The Sentinel

The Sentinel

1977

Director- Michael Winner

Cast- Cristina Raines, Chris Sarandon, Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, Eli Wallach

           

The first thing you’ll notice about this film is its cast. Gardner, Meredith and Wallach were big time names and though Chris Sarandon was never a Hollywood “A lister”, he was nominated for an Oscar a few years before this movie was made. And this is just  the main cast. The supporting cast include Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, John Caradine, Beverly D’Angelo, Jerry Orbach, Tom Berenger and Star Trek fans will recognize a very young and beautiful Nana Visitor! The casting director must have had an eye for talent.

            The cast aside, The Sentinel delivers a memorable, if at times confusing tale. Cristina Raines plays Alison an up and coming supermodel. When she was younger, she walked in on her father engaged in an orgy. The shock led to a suicide attempt on her part. Her father’s death brings back these memories at the same time that she and her boyfriend (played by Chris Sarandon whom genre fans will recognize as the cool vampire Jerry Dandridge from Fright Night as well as being the voice of Jack Skellington) are having a disagreement about whether or not she should move in.

Allison wants her freedom and gets a new apartment in a building with some outlandish tenants. Burgess Meredith plays an eccentric old man that invites Allison to parties in the building with the other odd tenets (including a birthday party for his cat which is weirdly funny).

Things stop being funny when Allison begins to hear noises from the apartment above hers, which is supposed to be empty. Upon investigating she finds out that the whole building is in fact empty except for her and an old, blind, priest (Caradine). Later she runs across her father, who is supposed to be dead, and cuts him up in a gruesome scene only to have no body later to prove it. Much of the movie seems like Allison is a victim of gaslighting by her boyfriend but the truth turns out to be much worse.

I don’t want to spoil anything and it’s hard to say more about the plot without giving away the surprise. As for the film its self, it’s more weird than scary. The director, Michael Winner, was very talented, having directed the epic mediation on amorality, The Mechanic and the surprisingly thoughtful Death Wish (unlike its sequels which were pretty much B movies). I think his skill comes through in the film, but I think it’s also obvious that horror wasn’t his comfort zone. The film plays well when it’s going along like a suspense film, but when the occult elements begin to enter, the movie doesn’t transition as well.

            Still, the movie is very memorable. It’s an occult thriller with one of the best casts you’re likely to find. I just wished it were a little longer so there would have been more time to see some of that great cast in action.