[.ca] Sentinel

Still scary:
I remember watching this movie as a kid. It was so eerie and horrifying, and many of the scenes stayed embedded in my head. But I didn't know the title and I had never seen it replayed, or heard people talking about it. It was as if it never even existed. For the last 10 years, I've been going back and rewatching the old horrors I grew up with--like the Omen and Rosemary's Baby--only to be disappointed over and over again (they just aren't scary to me anymore). For years I wanted to watch the Sentinel again, but in a sense I was afraid to ruin the experience I remembered (like seeing the old man stare out the window high up). Finally, after explaining to a friend the five or six things I remembered about the movie, she told me the name of it and I ran to the video store. Surprisingly enough, it was still scary and eerie!

Scary flick!:
"The Sentinel" is a grand 1970's horror film staffed with a cast rivaling the pictures made by Robert Altman or Irwin Allen. I can't remember the last time I saw a film with so many recognizable faces--Christopher Walken, Chris Sarandon, Beverly D'Angelo, Burgess Meredith, John Carradine, Jerry Orbach, Jeff Goldblum, Ava Gardner, Martin Balsam, Jose Ferrar, Eli Wallach, Arthur Kennedy, and Tom Berenger all pop up in roles both major and minor throughout the film. "The Sentinel" obviously takes films like "The Omen," "Rosemary's Baby," and "The Exorcist" as its role models, and it holds up surprisingly well in comparison. When I stumbled over this film a few months ago, I was quite astounded I had never heard of it before considering I am such a fan of 1970's horror films dealing with satanic influences. Michael Winner, the director who presented us with such classic cinema as "Scorpio," "Death Wish," and "The Mechanic," gives us his all in this chilling story about a gateway to Hell and the poor souls entrusted to protect the rest of us from the evil spirits dwelling there. The movie is an adaptation of a book written by Jeffrey Konvitz. A model named Alison Parker and her successful lawyer boyfriend Michael Lerman (Christina Raines and Chris Sarandon respectively) begin their descent into madness when Parker rents a room in a creepy old apartment building from mysterious real estate agent Miss Logan (Ava Gardner). The model soon discovers her new dwellings possess a decidedly sinister atmosphere--a blind priest sits and stares out of the window of the top floor apartment, an elderly creep spouting cryptic comments (Burgess Meredith) keeps dropping by, and a couple of females in an extremely close relationship live in a neighboring apartment. Within a few days of moving in, Parker begins to hear strange noises, starts having vivid memories of a suicide attempt she made as a child, sleepwalks, and discovers a few hideous secrets about the other tenants in the building. By the time Alison starts having fainting fits during fashion shoots, her boyfriend Michael steps in and starts investigating the strange apartment building. Lerman's nosing around brings in a couple of detectives (Wallach and Walken) who remember well how Michael's first wife died under mysterious circumstances. When bodies start turning up, "The Sentinel" becomes a race to discover what evil lurks in the apartment building before the cops pin the weirdness on Lerman. Winner's film evokes shudders on numerous levels. You'll gasp in surprise several times during the film, from the eventual revelations about the strange residents to what Beverly D'Angelo's character does when Alison Parker pays a visit (I had to replay that scene a couple of times just to convince myself that I did really see that. Purely from an academic aspect, of course. Honest.). I've seen several films where Burgess Meredith works hard at being weird--"Burnt Offerings" is an excellent example--but I don't remember him ever attaining the level of bizarre he does here. He's downright disturbing as the elderly neighbor who drops in on Raines's character from time to time. The conclusion of the film definitely constitutes one of the more disturbing endings I have seen in a horror film, and it does so with a lot less gore than you would expect. I thought the plot of "The Sentinel" was a good one, a plot both frighteningly offbeat and effectively eerie. I had a lot of fun watching for famous faces. Most of the actors who appeared in the film weren't that well known yet, and they look younger than you could ever imagine. Jeff Goldblum plays a pushy fashion photographer, Beverly D'Angelo turns up as a lesbian with a penchant for showmanship, and Christopher Walken plays a cop. Walken especially is humorous to watch. He only has about two lines in the entire film yet still manages to exude his now famous sense of weirdness. Chris Sarandon has since become a better known actor through such roles as the vampire in "Fright Night," and Jerry Orbach made a name for himself as a character actor in films ("Brewster's Millions") and as one of the cops in the television show "Law and Order." The only real mystery here is Christina Raines as Alison Parker. Here's an actress in the lead role in a film loaded with young and old talent alike, and she barely makes a splash. In fact, she hasn't made a movie or television show since the late 1980s. What happened? Personally, I didn't care for her character in the movie or how she played the part. Even worse, considering she's supposed to be playing a big buck fashion model, she isn't very attractive. You will have a better time watching the interesting mix of actors and actresses instead of focusing on Raines's histrionic performance. "The Sentinel" doesn't provide much in the way of extras outside of a trailer and some production notes. Even the picture transfer isn't all that good, unfortunately. You would figure a movie loaded with so many once was and would be stars would get a better treatment. Oh well, give the movie a shot if you love horror. Creepy, grotesque, and shocking--"The Sentinel" managed to surprise me, a jaded horror aficionado, more than a few times. Let's hope they rerelease the movie on a DVD with a better picture transfer, more extras, and perhaps a commentary from the likes of Sarandon.

Look Out For Lippy!:
This film was a bit above the standard genre fare being released at the time. I remember going to see it after reading the book and it really freaked me out. Towards the end, when all the "poor souls from hell" appear, they actually used some disfigured people (saving money on fx make-up?). There was this man from Coney Island, we used to call him "Lippy," that scared the hell outta me when I was a kid (in the 60's). He was probably a nice man, but I after the 1st time I saw him I had nightmares for months. I did a double take when I saw him in this movie... it was incredible to have one of your childhood fears realized like that... got me again dude (lol). So look for Lippy at the end of the film...ya can't miss him ; )

Great atmosphere, a stunning cast, well worth watching!:
This is a classic '70s style horror film, probably quite shocking at the time, and still very effective today. Atmosphere is everything in this film, but be prepared for a few truly shocking jolts as well. The story is pretty straight forward. A young woman moves into a new apartment where strange occurrences begin to take place...but the story is in the details, and the wonderful performances of an amazingly chosen cast that consists of a who's who of veteran stars and up & coming talent. Trust me, you'll have a field day spotting such familiar faces such as Chris Sarandon, Burgess Meredith, Eli Wallach, Christopher Walken, Martin Balsam, John Carradine, José Ferrer, Ava Gardner, Arthur Kennedy, Jeff Goldblum, Jerry Orbach, Sylvia Miles, Beverly D'Angelo, William Hickey, Tom Berenger , & Nana Visitor. They don't put together cast like that anymore, even some of the smallest parts have outstanding actors & actresses playing them. The film features a very effective performance by Cristina Raines that shouldn't be missed.

Excellent Horror Classic; curious difference in story:
I have just purchase the DVD from Goodtimes Video of the 70's horror classic. As other customers have noted, it is really worth having, and there is indeed a lot that you will see that is cut out of "TV" versions. However, there is at least one scene missing from the DVD, and I wonder if other viewers have noticed this..that is the scene or scenes that pertain to the group of priests who call themselves "The Brotherhood of the protectors" who had been disbanded from the church for their beliefs. The is at least one scene showing a meeting of the "brothers" that is in my age-old tape of a television broadcast of the film that is not shown in the DVD. However, in the beginning of the DVD, the movie begins in Northern Italy with a group of priests discussing the "danger" as do the "brotherhood" in the "other" version. I also note the another DVD version is set to be released on September 7, 2004 by Umvd. So, I await this release to see if the deleted scene is included. I wonder if anyone would like to comment on this oddity? Aside from this curious detail, I thoroughly enjoyed the DVD from Goodtimes Video.