Hey, thanks for all the retro-trauma, and thanks for linking my blog in your sidebar.
I've just spent some time looking back at every "Name That Trauma" post from your most excellent site, and was unable to find any reference to my film in question. I saw it at the theater in 1975 or 1976 as a five or six-year-old, and I'm assuming it was first-run. It was a matinee, but not a kiddie film, as I recall some PG-level sexual content. The most traumatizing bit was a woman with white hair and white skin who was out in the woods and threatening some people in a cabin. She had no lines, but just snarled at the camera. More specifically, there was a Native American Shaman-guy who had some magical powers. At one point, he dumps some powder out of a small leather bag on his belt to create a line across a road. A car drives up and smashes into it, as if it were an invisible wall. That's about all I remember.
I'm sure this movie actually happened. I'd love to see it again to check if that white-skinned woman is as horrifying as I remember, or just laughable in retrospect. Won't someone help?
UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to Reader BaronExu for knowing it was SHADOW OF THE HAWK from 1976 with JAN-MICHAEL VINCENT.
"The Manitou" is from the mid 70's and has a shaman and I think there is a scene where he lays out a protective powder but the rest doesn't seem familiar.
Definitely not The Manitou.
I'm thinking it could be "The Prophecy"? Â Only because I remember it having a Native American theme. Â The scene you describe does not sound familiar. Â But it has been years since I've seen it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079758/
I saw "prophecy" at the drive-in, and that was about three years later. I'm sure this movie was released in 1976 or earlier.
Could it be The House on Skull Mountain? PG-rated, 1974, there's a woman with white skin and white eyes, and I believe there's some wilderness in there somewhere (havn't seen it in a while).
Greetings! I know this one, in fact just watched it a week ago. 🙂 It is called 'Shadow Of The Hawk' 1976 and it has Chief Dan George and Jan Michael Vincent.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075199/
Â
Regards Baron Exu
Thanks a lot Baron, that's definitely the one. It's never been released on home video, apparently. The scene I described is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTH96aUl4AU
And the thing that freaked me out so much, which now looks not the least bit scary, is seen here at 2:38.