The Sentinel (1977)

Last night, I watched The Sentinel, a 1977 Michael Winner horror flick, based on Jeffrey Konvitz's novel. The movie wasn't all that bad -- just slow. You'll have to wait half-way through the movie to understand where it's heading, and the last 10-minutes to see the really cool effects of the movie. The movie concerns a model, Alison Parker, who moves into an apartment building with some really eccentric neighbours -- or maybe weird is a better word -- with the weirdest being a blind, reclusive priest, who lives at the top of the building and spends all his time looking out the window from his perch. Miss Parker has some strange encounters with her neighbours, some secrective religious types and a whole bunch of fainting spells. Prompted by this, her boyfriend investigates, only to find nothing less than the gateway to hell, with both the church and the devil having designs on Alison Parker's future. You'll have to get through a whole lot of plodding in the story to get there, but the plodding is good -- not to mention a little freaky at times. The last 10-minutes, when the denizens of hell and the devil make their appearance is worth the wait. The effects are astounding, considering it was all done in the 1970s. You will also get to see a bunch of actors in their younger days, including small appearances by Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berenger and Nana Visitor -- as well as appearances by veterans Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, John Carradine and Arthur Kennedy.