Equinox

I first saw this film a little while ago under the title of The Beast. The first viewing of it I wasn't sure what to make of it. I love the stop motion and all of the special effects but something about the movie didn't catch my interest. When Criterion decided to release this on DVD with both versions of the movie and a whole lot of extras I thought I would give it another chance. I am happy I did because this was a truly fun film that paved the way for movies like Evil Dead or Phantasm.

The storyline might sound familiar. A group of four friends (2 guys, 2 girls) plan a trip to a log cabin out in the middle of nowhere. When they get there they discover the log cabin has been destroyed. After then exploring around they find a few very odd things. A random castle on a hill and a strange old man that gives them this very old book. After this they discover an invisible barrier leading to another world. Soon there are creatures that want to kill them and take the book.

A second viewing was in order. I am glad I did. I believe the version I saw, entitled The Beast, was the 1970's version. Watching the original 1967 version seemed a bit better.

The special effects in this movie are excellent. For me, I am right at home with a movie like this. The stop motion was true eye candy to watch and after you see the first monster you are pretty much in for a fun ride.

A can tell that Sam Raimi probably liked this movie when he was younger and wrote a similar story for his cult phenomenon The Evil Dead. The whole storyline with the book and a group of friends going out to a log cabin was obviously inspiration for Raimi. Even at the beginning of Evil Dead when they are showing images of the book floating in what appears to be fog was very similar to that of a scene in The Equinox when they are explaining what the purpose of the book was. A little bit of similarity with this movie and Phantasm with the portal to another world and how that other world looked upon entering it.

This movie is really a movie for fans of the stop motion genre. If you like Ray Harryhausen this is a must see. 9/10

"Equinox" is a low-budget and wholly independent precursor of Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead" about a group of teenagers,who accidentally unleash supernatural forces after reading passages from a mysterious book Necronomicon found in the woods.The main difference between "Equinox" and "The Evil Dead" is that the latter is drenched with gore and violence,whilst"Equinox" plays more like 50's creature feature combined with cheesy stop-motion monster roaming the woods.I must say that the stop motion monster effects are pretty impressive as are the split screen effects.The acting is amateurish and the writing leaves a lot to be desired.Who would of ever guessed that Park Ranger Asmodeus would turn out to be Satan incarnate.Still strong 8 out of 10.

I love this movie, could watch it over and over...

The reason I like it so much is just the whole idea behind it. Plus the claymation is pretty cool! The way they act is hilarious (to me anyway), almost like an old Leave it to Beaver, the way they talked in those episodes. Combine that with what they are up against, and the contrast between the 2 is great!!

It shows how good a film can be without spending $100 million. Evil Dead is another one that comes to mind when I think of this movie.

I won't spoil anything, but sometimes they use a fisheye lens when things are getting insane/over the top, and Dennis Muren has done some great work in famous films since this was 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)!

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.