About a month ago we watched [tag]The Manitou[/tag] again for the first time in years. We remembered it being humorously bad. We greatly underestimated the depths of insanity that this 1978 classic reaches and then surpasses. Again and again. The Manitou is a movie so mind-bendingly Bad I don’t think that it should be viewed by amateurs. I think maybe this is the kind of movie viewing experience you need to train for.

The first hour is just goofy and campy. Tony Curtis races around in one of Liz Taylor’s castoff caftans. Burgess Meredith wanders the set, possibly fulfilling a bet he lost while he was wasted. Then, wham! There’s a left-turn into 1970s computer effects, a man in a lizard suit, and the hospital they’re in freezes into a block of ice. It wasn’t wet so this makes even less sense than you initially realize, but don’t think about that or your brain will hurt. Also, an ancient medicine man gives birth to himself after reincarnating as a giant tumor on Susan Strasberg’s neck. Then it gets really strange.

In the unlikely event someone will ever purposely watch this movie and actually care how it ends, I’ll put the spoilers out of site. I’m not sure why I’m bothering. We’ve actually seen this movie several times and we’d clearly repressed the ending until we saw it again.

Ultimately, Susan Strasberg slays the Evil Ancient Medicine Man with the power of her emoting and her breasts. While floating in space in her hospital bed and shooting laserbeams out her fingertips. Seriously.