The Sentinel (1977) Whenever we encountered a rotten movie that featured a large cast of well known, well loved actors, we used to grade it on a curve.........
Though the film might richly deserve a Zero rating, or even worse, our all time low of an AFH (Abomination From Hell), we'd cut the film a slight break on behalf of its stellar cast......assigning it something in the range of 1 star (*), or a fraction of a star (1/2, 1/4, 1/3rd, and so on........)
Not this time.
This totally crapola exercise in 'satanic horror" (a sub-genre that flourished in the 70's thanks to "The Exorcist" and "The Omen") boasts an astounding lineup in its supporting cast.....
We're talkin' Martin Balsam, Christopher Walken, John Carradine, Ava Gardner, Jose Ferrer, Arthur Kennedy, Burgess Meredith, Jeff Goldblum, Jerry Orbach, Eli Wallach, Beverly D'Angelo, William Hickey, Sylvia Miles and in a tiny role Tom Berenger.
With all these great, fascinating actors, you'd think this must be one hell of a movie to sit through.....
Well.....it's a movie. And it's hell to sit through.
Speaking of hell, that's what film's all about........being based on one of those hot-selling "Rosemary's Baby" ripoffs (lots of 'em popped up in the 70's) about demonic doings inside an eerie New York City apartment building.
And so once again Hollywood studios considered Catholicism as a ripe inspiration for horror movies.
A TV commercial model (Christina Raines) moves info the usual spooky NYC building that comes fully equipped with grotesque, oddly threatening neighbors......including a blind old priest who sits all day, looking out of the apartment's top window.
The expected spooky stuff unfolds around the poor girl, much to the chagrin of her fiance (Chris Sarandon) who himself is suspected of murdering his first wife by tossing her out of a window or something.
Anyone who's sampled the 70's Satan filmography could already guess how this film will turn out.
The only real surprise here is how badly it turns out.........thanks to the flat, uninspired, keep-things-moving-right-along direction of Michael Winner.
Throughout the 70's, the tireless, prolific Winner became Hollywood's go-to guy for quickly pumping out pulpy action thrillers with big stars, including Charles Bronson's 'Death Wish' series and westerns and suspensers with Burt Lancaster, Marlon Brando, Faye Dunaway, Sophia Loren and many others.
Tyrannizing his film crews but establishing great rapport with his stars, Winner spewed out film after film, always on time, always on budget and saving tons 'o money by shooting almost entirely on real locations.
He got 'em done allright.......but as a filmmaker, he was never anything more than a nose-to-the-grindstone journeyman........and his films lacked any substance, style, imagination or anything other than an urgent desire to use up the raw stock, wrap that sucker and move on to the next.
Winner had no real affinity for any of the genres he dabbled in.......and this ham-handed attempt at a horror film is shot in the same matter-of-fact, point-the-camera-and-shoot style as all his other films.
Which doesn't make for a very scary movie. Winner must have sensed his own deficiency in this regard, so as a last resort, he trots out a parade of actual physically deformed people to horrify his audience.
Talk about desperation.
As for that cast packed with excellent actors, they're all wasted in throwaway roles, similar to that jumbo collection of aging icons who appeared in Winner's previous film, 1976's unfunny nostalgia orgy "Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood". (see our post about this one on 8/19 or this year)
More disgusting than scary, we'll not grade this one on any curve. Michael Winner the Loser fully earns our AFH, Abomination From Hell. And to hell with it.
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