The Manitou is the first (and probably most memorable) horror novel by Graham Masterton.
The first half of the book is chillingly mysterious as the main characters are introduced, and the strange occurrences surrounding the female lead and her bizarre ailment start to happen and gradually cascade faster and faster. While it may start slow, the pace of the book constantly grows until it comes to a massively chaotic and terrifying conclusion.
Masterton based his novel on extensive research into Native American mythology and folklore, and also on the Cthulhu Mythos — its main antagonist originates from August Derleth and H. P. Lovecraft's 1945 novel The Lurker at the Threshold.
Written in 1975 (and published the following year), the novel was adapted into a 1978 film directed by William Girdler (Grizzly, Day of the Animals) and starring Tony Curtis, Michael Ansara, and Susan Strasberg.
The series includes the following works:
- The Manitou (1976)
- The Djinn (1977)note
- Revenge of the Manitou (1979)
- Burial (1991)
- Spirit Jump (short story; collected in anthology Faces of Fear) (1996)
- Manitou Blood (2005)
- Blind Panic (2009)
- Plague of the Manitou (2015)
This series either gave un-natural birth to, or else foully nurtures and sustains, the following tropes:
- Adaptational Location Change: Original novel of The Manitou set in New York, movie in San Francisco.
- Antagonist Title:
- Book 1, The Manitou, refers to the evil spirit of Misquamacus.
- Book 2, The Djinn, refers to the evil djinn that Harry Erskine has to face.
- Anti-Magic: In book 1, Misquamacus relies entirely on supernatural powers — calling on the manitou, or spirit, of natural forces — to try and wipe out all "foreign influences" in North America. It turns out that every piece of modern technology has its own manitou, which are far more powerful than the spirits Misquamacus is calling on; Harry doesn't realize it at the time, but this is first demonstrated when his throwing a typewriter at the Star Beast, one of Misquamacus's ancient manitou allies, causes the manitou within (which, being based on technology, is antithetical to a nature spirit) to become temporarily visible in its battle with the other spirit. When Harry later calls upon a more modern, computer-based manitou, it's able to outmatch an ancient and evil manitou that Misquamacus has called upon and which has never been defeated, only forced back, before.
- Back from the Dead: Singing Rock, killed in Revenge of the Manitou, reappears in Burial.
- Big Bad: Misquamacus, the evil medicine man seeking to re-enter the world and wipe out all "foreign influences" in North America.
- Body Surf: A variant is discussed in book 1, where Misquamacus has inhabited Karen Tandy's body and is growing a new one for himself from her. Singing Rock, when he's called in to consult on the case, admits that he can't outright stop Misquamacus, but can force him — before Karen dies — to jump into a new body and start the process all over again, suggesting they redirect him into someone whom nobody will mind dying (like a criminal or drug addict) when Misquamacus is reborn. Harry turns the idea down flat, prompting Singing Rock to turn to a secondary and far more dangerous option.
- Butt Biter: Referenced in the opening of Blind Panic when Tyler Jones — a stunt pilot — is asked to take over flying a plane after the captain and crew all suddenly lose their sight. When the captain tells him that "this will be a walk in the park", Tyler responds that that isn't very reassuring — "The last time I took a walk in the park, somebody's Doberman bit me on the rear end."
- Came Back Wrong: In book 1, when Misquamacus regains a body, it's revealed that the x-rays the doctors did of the external womb he was born through (thinking it was a tumor) have left him deformed, his legs ending above the knee with clubfeet.
- Character Tic: Book 1 reveals that Harry Erskine tugs on his nose (a behavior which he suspects is responsible for its size) whenever he's thinking about something.
- Charm Person: In book 1, Misquamacus tries to subtly influence Harry's mind, causing him to fall into despair, in order to stop he and Singing Rock from working Singing Rock's magic against Misquamacus after he emerges from his external womb. Fortunately, Singing Rock catches on and helps Harry break free.
- David Versus Goliath: In book 1, even before learning he's up against Misquamacus — whom he knows as "the greatest of all medicine men" — Singing Rock warns Harry and his allies that the fight against the evil spirit possessing Karen will be a battle of this type, because he knows his enemy is far more powerful than he is. When Misquamacus reveals his name and calmly says he's going to kill them before going silent again, Singing Rock explains who Misquamacus is to Harry, and admits afterward that now he knows his chances of winning are even lower than he thought. In the climax, Harry turns Misquamacus into the David by summoning the incredibly potent manitou of Unitrak, a powerful police computer and crime database.
- Death by Childbirth: Book 1 mentions a case from 1851 when a Hidatsa Indian medicine man revived himself, fully grown, from a tumor (really an external womb) on a young Indian woman's arm; the process killed her. All indications are that if the same thing happens with Karen Tandy's tumor, she'll die; Dr. Hughes explains it as them being less like mother and child and more like Siamese twins, with their two nervous systems linked together. Fortunately, she revives when Misquamacus's physical body is destroyed.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: In book 1, when Harry goes into the room where Misquamacus is calling upon a manitou — the Star Beast, which answers to higher beings and is acting as a go-between to reach them on Misquamacus's behalf — he sees the windows are frosted over, as are objects within the room. Harry himself has to deal with tremendous cold when he enters the room, and is lucky to escape without permanent damage. Later, when Misquamacus kills a group of eleven policemen, their torn-apart bodies are also frosted over.
- Evil Sorcerer: Misquamacus is a Magical Native American who seeks to use his magic to wipe out all non Native Americans in North America.
- Fantasy Americana: The series draws on North American native folklore.
- Geometric Magic: In book 1, as part of his ritual to deal with their enemy, Singing Rock creates a magic circle around Karen Tandy in order to contain Misquamacus and give himself time to try and subjugate the evil medicine man. Later, Misquamacus crafts his own circle to let him summon other manitou, the spirits of nature, to his aid.
- God of Evil: In book 1, Singing Rock explains that the Great Old One (also known as the Great Devourer or He-Who-Feeds-in-the-Pit) is essentially one of these — the polar opposite and constant enemy of Gitche Manitou, the great spirit of life and native American creation. It's essentially their equivalent of Satan and "a being of infinite cruelty and malevolence". Fortunately, it's no match for the modern manitou of police computer Unitrak, and is banished away again.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: In book 1, one of the reporters sees an evil squid-like spirit through the viewfinder of his camera and freezes up in pure terror, suffering a severe psychological shock that nearly drives him mad in the process. Singing Rock is able to get through to him once though, enough to get information on what he saw.
- Indian Burial Ground: It's not explained until a later book, but to Misquamacus, the whole of North America is one continuous Indian burial ground and as such is holy soil from which the sacrilegious and defiling white man must be extirpated. And the black man. And the Asian man. And the Jew. And everything they have brought with them — cars, trains, aircraft, non-native animals. One sequel sees an outright apocalypse, with cities, farms, and whole herds of cattle and sheep being dragged into the Netherworld as Misquamacus puts out his power to cleanse the land of foreign influences.
- Kill It with Fire: In book 1, shortly after Harry and Singing Rock learn Misquamacus's name, the police visit to tell them that Amelia Crusoe and Stewart MacArthur died when their apartment caught fire that morning. Singing Rock immediately guesses that Misquamacus was responsible because he was annoyed at them for Amelia's summoning him up with her seance. Fortunately, Amelia actually survived, as she reappears in Revenge of the Manitou.
- Kill It with Ice: In book 1, Harry attempts to deal with Misquamacus by threatening him with a bottle of influenza virus (one of the things that Misquamacus's people were easily vulnerable to back in their time, which he things he can use to scare Misquamacus into stopping his actions). Misquamacus manages to deal with it by freezing the bottle and virus solid before shattering them into ice particles, rendering it harmless.
- Ludicrous Gibs:
- In book 1, as a demonstration of his power shortly before he emerges from Karen's body (and to stop the man from trying to help her), Misquamacus causes the spirits of a male nurse's body to turn on him and literally turn him inside out, causing a massive amount of blood to splatter against the window and leak under the door. Harry is suitably horrified at the sight.
- Later, a group of cops go after Misquamacus, thinking he's just a rogue gunman. They're left as little more than a pile of blood and guts, covered in frost.
- Magical Native American:
- Misquamacus, the Big Bad of the series, who plans to use his magic for evil purposes.
- Singing Rock, a medicine man from South Dakota, also counts — he's able to help with battling Misquamacus, though he's not the one to defeat him the first time. His involvement in stopping the evil shaman is still enough to prompt Misquamacus to seek revenge and kill him in a later book.
- Magic Must Defeat Magic: In book 1, Singing Rock continually insists that guns and technology are not the solution. He's not entirely correct though — when Harry gets an idea to call on the manitous of modern technology, this proves to be the key to defeating Misquamacus. While it won't answer to a native America, Harry is able to call upon the manitou of the Unitrak computer, essentially a police database for the Eastern seaboard, to drive away the ancient manitou known as the Great Old One.
- Multiple Narrative Modes: Not all of the books are narrated by Harry Erskine; Burial switches between his point of view and third-person.
- Nature Spirit: In book 1, Misquamacus summons an evil spirit of forests and trees to use against Singing Rock. Fortunately, Singing Rock proves too strong for it to decide to keep fighting, so it goes back to where it came from (though not without biting off half of Dr. Hughes' hand as a sacrifice).
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Implied in book 1 during a conversation with Dr. Ernest Snow, who (after hearing Harry's story) tells he and his associates to come on up to see him and that it's no inconvenience — "My wife's sister is coming over, and the less I have to see of her, the better I like it."
- Parasitic Horror: In book 1, while Misquamacus is initially described as being reborn through a tumor or "external womb" and is explicitly compared to a Siamese twin, he's really more like a parasitic infection that Dr. Hughes explains is draining sustenance directly from Karen Tandy's body.
- Power Floats: Misquamacus starts levitating at the climax of the first book's battle.
- Preemptive Apology: In book 1, Harry's friend Amelia Crusoe does this when she's about to say something insulting — when Harry asks her to find a good clairvoyant who can help them, she responds that that'll be difficult because "most of them are about as good as you. And, no offense meant, that means they're lousy." Harry takes it in stride, as he responds with "No offense taken. I know my limitations."
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: In Revenge of the Manitou, a young schoolteacher is frozen to death while being raped by a Native American spirit of ice and winter.
- Reincarnation: In book 1, it's explained that Native American medicine men, "if threatened, could destroy themselves by drinking blazing oil, and by reborn at any time or place in the future or past by impregnating themselves into the body of a man, woman or animal." Aside from Misquamacus, another case is referenced from 1851 when a Hidatsa Indian medicine man revived himself, fully grown, from a growth on a young woman's arm (killing her in the process) fifty years after his apparent death.
- The Savage Indian: Misquamacus is a very savage Indian, planning to wipe out all non-Indians and everything they brought to North America with them.
- Spooky Séance: Early in book 1, Harry Erskine calls on his friend Amelia Crusoe, who has genuine psychic abilities, to lead a seance and find a friendly spirit who knows something about the malevolent growth on Karen Tandy's neck. Instead, she gets the spirit of Misquamacus himself, who causes much destruction in the room before vanishing.
- That Thing Is Not My Child!: Misquamacus tries to return to the human world by hijacking newly conceived foetuses or else as an un-natural "conjoined twin"-like growth.
- Trauma Button: Mild, but in Burial, Karen Van Hooven (formerly Karen Tandy, before she got married) is still disturbed enough by her memories of what happened with Misquamacus that when Harry mentions him, her eyes go wide with fear and she tells him "Don't mention that name to me again, ever."
- Villain Override: In book 1, both before and after he's emerged from Karen Tandy, Misquamacus is able to seize control of her body to speak to Harry, Singing Rock and their allies. He also animates the dead body of the male nurse Michael to use him against Harry, Singing Rock and their allies, but Singing Rock is able to quickly de-animate the body.
- White Magic: How Harry Erskine first defeats Misquamacus in book 1, calling upon the manitou of the police computer Unitrak to face Misquamacus's evil ally, the ancient manitou known as the Great Old One. Unitrak not only banishes the evil manitou but kills Misquamacus's body, though he's not confirmed gone for good (and in the sequels is proven to have survived).
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Discussed in book 1 when Karen Tandy's father asks that very question, suggesting they just shoot the evil medicine man once he's out of Karen. Singing Rock explains why they can't — he'll still have possession of Karen's spirit and anyone else he's collected over the years, so killing his physical body before he can be forced to let go of them will just send his spirit to what the Indians used to call the "Happy Hunting Grounds" and take the other spirits with him. Later, a nervous Harry suggests they just shoot him now, but Singing Rock again talks him out of it — the only way to defeat him for good is with magic, because just killing his physical body will only cause his vengeful spirit to pursue them for the rest of their lives.
- Womb Horror: Misquamacus chooses to re-enter the world as a monstrous foetus attached to an external womb — originally mistaken for a tumor — on the back of a human host, the birthing process of which is suitably gruesome. Doing so would normally kill the host; fortunately, Harry Erskine is able to save Karen Tandy's life in book 1 when he calls upon the modern manitou of police computer Unitrak to defeat Misquamacus and his ally, the Great Old One.
