THE MANITOU

Karen Tandy has a growing tumor on her neck and seeks treatment at a hospital in San Francisco. After a series of x-rays, Dr. Jack Hughes finds evidence that the tumor is a growing fetus. Karen agrees to undergo surgery to remove the tumor. She seeks the comfort of an old friend and ex-employer named Harry Erskine, a fortune teller who preys on the gullible to make a living. While spending the night at Harry's place, Karen utters a phrase that sounds like "pana witchy salatoo" in her sleep. When Harry mentions the phrase the next day, Karen claims she never heard it before.

Karen's operation goes awry when the surgeon's hands shake, causing him to slice his own hand with a scalpel. Meanwhile, one of Harry's clients suffers a seizure and utters the same phrase spoken by Karen; she levitates out of the room and falls down the staircase. Convinced that Karen is being afflicted by black magic, Harry consults a former psychic named Amelia Caruso and her partner, MacArthur. They and Amelia's aunt, Mrs. Karmann, visit Karen's home, where they hold a seance to draw out the spirit attacking Karen. A violent thunderstorm hinders their efforts. Mrs. Karmann declares that the figure she saw resembled a wooden statue of an Indian.

Harry, Amelia and MacArthur visit aging anthropologist Dr. Snow, who recounts tales of 400-year-old Indian medicine men wielding great powers. Upon hearing the strange phrase, Dr. Snow deduces it partially as meaning "my death foretells my return." Unable to help them directly, he advises them that they should seek the council of one of the vestigial Indian medicine men now surviving in certain remote areas. Harry visits John Singing Rock, a medicine man who tells him about manitou, spirits who exist in everything surrounding them. He refuses Harry's plea for help but later changes his mind, requesting $100,000 and tobacco in exchange for his services.

Harry and John reach the hospital and draw a circle of sand around Karen's bed in order to confine the spirit using her body. Through Karen, the spirit reveals himself to be the 400-year-old Native American shaman, Misquamacus, who is reincarnating himself through the young woman to exact his revenge on the white men who invaded North America and exterminated its native peoples. He further warns John against helping white men such as Harry and Karen. John prepares to stop Misquamacus' growing power and calls upon the strength of other manitou, to no avail.

Misquamacus kills a male nurse and claws his way out from Karen's neck, appearing as a dwarf-sized man. He also reanimates the dead nurse to harm others, but John manages to thwart him. In another encounter, Misquamacus summons an ancient Indian demon by the name of the Lizard of the Trees which manages to erase the sand circle and wound Dr. Hughes. After Harry has taken Hughes to the lower levels of the hospital to treat his wounds, he returns to find the entire floor covered in ice and the receptionist frozen solid.

Harry finds John sitting alone in the room. John explains that Misquamacus inflicted wounds on his face with surgical instruments. As they are about to leave, they are faced with Misquamacus caught amidst a snowstorm caused by summoning of another demon called the Star Beast. In the altercation, Harry throws a typewriter towards Misquamacus, which temporarily weakens him, allowing Harry and John to escape. Harry comes up with the idea of using the manitou of electrical equipment surrounding them. John reluctantly agrees and proposes he will act as a medium for these manitou to manifest themselves. As they are discussing the plan, the entire room shakes with a violent earthquake, which John identifies as heralding the arrival, through a portal opened by Misquamacus, of the Great Old One, the supreme Native American demon.

Harry instructs Dr. Hughes to switch on all the machines in the hospital while he and John travel towards Misquamacus. They find that Karen’s hospital room is now filled with an illusory manifestation of the starry void of outer space. John tries to channel the machine manitou but is unsuccessful. He accepts defeat, but Harry refuses to give in. He tries to distract the spirit while calling on Karen. Karen regains consciousness and channels the machine manitou to finally defeat Misquamacus and banish the Great Old One back whence it came behind the portal. The ordeal ended, Harry and Karen are reunited. Harry accompanies John to a cab for the airport, thanking him for his help. John thanks him back and warns that they might meet Misquamacus once again for, though the body of the medicine man’s latest incarnation has been destroyed, his manitou (soul) lives on.

Misquamacus is ultimately confronted and defeated through a combination of supernatural and technological means, preventing his revenge and saving Karen.

The film’s climax fuses shamanic ritual with cutting-edge technology, underlining the uneasy truce (and tension) between modernity and the supernatural. The defeat of Misquamacus marks not just a physical victory, but a thematic one—science and ancient mysticism are forced to cooperate, leaving both the hospital and its survivors changed by the ordeal.