12 Horror Movies That Are Unintentionally Hilarious
12. The Manitou (1978)
Startled to discover a foetus growing in her neck, Susan Strasberg turns for help to funky-haired Tony Curtis, who discovers that its a 400 year old medicine man attempting to be reborn. If you think that sounds like hogwash then you aint seen nothin yet. Arriving at the hospital in time to witness a midget in latex make-up emerging from Strasbergs neck, Curtis attempts to kill the creature by get this throwing a typewriter at it, which doesnt have the desired effect. Just as all seems lost, a topless Strasberg whisks them into outer space where, in between being pounded by asteroids, shes somehow able to shoot laser beams from her body that destroy the medicine man in a shower of flying sparks. The films ending is a complete head trip, director William Girdler told Starlog in 1978. The effects that you see, well, youve never seen them before! Nor, its safe to say, has any filmmaker attempted to recreate them since. Whether this was his idea of how big-budget movies were supposed to end or (more likely) an attempt to cash-in on Star Wars, it provides the perfect finale for the comically cheesy shenanigans.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
