Hexensabbat

I was an usherette in an old theater in Northern California when this movie came out. As good as it is on DVD, it's even more eerie and terrifying on the big screen. Although it has been about 9 years since I have seen it, it is still one of my all-time favorites. At the risk of sounding trite, "They just don't make 'em like this anymore!" If Sixth Sense freaked you out at all, this movie is definitely for you! Great storyline, incredible cast of characters, ominous setting; even the soundtrack has a haunting quality to it. I highly recommend you not watch it alone. What a brownstone apartment was renting for in 1977 alone, will have you gasping (it would be at least 10-times that price today).

Not ready for marriage, a fashion model (Cristine Raines) moves into an unbelievably nice Brooklyn Heights apartment, where scary occurrences turn into a much more frightening turn of events.

I have to first call out the cast: Chris Sarandon (so young he is unrecognizable), Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Walken (in a far too small role), Eli Wallach, Jerry Orbach (also quite young), Burgess Meredith, John Carradine... and more (including a very, very small cameo by Richard Dreyfuss). If you think a film with both Walken and Goldblum is a bad idea, you may as well just walk away now.

The biggest thing for me is how I did not know what this film was or had even heard of it. How has it escaped my attention? With that cast, the great plot and solid storytelling? This is really a must-see for horror fans. It has been ranked in the top 100 of the scariest horror films. I have seen 1000s of horror films, and I would debate putting it in the top 100, but it is not a stretch by any means.

Before Dana Barrett opened her refrigerator and found Zuul, this story was out there of another apartment complex with another kind of doorway...

Boasting an all-star cast so impressive that it almost seems like the "Mad Mad Mad Mad World" of horror pictures, "The Sentinel" (1977) is nevertheless an effectively creepy film centering on the relatively unknown actress Cristina Raines. In this one, she plays a fashion model, Alison Parker, who moves into a Brooklyn Heights brownstone that is (and I don't think I'm giving away too much at this late date) very close to the gateway of Hell. And as a tenant in this building, she suffers far worse conditions than leaky plumbing and the occasional water bug, to put it mildly! Indeed, the scene in which Alison encounters her noisy upstairs neighbor is truly terrifying, and should certainly send the ice water coursing down the spines of most viewers. Despite many critics' complaints regarding Raines' acting ability, I thought she was just fine, more than ably holding her own in scenes with Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, Arthur Kennedy, Chris Sarandon and Eli Wallach. The picture builds to an effectively eerie conclusion, and although some plot points go unexplained, I was left feeling more than satisfied. As the book "DVD Delirium" puts it, "any movie with Beverly D'Angelo and Sylvia Miles as topless cannibal lesbians in leotards can't be all bad"! On a side note, yesterday I walked over to 10 Montague Terrace in Brooklyn Heights to take a look at the Sentinel House. Yes, it's still there, and although shorn of its heavy coat of ivy and lacking a blind priest/nun at the top-floor window, looks much the same as it did in this picture. If this house really does sit atop the entrance to Hell, I take it that Hell is...the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. But we New Yorkers have known THAT for some time!

Where does one begin in reviewing The Sentinel? The movie starts out with cheesy, made-for-TV music and a sweeping view of Central Park in New York. During the first half of the film the dialog is poor, the acting bad and the editing off. One second an actor has a smile on his or her face and the next split second they are serious.

Some of the scenes are laughable-so poorly done and choppy and with abrupt endings.

The film is sort of a horror/melodrama and uneven at best. There are actors that are very good here like Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith and Sylvia Miles who make the lesser known actors look like amateurs!

The second half of the film becomes even more bizarre and yet very interesting when we learn that this young model is living over the entrance to hell which is actually ridiculous.

It's hard to get too involved in a lot of this because of the absurdity of it all. And yet the actors take everything so seriously.

But during that last 30 minutes of the film things become very bizarre indeed. Real deformed people were used in the film which stirred some controversy.

There are some very interesting moments in this film that are really very intense. Especially when Chris Sarandon explains what is happening. However,........this is really a low budget mess and very little thought was put into the script. With all of these great actors no one came forward and tried to improve this? Unbelievable.

It's too bad because a lot of time and money went into this film. A lot of talented, seasoned people are here yet the lead actors seem ill prepared and their dialog is horrible. Horror fans will love the blatant gore but most people will dismiss this as trashy.

"Campy" doesn't adequately describe THE SENTINEL, I'm not sure what does! If for no other reason, but to see actors of the caliber of Martin Balsam, Ava Gardner, Jose Ferrer, Arthur Kennedy, Christopher Walken, Chris Sarandon, Eli Wallach and Burgess Meredith all making fools of themselves, is an opportunity you simply cannot pass up in this dumb tale of yet another gateway to Hell!

Cristina Raines plays Alison Parker, a willowy model who decides to move in to a spooky Brooklyn apartment building, remarkably similar to that which Rosemary and her baby recently vacated. Looks like the place is managed by the same body corporate! Tenanted mainly by the aforementioned actors, Miss Raines soon discovers that things are just not kosher somehow. Scenes decidedly campy and less so, blur both her and the audience's lines of reality. Worthy of an academy award alone is that where Raines is seated opposite D'Angelo watching her masturbate. The camera remains on her face as she begins to crack-up in obvious embarrassment at D'Angelo's antics - who wouldn't have? It's arguably the shot of the century!

Michael Winner directs with his usual "God knows what this is gonna turn out like" philosophy. Responsible for such good films as THE MECHANIC and such losers as DEATH WISH 4, its a 50:50 proposition with ANY of his pics!

Horrific or laugh-out-loud funny? you choose! Outrageous fun though, however you look at it!