The Manitou - 1978

For a really long time, The Manitou was sort of my Moby Dick in horror movies.  Well, that or my Doctor Frankenstein.  The Manitou may conceivably be my superhero origin story, the radioactive spider that bit me and turned me into the type of bro that buys and marathons 70's films.  How relevant that it was a 1978 film, a film that was shot in a city where I live near and work, and the last film of a director who died at 30, an age where my own life changed significantly, with me and my wife separating.

I had a pretty fucking cool night last night.  I went out to a kink singles mixer, I kissed some hot older woman, I went to the Alamo Drafthouse and saw this movie, and what the fuck?!  Did this movie get BETTER when I was asleep or something?  I know that my excitement is temporary and all, I know I'm riding one fuck of a high right now, but shit!  Some days are just perfect.

The Manitou, being my Frankenstein, was a movie I saw when I was probably 8-9 years old.  I was already a huge horror movie fan, cause I know I had already seen and loved The Howling by that point.  I know this because of something I always loved, the art of people copying tapes from the video rental stores.  My grandmother was a master of this, and would copy multiple movies onto one of those 6 hour tapes.  One of the tapes contained The Howling first, and then The Manitou.  What a fucking double feature!  I remember watching it when I was really young, and I remember only "something about an Indian growing out of a woman's neck" and that it was scary.

I did revisit this, even in the context of this blog, but I didn't review it.  And honestly, I am convinced I was either super drunk, fell asleep, or watched the wrong movie.  Cause this movie is FUCKING awesome, and I would've remembered it.  And again, this is not just the crazy excitement talking.

First of all, the cast is great.  Tony Curtis plays Harry, a sort of hack psychic who preys on the good natured old women that hit him up for fake fortunes. Just that is pretty hilarious.  His ex Karen comes to town one day, telling him she'd worried because a weird bump on her neck has appeared in the last few days, and she wants him to comfort her and to use his psychic abilities to see into her future.  He draws a death card, and pretty soon the bump is getting worse.  Doctors see into it, and are confused cause it sort of looks like a fetus.  They figure out it's got something to do with Indian folklore from a book, written by Burgess Meredith in a small comedic role, and eventually they get Michael Ansara as a Indian medicine man to help them out.

The effects come often and come awesome.  This is way more effect filled than I remembered it being, with something coming at you constantly.  It doesn't ever feel stupid or hard to keep track of though, because with such a minimal cast, pretty low on the locations, it's all easy to keep track of.  Once the Indian itself comes out, it's a nonstop fucking effects party, and the shit it awesome!  Honestly, I had the thought many times while I watched it, but shit this movie is AWESOME, and the hour 45 minutes just flew by for me.  There's only one real slowdown, near the beginning, but even that has some nice character building moments, and a death of an old lady to help it out.

This is 100% the type of film I wanted it to be.  I remembered it being slower, I remembered it being a bit harder to follow.  But seeing it, on the big screen, in a vintage 1978 film print, with a fucking Alamo Drafthouse burger at my side, it rocked my world.  Five stars, hands down.