Equinox

It's a fun spooky movie with a different look and without the usual nighttime menace. It's also an independent production that managed some notoriety, mainly for surprisingly impressive special effects. Actually, Equinox was sort of the Blair Witch Project of its day—a bunch of unknowns hitting it lucky with a shoestring effort. If memory serves, the film even had a run at one of the prestige theatres along Hollywood Blvd. The effects are not so impressive by today's digital standards; however, by 1970's norms, they were the unexpected equal of any A-production.

The story itself is pretty well structured in flashback with an effective "hook" to get viewers interested. The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but then it doesn't have to, since we've got King Kong's albino brother, a castle that comes and goes, a lost book of the occult, and a shape-shifting forest ranger who's definitely not Smoky the Bear. Most of the scenes are well staged, except when the ranger gets in the girl's face, contorts his lips, and slobbers, in what I suppose was a wacky metaphor for supernatural sex. Sharp-eyed viewers may recognize Frank Bonner (Boers) from TV's WKRP in Cincinnati as Jim. He's easily the most accomplished of an uneven cast.

In fact there's an appearance of a time warp between the clothing fashions worn in the movie and the 1970 release date. In short, the hair styles and skinny pants of the movie are a long pre-Vietnam way from the bell-bottoms and long hair of counter-cultural 1970. I don't know what accounts for this apparent disparity unless release was held up for several years. Anyway, except for the rather hollow sound of the dialogue dubbing, this accomplished little indie remains an underground original.

When I rented this, I thought, "Oh God, this is going to be a total cheesefest." And it was. From the animated box cover that reminded me of all those cheesy movie posters in the fifties and sixties, to the bad acting, to the claymation, to the confusing ending, it was all cheese. But looking back, I LOVE this movie!

I rented it as "The Beast" and was expecting something as basic as that name. But I was pleasantly surprised to find an interesting story, with something constantly happening, and so much to like about this all. It was really cool how, all on one afternoon, this happened. Sure, there were some aspects that just weren't good. The acting was terrible, and the claymation scene of the octopus-type creature destroying that doctor's cabin was so terrible. Though, I laughed throughout the whole scene. And how they dealt with the doctor's death was a little hokey. But I could look past that. There was a lot to love about this. The weird ranger, Asmodeus, who was really odd. And when he attacked the one girl--Susan?--he was so freaky. And when the beast started menacing them, I knew this was great. I mean, the cheesy claymation really did it for me. Then when the one guy went to find the other guy in the "other world" (the whole scene was just tinted with red)--I was really interested. I mean, that just added to all that was going on. What was also cool was, it wasn't one of those stupid movies that when the guys told the girls "You stay here"--which they said a lot--the girls didn't just leave the movie. Stuff happened to them too. And by the end, so much happened that you just had to sit back and marvel.

Of course, the movie had the scene of the ending at the beginning--sort of to say that the survivor was looking back on the whole case--and that kind of gave too much away of what would happen to everyone. But then the final ending came. It was extremely confusing, and that was the only really bad part, but everything else was great. I simply love this movie, and I recommend anyone with a taste for cheese should see this. One of the best B-movies ever made.

{This review includes comments on EQUINOX (Jack Woods, 1970) **1/2}

When this was first announced as a Criterion release, I was only vaguely familiar with it; I purchased the 2-Disc Set recently (as it was on sale) without really knowing what to expect; the result is certainly interesting – especially having two versions of the film to compare…even if it doesn't quite belong in the "Collection".

Originally made in 1967, THE EQUINOX…A JOURNEY INTO THE SUPERNATURAL is basically a 70-minute home movie – amateurish if clearly made by fanatics of the horror genre, talented enough to create their own monsters (which aren't too bad into the bargain)! When the film was eventually picked up for release by Jack H. Harris, he ordered several reshoots, changed the order of scenes around, tightened some others, replaced a lot of the dialogue, etc. – this didn't necessarily make for a better film (in fact, I think that the original is still the superior effort) but, at least, it now felt like a proper movie!

What the theatrical version did, primarily and ultimately to its detriment, was to eliminate a lot of the surprise which the original held – for instance, the figure of the demon towering over the hero at the very start of the 1967 version is missing from the theatrical-release print; similarly, we're shown the driverless car which mows him down prior to the accident. Also, the revelation that the demon is taking possession of the characters (having already established that this is what caused the Professor and the hero's blind date to go crazy momentarily in the re-edited version) takes away from the scene in which his best friend is likewise 'afflicted'; and, again, the impact of the twist ending is lessened when we already know that Susan is capable of evil.

The teenage leads are likable enough to overcome their essential inexperience; popular horror writer Fritz Leiber appears as the obsessive Professor who unwittingly unleashes the Forces of Darkness in the wilderness; in the 1967 version, we also get to hear the voice of horror/sci-fi authority Forrest J. Ackerman (who, then, appears on the DVD for a special introduction). The one major addition to the cast list for the 1970 version is, ironically, the character played by the re-shoots director himself – a creepy-looking Ranger with the equally strange name of Asmodeus (as it turns out, one of the devil's various monikers!). While he was, perhaps, intended to beef up the picture's scare factor (even attempting to rape the two girls), it's really a pointless role and basically represents a distraction from the central narrative (which deals naively with the eternal struggle between Good and Evil, as shown in an ancient tome kept by a crazy old man living inside a cave – and which involves much religious symbolism and an invisible barrier leading into the netherworld)!

Finally, we get to the special effects: they're very primitively done and a couple of the creatures (the squid and the giant native) aren't very effective but the ape-like monster and the demon are quite marvelously designed and one isn't overly bothered by the essential lack of refinement in the stop-motion animation involved. Unfortunately, the print utilized for the transfer of the 1967 version is very poor – with a number of shots being several generations removed from the already substandard master and lip-synch problems during a fair chunk of the duration (attributable certainly to its rarity, but which also adds to the inherent charm of its rough-and-ready quality)!

I love bad movies. This is a bad movie. I was channel flipping and saw one of the monsters cavorting about until gored by a sharp stick. I had to watch after that. Truly bad acting, unintelligible plot and a swarthy demon with the classic "Bru haa haa haa" laugh that only is done in the worst of movies. Very entertaining. I recommend you watch it with friends. Not a first date movie unless you know them well. Rather good special effects for a low budget film.

Come on, people! This was a zero-budget student film, for God's sake! You can't assess this movie like you would the latest big-budget studio blockbuster. This was an earnest effort of some FX-crazed kids, who did their damnedest to get some cool stop-motion monster sequences on film as a showcase of their talents. Dennis Muren went on to STAR WARS fame and many Oscars, and the late lamented David Allen enlivened many a crappy Charles Band flick (that's actually a redundancy) with superb effects that always belied the pitiful budget he was given to work with. All I know is, my younger brother and I, both stop-motion fans, saw the trailer for EQUINOX at some long-ago Saturday matinée and KNEW we had to see this film. And when we finally did we thought it was COOL! I'd rather see a continuity-challenged, amateur FX effort like this than any multimillion-dollar CG crapfest like VAN HELSING any day of the week!