La sentinelle des maudits

"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!

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.

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.

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.

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.