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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!

No, this is not a great movie. But I give the casting director extra stars for the cast, Ava Gardner, Eli Wallach, Chris Sarandon, John Carradine, Burgess Meredith, a very young Christopher Walken (he was quite handsome then), Beverly D'Ángelo, and Jerry Orbach, among others.

The film quality of the 70's adds that special touch, the chrome, shag rugs and gaudy artwork. The apartment Cristina Raines rents for $400.00 per month would probably cost $7000.00 now, so it is fun to see Brooklyn Heights, and days when New York was a little cleaner, filmed during the turbulent 70's when we had Son of Sam, movies like the Exorcist, Amityville Horror, Helter Skelter, and the like.

I am not sure if this is a pro-Catholic film, as one reviewer said. The church is certainly portrayed as Cristina Raines' only salvation; I will have to read the book to see if that is the case.

At any rate, you will enjoy parts of this movie. Beverly D'Angelo is quite strange, Cristina Raines is believable, the scary scenes are a little weird, but if you are up for it, this is an okay movie.

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...

Christina Raines plays a lovely model in New York who seeks out a new apartment and begins to meet strange neighbors and reveal a secret about the building and herself slowly building up to quite a climax by film's end. This film has all kinds of neat plot elements from the Roman Catholic Church vs. the Devil, to the gateway to Hell, to bizarre rituals, to a growing conspiracy, and finally to a host of talented famous actors and actresses flooding the film. We get Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, Chris Sarandon, Jerry Orbach, Deborah Raffin, Arthur Kennedy, Jose Ferrer, Slyvia Miles, Beverly DeAngelo, Eli Wallach, Martin Balsam, Christopher Walkin, William Hickey, Tom Berenger, Jeff Goldblum, and who can forget John Carradine as the old priest. Many of these actors ham it up - particularly Burgess Meredith giving a fine comic/demented performance as one of the neighbors with a little bird and a cat. Meredith is memorable as is Balsam and Chris Sarandon. Some of the performers have virtually nothing to do like Jose Ferrer in a thankless role even if it is nothing more than a cameo. The Sentinel is a fine horror film with plenty of psychological elements and some truly terrifying scenes. The end scene is repulsive and yet chilling. I do find fault with some of the gratuitous sex and violence in the film, particularly that whole scene with DeAngelo and Miles. Was that really necessary? I think not. Also, the father/daughter stuff was a bit much as well, but overall the film works and has a winning pace. Director Michael Winner does a workmanlike job and is effective creating tension and scary movie moments. The scenes with Carradine are particularly effective.

"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!

An extremely high quotient of freaky character actors propels this silly and wildly over-directed horror film. Cristina Raines is a model who rents an unusually large NYC apartment only to find out that the building happens to be on the exact same location as the gates of hell! Raines, who's not really a bad actress, is pretty dull but the film features such a wacky supporting cast that they make this otherwise lousy movie bearable. Burgess Meredith, Sylvia Miles and Beverly D'Angelo play her neighbors, Chris Sarandon is her oddball boyfriend, and Ava Gardner --- looking pretty tired --- plays a real estate agent. Arthur Kennedy, Christopher Walken, Eli Wallach and John Carridine are in it too. The director, Michael Winner, had a reputation for choosing the worst possible material. With credits like THE SENTINEL,THE NIGHTCOMERS, various versions of DEATH WISH and two woefully ill-advised remakes: THE BIG SLEEP and THE WICKED LADY, it's no surprise Winner's career has evaporated.

At the end of the movie you will see a very disfigured man, seems like great makeup job, with warts all over his face, similar to the elephant man but not as severe. This was no makeup. Louie was from my neighborhood and was severely disfigured from birth. He was picked for the movie while on the train coming from work where he used to mop floors in a hospital. Everyone in my neighborhood loved Louie and his disfigurement never bothered us. He actually was married to a normal looking woman and had a child, a son. He had his 15 minutes of fame and we were all happy for him, great guy that made a deficit into an asset.

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.

I really liked this movie! One of my favorite undead movies of all time infact.

Don't expect a ton of special effects, but do expect some genuine chills and memorable visuals.

If you like Clive Barker-esque horror, you'll like this movie.

"Rosemary's Baby" meets "The Exorcist" in this trashy and derivative freak show, which tries to cash in on every occult movie cliché imaginable. In it, a beautiful actress/model who's in a shaky relationship moves into a glamorous apartment at very reasonable rent, only to discover it's haunted by various weirdos. She has the usual health problems (migranes and fainting spells) and the freaks who are her neighbors are becoming increasingly menacing. Many of the scenes are meant to be shocking, but are merely embarrassing and hard to watch. Sylvia Miles and Beverly D'Angelo have a particularly vulgar scene. The one thing one wonders is how did they get all these high-powered stars to take on supporting roles. Also, one is surprised by how many actors with bit parts who were unknown at the time have since gone on to successful careers. It's a virtual galaxy of the stars of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. There are so many, it's distracting. However, playing "spot the star" is far more entertaining than anything that happens in this film. The main character had attempted suicide once and has thoughts of it again. If I had been forced to watch this film repeatedly, I might have attempted suicide. The climax to the film was particularly unpleasant without being scary. The only pleasure besides the cast would be the big budget, which brings a professional veneer to a graze Z script. What an overwhelming waste of Hollywood talent and audiences time.

A fashion model (Christina Raines) begins having strange visions, physical problems, and nightmares after moving into a new apartment. Her neighbors are acting even weirder. She keeps having flashbacks about a past suicide attempt and her boyfriend (Chris Sarandon) is in total disbelief.

As far as shock value is concerned this film is a total success. It features some of the strangest, most disturbing images in movie history and that ending is really something. However, it is extremely dull and uneven for most of the films running time. Still, it has a GREAT cast.

Rated R; Nudity, Graphic Violence, Sexual Situations, and Profanity.

Oh, what "Rosemary's Baby" hath wrought! The successes of the book and movie versions of the compelling Ira Levin story about a woman impregnated by the devil, couldn't keep Hollywood and the publishing industry away from the subject of demonology, so they came up with "The Exorcist" a few years later. That was another monster hit and the rip-offs kept on coming, including "The Omen," "Abby," etc. "The Sentinel" is another of those trashy copies, and it's loads of guilty fun.

Chris Sarandon is the male lead, after having had a great role in the Al Pacino hit "Dog Day Afternoon." Sarandon was hot, but unfortunately the movies he made soon after "Dog Day..." didn't click. "Lipstick" was one of them, and, in fact, "The Sentinel" is sort of "Lipstick" and "Mahogany" meet "The Exorcist." Sarandon is, of course, a fine actor, but his co-star Cristina Raines, try though she may, comes across as expressionless and her voice is flat. She plays a fashion model, so you could argue that her lack of range is appropriate, but it's hard to get worked up about her, especially when she's surrounded by lots of great character actors like Burgess Meredith, Sylvia Miles, Eli Wallach and a very young Beverly d'Angelo as a mute but sexually active lesbian ballet dancer (you won't believe her first scene or her last!). Raines is also up against a real bona fide movie star from The Golden Age - Ava Gardner. The divine Ava doesn't have much to do, but she makes the most of it (apparently post-dubbed).

The director Michael Winner is certainly prolific and he does have some effective and jolting visuals in this film. But he is also careless and sloppy. For instance, a professional safe cracker (played by William Hickey who I used to see in the video rental store a lot) would definitely wear gloves to keep his fingerprints anonymous.

Oh, well, who cares? The creepy movie is confusing and messy, especially the Grand Guignol finale (or two), but it's loads of fun and manages to conjure up some of the 1970s Manhattan glamor and almost innocent hedonism that seems so naive in retrospect (see the aforementioned Diana Ross vehicle "Mahogany" for more 70s glamor and amusement).

"The Sentinel" is a ridiculous, tiresome exercise in repetitive shock tactics that are never anything more than laughable.

It's one of those tiresome "woman moves into apartment, woman goes crazy" movies that was done so much better in "Rosemary's Baby" and "Repulsion".

There are two main problems: one, the lead actress just doesn't really work, has no presence and blends into the screen, and two, the movie is just boring shock tactics that are never shocking in the least.

Aside from that, the movie is teeming with characters and character actors, including John Carradine, Ava Gardner, Eli Wallach, Christopher Walken, Beverley D'Angelo, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berenger...

There is so much pointless exposition from these actors about nothing in particular, adding nothing at all to a central story that didn't need these complications.

Alison Parker (Cristina Raines) is a successful top model, living with the lawyer Michael Lerman (Chris Sarandon) in his apartment. She tried to commit suicide twice in the past: the first time, when she was a teenager and saw her father cheating her mother with two women in her home, and then when Michael's wife died. Since then, she left Christ and the Catholic Church behind. Alison wants to live alone in her own apartment and with the help of the real state agent Miss Logan (Ava Gardner), she finds a wonderful furnished old apartment in Brooklyn Heights for a reasonable rental. She sees a weird man in the window in the last floor of the building, and Miss Logan informs that he is Father Francis Matthew Halloran (John Carradine), a blinded priest who lives alone supported by the Catholic Church. Alison moves to her new place, and once there, she receives a visitor: her neighbor Charles Chazen (Burgess Meredith) welcomes her and introduces the new neighbors to her. Then, he invites Alison to his cat Jezebel's birthday party in the night. On the next day, weird things happen with Alison in her apartment and with her health. Alison looks for Miss Logan and is informed that she lives alone with the priest in the building. A further investigation shows that all the persons she knew in the party were dead criminals. Frightened with the situation, Alison embraces Christ again, while Michael investigates the creepy events. Alison realizes that she is living in the gateway to hell.

Although underrated in IMDb User Rating, 'The Sentinel' is one of the best horror movies ever. I have seen this film at least six times, being the first time in the 70's, in the movie theater. In 07 September 2002, I bought the imported DVD and saw it again. Yesterday I saw this movie once more. Even after so many years, this film is still terrific. The creepy and lurid story frightens even in the present days. The cast is a constellation of stars and starlets. You can see many actors and actresses, who became famous, in the beginning of career. Fans of horror movie certainly worship 'The Sentinel', and I am one of them. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): 'A Sentinela dos Malditos' ('The Sentinel of the Damned')

Note: On 02 September 2007, I saw this movie again. Note: On 03 November 2013, I saw this movie again. Note: On 15 September 2019, I saw this movie again.

I watched this a few nights ago and can't stop thinking about it. The film opens up with some very melodramatic music over sweeping shots of Central Park, it is so stylistically jarring for what comes next.

I am fascinated by the juxtaposition of the subject matter being so religious and yet there is quite a bit of nudity and violence that just comes out of nowhere, jarringly so and without much context.

My favorite part of the film is the apartment and the complex's residents. There is a lot of work done to make everything seem like these people and this place really exist. I almost expect that if I were to go to Brooklyn that I could run into these characters no problem.

The main character has a history of attempted suicide but it isn't delved into as to why. I don't know if that's important to the story but it seems to be thrown in the film for the sake of explaining away her later punishment by becoming a sentinel.

Maybe it was watchable in the seventies.... I don't remember. But I know it's a stinker at this point (2006). You can see why Raines had a short career in films, and why Michael Winner never directed a quality movie. It's really embarrassing to watch. Even if the costumes didn't look like they were out of every bad seventies porn flick, the acting and directing (or lack thereof) would doom this film. Please watch it and tell me where I went wrong here... Tell me it's not really this bad. Even the good actors (Burgess Meredith, Jerry Orbach, Ava Gardner, et al.) look bad because of the writing and non-directing. Chris Sarandon does OK (not sure why), but he's paddling upstream most of the time, trying to rescue scenes from Raines' wooden and forced acting. And I've never been much of a fan of his, oddly. I haven't seen the remake, but I'm going to watch it in hopes of driving the memory of this disaster permanently from my poor abused mind...

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).

I remember seeing the "world television network premiere!" of this movie in 1978. I loved it, and having watched it a few times since then, I have to say, it is not a great movie, insofar as it goes. It does, however, maintain suspense and mystery, a consistently creepy atmosphere, in the sense of foreboding and doom up through the end. And the ending has to be seen to be believed. I gather it was very controversial, and really still is controversial. Words like tasteless and exploitative appear in reviews. At the very least, the concluding scene is pretty shocking.

Besides the suspense, mystery, and creepiness, this movie has an amazing cast from top to bottom. Lots of great character actors, and other actors who had not yet become gigantic stars but soon would. Although, wow, is this a white movie. There is not a single cast member that I can recall, I don't even think a single extra, who isn't white.

Besides the latter flaw, others include, not surprisingly, a script that does not know anything about Catholicism even though Catholicism is an important part of the plot (i.e., the outdated and all too common incorrect understanding that attempted or completed suicide is a mortal sin that automatically damns you to hell - that belief ceased being a thing after Vatican 2, many years before this movie and the novel on which it is based came out); and other flaws with how damnation is represented (the novelist and/or screenwriter seem to believe that someone with goodness and love in their heart can still wind up in hell, which is a dumb idea for the sheer illogic of it). I just really dislike writing that doesn't do basic research or lacks logic.

In spite of those flaws, when all is said and done, anyone who is a particular fan of 1970s American horror probably ought to see this.

"The Sentinel" is a freakshow, literally. I'm not sure if it's in good taste to have actual deformed people playing demons (or whatever they are). But how much good taste can a movie have when Beverly D'Angelo's character masturbates in front of Cristina Raines' character (I would imagine when Raines looks embarrassed in that scene she probably wasn't acting)?

But aside from all this, "The Sentinel" does include some of the most horrifying scenes I've seen in a movie. It really is creepy. My rating: 5/10