Summaries

The Westernized grandson of a shaman returns to the wilderness to learn more about his Native American heritage. When he encounters powerful evil spirits, he enlists the aid of his lover and a local chief to stop the spirits.

In Vancouver, young adult Mike has largely abandoned the indigenous half of his heritage - his father's side of the family - in being westernized. Of late, he has been having visions seemingly tied to that indigenous half, with those visions life threatening, either real of perceived only by him. These visions coincide with a surprise visit by his elderly paternal grandfather, Old Man Hawk, a medicine man who he has not seen in ten years. Mike does not recall ever seeing in his formative years any powers associated to his grandfather being a medicine man. Mike, who his grandfather calls Little Man Hawk, reluctantly abides his grandfather's request to drive him back immediately to his ancestral village three hundred miles away. Along for the ride is Maureen, a freelance writer who met Old Man Hawk by chance, who helped him locate Mike, and who is promised a human interest story in whatever reason seemingly ill Old Man Hawk has for needing to go home. Mike will learn that his grandfather showing up now was not by accident as he reconnects with his indigenous heritage by necessity. That reconnection may only last for so long as someone or something is seemingly after them possibly to kill them which is tied to the visions he has been seeing.—Huggo

Details

Keywords
  • grindhouse film
  • psychotronic film
  • redsploitation
  • canuxploitation
  • folk horror
Genres
  • Adventure
  • Horror
Release date Aug 26, 1976
Motion Picture Rating (MPA) PG
Countries of origin Canada
Language English
Filming locations West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Production companies Columbia Pictures International Cinemedia Center Rising Road

Box office

Budget $1800000

Tech specs

Runtime 1h 32m
Color Color
Sound mix Mono
Aspect ratio 1.85 : 1

Synopsis

The aging Indian medicine man Old Man Hawk (Chief Dan George) arrives in the city to request help of his grandson Mike (Jan-Michael Vincent), a successful business executive. Old Man Hawk is fighting a sorcerous war with the witch Dsonqua (Marianne Jones) who was executed two hundred years before and is now seeking revenge. Mike, who has no interest in the Indian ways, is reluctantly drawn in to helping. Joined by a woman journalist named Maureen (Marilyn Hassett), Mike agrees to drive his grandfather three hundred miles home. But along the way Dsonqua increases her efforts and summons magical forces to destroy them.

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