Today's Pick: The Manitou (1978)
If all you're looking for this Halloween season is a heavy dose of unfettered weirdness , look no further than The Manitou. Based off the book by Graham Masterson, this nutty tale involves the resurrection of an evil shaman who is being reborn through a tumor on Susan Strasberg's neck. I swear that's the actual plot, and it's kind of incredible.
The Manitou is one of the many post-Exorcist films that decided to rip that movie off, but do so in such insane ways that it escapes the realm of being a ripoff and becomes something wholly original. The supernatural elements in the film are played in such fantastical ways, but everyone in the film treats the material completely straight. Burgess Meredith is in this movie, for God's sake!
This is another movie where giving away everything would spoil a lot of the fun. I will provide a tease with some random phrases: Ghost dinosaur. Evil little person with the name Misquamacus. Gooey seance spirit. Hovering old lady. Frozen hospital. Trippy 2001: A Space Odyssey light show. Badass Native American medicine man. Bed floating in space. Topless Susan Strasberg shooting lasers from her hands. Tony Curtis with a fake mustache. All of these things happen in The Manitou.
Only in the seventies could we be blessed with something as insane as The Manitou. A mainstream film like it will never happen again. Take a moment to relish the past and get your hands on a copy of it this season.
Tomorrow starts off a week of zombie movies. The first one even has a crazy monster to boot! See you then!
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