Review of The Sentinel (1977) by Justin A — 10 Oct 2015

It starts off pretty slow, but gradually builds up to some great early moments before slowing back down and picking up again at the end. There is just a lot of dull, almost wasted time throughout. However, when the scares come in, it gets really good.

The scene where she goes into the apartment upstairs is particularly frightening. The stabbing that ensues is shot in a strange way (like some frames were removed to give it a stop-motion sort of look) that is very graphic and bloody.

The end of the movie is filled with a nice twist that is kind of scary, but also funny to think about (so the gate to Hell is in New York? Makes sense). There are some shots that are really creepy, most involving the ghostly father, but scenes like a naked Beverly D'Angelo eating a corpse was effective too.

The highlight of the movie is an underused Burgess Meredith. He's fantastic! Early on, he is charming and funny (the cat was adorable) and at the end he is violent and scary. The movie really could have used a lot more of him.

Outside of him, there are tons of strange small roles played by really big named actors some even at the time. Jeff Goldblum has a few, poorly dubbed scenes. Christopher Walken shows up and I think he said two lines.

William Hickey shows up for a scene and disappears just as quickly. Was that Tom Berenger? Anyway, pretty good movie, and probably very effective in its time.