Based on a story by Psycho author Robert Bloch and directed by Canadian Don Thompson for HTV West, The Mannikin aired under the anthology title Classics Dark and Dangerous.
Folk musician Simone Maglore (Ronee Blakley) returns to the house of her estranged mother, who is recently deceased.
She refuses to attend the funeral or take any belongings, explaining that her mother subjected her to sinister ritualistic elements, including seances as a child, before she was removed from the home.
Shortly thereafter, Simone begins experiencing unexplained phenomena – she hears her mother’s voice calling her name, starts suffering from disorienting dizzy spells and comes down with excruciating pain in her back.
She is referred to psychiatrist Dr David Priestly (Keir Dullea), who believes her symptoms to be psychiatric in nature.
Eventually, Simone returns to her mother’s home, where the strange housekeeper Miss Smith (Pol Pelletier), conducts a ritual which causes a grotesque, childlike creature to crawl out of Simone’s back.
When Dr Priestly arrives looking for her, Simone tells him to leave in a stilted manner. When he does, he is attacked by the creature in his car.
Folk musician Simone Maglore (Ronee Blakley) returns to the house of her estranged mother, who is recently deceased.
The Mannikin was later combined with two other episodes of Classics Dark and Dangerous – Mrs Amworth and The Island – for theatrical release as Three Dangerous Ladies (1977).
