A CREEPY, SUPERNATURAL SLEEPER CLASSIC! - Reviewed on 2008-10-09
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'The Sentinel' is a 1977 supernatural/psychological horror film directed by Michael Winner and based on the novel written by Jeffery Konvitz.
It stars Cristina Raines, Chris Sarandon and John Carradine. This movie also has alot of familiar faces; Christopher Walken, Burgess Meredith, Beverly D'angelo, and Jeff Goldblum are amoung the known actors that make an appearance in this movie.
As the story starts we see a group of high ranking priests holding a private meeting. We are then introduced to Alison Parker(Rains), a young fashion model and her lawyer boyfriend Michael(Sarandon). During the credits we see that they appear to be your average, happy couple.
We learn that Alison is moving out of Michael's apt. for her own place. She still plans on marrying him, but after a truamatic experiance needs some time alone. As she is talking to Michael, she recieves the news that her father has suffered a near fatal heart attack. Shortly after she arrives at the hospital, he dies. During the funeral, she has a disturbing flashback of her father, and we also learn that Alison suffers from a number of emotional issues.
After the funeral she is persuaded to move into an old brownstone apartment. After meeting her eccentric neighbors(Whoa buddy!), she starts having problems sleeping at night, paranoia, unexplained physical issues, and horrifying and bizarre hallucinations. As Chris searches for an explaination, he discovers the truth about the apt. itself, as well as the reclusive priest who lives on the top floor.
'The Sentinel' is a sleeper classic and has gotten by alot of people. The plot is similiar to 'Dark WaterS' but there's a more Fulci-esque vibe to the film. The story is somewhat dis-jointed, but having a psychological edge to it, it only adds to the creepiness.
There will be times in this flick when you'll wonder just what the he11 is going on, but with these type of flicks, it all works out in the end. While not being specifically 'satanic', it does have a good dose of an 'evil' vibe, and also has a heavy dose of Catholicism to counter.
This movie is littered with familiar faces, and that might be a distraction from the suspence and realism for some viewers, but the direction and pace of the film balances it out. The acting is quite believable; the bulk of the film is on Rains' shoulders and she handles it well.
We learn pretty early on that Alison has emotional issues and Rains plays it with a controled restraint. As the film progresses, her mental state devolves and she plays the part realistically. Sarandon plays the part of the boyfriend passionately. He is convincing as the love interest who wants to help at all costs.
The smaller parts are filled with familiar faces, including a scene with Beverly D'angelo that must be seen to be believed!
The editing is good. The movie is 92 min. and never drags. If the supernatural stuff isn't happening, the film is exploring the mind of Alison. As the movie progresses, Alison becomes more unhinged and this reflects in the pacing. The film seems to move to hallucinations without any clue, and you won't know until something weird happens.
The movie progresses to a fairly predictable ending, and is even revealed before the 'finale' but it's how they get there that counts. Although not bad, I felt the finale could have been better, it just wasn't 'dark' enough.
It should be noted that this flick does contain a fair amount of sexual content, some of which could be interpreted to be bizarre.
The editing brings the sexual content, the disturbing imagery, and the storyline combined with the gritty look together to give it a 'grindhouse' feeling.
The biggest flaw of the film is the music. This is a supernatural/psychological film, and the movie has this type of 70's synth music that is out of place with the suspencefull mood. The music seems like it would be more fitting in an adventure flick. As the movie progresses, it becomes more gothic, but retains that 70's-ish synth style, it's very similiar to the soundtrack of Fulci's 'The Beyond'.
The cinematography is 'gritty' and you can immediatly tell this flick was made in the 70's. It is somewhat dated, but isn't a major distraction. In the dark suspencefull scenes, toward the end, and during the few gore scenes this actually works for the film.
The special effects and gore are minimal, but effective. When we do see the gore scenes, Again one can easily see a similarity to Fulci. This movie being more of a supernatural thriller, the focus isn't on the gore, but when we see it, it definetly pops. One thing that viewers might find shocking is that the finale contains real circus freaks and deformed people. Upon it's release it did create a deal of controvercy and may be in part a reason for the films obscurity.
'The Sentinel' is a really good, spooky, disturbing flick that is perfect for the horror season. The 70's turned out ALOT of movies that dealt all things evil and demonic; some good, most bad, and a few that are good but fell into obscurity. I can say this is one of those great obscure ones. The biggest flaws of the film(and what prevented a 5 star), is the out of place music, and the ending fell kinda flat, but worked. If you dig supernatural and psychological movies, this is well worth the time.
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