirling chandeliers, windy beards, a creepy rubber Indian head rising out of a table, and doors that literally explode. The intense action in it makes it stand out even more than possible and it's one of the freakiest scenes possible. Couple this with the fact that the film never really slows down and keeps the viewer interested with it's fast plot and this is a lot more entertaining than it should.
The Bad News: While this one isn't that great, there is some problems in here. One of the biggest is the feeling that the viewer must be aware that there is a good degree of schlock that leads to an air of ridiculousness that surrounds more than a few parts of the film. The film is mostly and completely ridiculous in just about every aspect, from the subplot of the friend being a phony psychic to the amount of weapons used against the final villain to just about everything seen inside the encounter. The lizard popping up out of nowhere is a fine example of this, and perhaps even more so is the general premise of the film itself. It's hard to take even the slightest bit seriously. Once the climax hits, it goes even further out the window, which takes a cue from another film, with a bare-chested, giant fright-wig adorned heroine sitting up in bed, floating in space amid a very poorly matted meteor storm, blasting lightning bolts and shooting electricity from her fingertips at an encircling midget and the trippy light-show behind him that supposedly represents the Great Old One. The sight of this, which consists of a single victim sitting topless on a bed floating blasting laser fireballs of love out of her hands, is fun in design and concept, but the execution is so hilarious that it renders the desired emotional conflict into nothing more than giggles due to the sheer ridiculousness of it all. During the climax, which has the medicine man freezing the entire floor for no apparent reason, this manages to contain several sins at once, as it's quite confusing, ridiculous and hilarious, only due to the positions the nurses are trapped in when they are frozen solid. As it is, though, it really could've been a lot worse.
The Final Verdict: Sure, it really is quite ridiculous and ludicrous when looking back on it, but it's also quite fun and manages to get some great scenes out of it. There's far worse films out there than this one, so give it a shot, but if you can't really get past ridiculously-plotted films, then this may be a hard one to get through.
Rated PG: Mild Violence, Language and Nudity
**SPOILERS**
Visiting several doctors, Karen Tandy, (Susan Strasberg) is unable to find the cause of a growth on the back of her neck. Visiting Harry Erskine, (Tony Curtis) a friend and tarot card reader, who reassures her that everything is alright, but despite all possible precautions, the operation goes wrong. When he goes to visit Dr. Jack Hughes, (Jon Cedar) the man who operated on her, they find that her growth could be a fetus growing on her neck and a séance is held to guide them in their quest. When they find that the fetus is a 400-year Indian Medicine Man trying to be reborn through the tumor, they call upon an actual Indian Medicine Man, John Singing Rock, (Michael Ansara) in a last-ditch effort to stop him before he comes back to life.
The Good News: This here wasn't all that bad of a film. One of it's most impressive tactics is that it tries to shock the audience with many different instances within the film. This features many scenes including the head of the main Indian emerging through the top of the table during the séance, more than one scene in which the actors seem to be blown back by the incredible force of the spirit and perhaps the one most innovative moment when Misquamacas actually breaks out of the womb. Beyond that, the shocks are often down around the level of crude circus showmanship, including doctors plunging scalpels into their wrist, the freezing hallway scenes at the very end and several other scenes towards the end which are plain weird more than anything else. This is handled with the final confrontation of the spirit, the several attempts to handle it with Indian magic and the realization that modern technology might have an effect and race to use it against the creature. The middle scenes play the Indian mysticism with such an engrossing conviction that suspension of disbelief triumphs entirely over the crude shocks. The incredibly eerie scenes with the good medicine man trying to build protective circles around the bed, the moments where the Manitou speaks through the heroine's mouth, its emerging from the tumor, and bringing a dead orderly back to life all work at a level of otherworldly spookiness that is very hard to shake. Above all, this film has perhaps the best séance scene ever put to celluloid. It's full of twirling chandeliers, windy beards, a creepy rubber Indian head rising out of a table, and doors that literally explode. The intense action in it makes it stand out even more than possible and it's one of the freakiest scenes possible. Couple this with the fact that the film never really slows down and keeps the viewer interested with it's fast plot and this is a lot more entertaining than it should.
The Bad News: While this one isn't that great, there is some problems in here. One of the biggest is the feeling that the viewer must be aware that there is a good degree of schlock that leads to an air of ridiculousness that surrounds more than a few parts of the film. The film is mostly and completely ridiculous in just about every aspect, from the subplot of the friend being a phony psychic to the amount of weapons used against the final villain to just about everything seen inside the encounter. The lizard popping up out of nowhere is a fine example of this, and perhaps even more so is the general premise of the film itself. It's hard to take even the slightest bit seriously. Once the climax hits, it goes even further out the window, which takes a cue from another film, with a bare-chested, giant fright-wig adorned heroine sitting up in bed, floating in space amid a very poorly matted meteor storm, blasting lightning bolts and shooting electricity from her fingertips at an encircling midget and the trippy light-show behind him that supposedly represents the Great Old One. The sight of this, which consists of a single victim sitting topless on a bed floating blasting laser fireballs of love out of her hands, is fun in design and concept, but the execution is so hilarious that it renders the desired emotional conflict into nothing more than giggles due to the sheer ridiculousness of it all. During the climax, which has the medicine man freezing the entire floor for no apparent reason, this manages to contain several sins at once, as it's quite confusing, ridiculous and hilarious, only due to the positions the nurses are trapped in when they are frozen solid. As it is, though, it really could've been a lot worse.
The Final Verdict: Sure, it really is quite ridiculous and ludicrous when looking back on it, but it's also quite fun and manages to get some great scenes out of it. There's far worse films out there than this one, so give it a shot, but if you can't really get past ridiculously-plotted films, then this may be a hard one to get through.
Rated PG: Mild Violence, Language and Nudity