Over at 366 Weird, my latest cinematic safari is a special treat: The Manitou (1978). A serious contender for the campiest Exorcist ripoff ever made, it’s a thrill ride of one “WTF?” moment piled onto another.
Whose idea was it to cast Tony Curtis in the lead? Who decided “native American medicine man” is a close-enough substitute for Catholic demons? Why did the 400-year-old medicine man pick this woman out of the blue to incubate his neck-rupturing reincarnation? Why did they go with a frozen hospital with meat-popsicle nurses frozen mid-wave? Why is this suddenly turning into 2001: A Space Odyssey? And why is it always black magic or white magic, doesn’t magic come in any other colors? We will never know, but even the late, great Roger Ebert had to warn people to set down their coffee before continuing the review.
The Manitou was one of the most outrageous Exorcist rip-offs ever made, but the category of contenders stretches to infinity. I analyzed the full phenomenon in-depth in The Catholic Horror Legacy.
What follows are some of the best (CRAZIEST!) trailers for the Exorcist wave of the 1970s:
Beyond the Door (1974)
Exorcism (1975)
The Antichrist (1974)
Lisa and the Devil (1973)
“Don’t break my balls, priest!”
