WisdomsHammer This movie isn't for everyone. I'm honestly not sure why I like it as much as I do. Any movie I find myself watching over again is a good one, for me. I watch this at least once a year. There's just something about it that delivers for me. My biggest complaint is that the movie takes so long to get going and that the weird events leading up to the climax are more bizarre than scary and too many scenes have little to do with moving the story along. It's not likely to hold the attention of many viewers in this age of short attention spans. Maybe in saying so, I'm showing my own lack of attention span.The movie's central character is Alison Parker, played quite well by Cristina Raines. According to the trivia section here, Kate Jackson was offered the part but turned it down. Cristina Raines is a perfect stand in for Kate, but I would have loved to have seen what Kate would have done with this. Here's my attempt to sum up the overall plot with the interesting parts of the movie (major spoilers ahead): Alison is a successful model who is in a serious relationship with a successful lawyer. She ends up renting a dream apartment in New York for an incredibly reasonable price because she's not quite ready for marriage and wants her own place. She notices a spooky priest staring out of the window of the apartment above her but the real estate agent says he's a blind recluse and isn't anyone to be worried about. Alison wonders what he's staring at if he's blind. After she moves in, a strange assortment of other tenants led by Burgess Meredith's character hold a birthday party for a cat and invite Alison to join them. She finds them all odd, but has a great time anyway. When she mentions this to the real estate agent later, she is told that no one but she and the priest are living in the building, and that no one else has for years. It's discovered that the names of all those attending the party are murderers who were put to death. Alison hears strange noises from the priest's room above her during the night and her health deteriorates as she suffers from intense headaches and trouble sleeping. Her boyfriend investigates and finds out that the priest in question has a long line of predecessors who became priests or nuns immediately after each of their predecessor's deaths. And Alison is next in line. All of them, including Alison, had attempted suicide and apparently their penance is a lifelong vigilance watching over the gates of hell, where the building stands. (I think.)That sounds pretty intriguing, right? Well, I think my main gripe about the movie is that too many scenes have little to do with the central plot. The ones that do are sometimes just bizarre in a blatant attempt to shock the audience (a newly introduced Beverly D'Angelo masturbating in a leotard in front of a very uncomfortable Alison is a prime example). The ending felt like kind of a mess as well. I think maybe I like the idea of this more than the execution of it and find myself forgiving it for what I see as flaws.Possibly the craziest thing of all about this movie is that besides the number of celebrities in the main cast, there is a number of now well known actors who were in this thing before they got famous. Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum (whose voice was apprently dubbed, which I find hilarious), Jerry Orbach, and Tom Beringer. They have such tiny parts that they aren't a reason to watch this, but it was fun to see them scattered throughout the movie.I've heard other reviewers call this Rosemary's Baby meets The Exorcist, and I can see why they say that, but while it describes the general feel of the movie, it gives the movie overall way too much credit as far as effective execution.If you like slow burning 70s horror movies in general, I think you'll definitely want to check this out.

jadavix "The Sentinel" is a ridiculous, tiresome exercise in repetitive shock tactics that are never anything more than laughable.It's one of those tiresome "woman moves into apartment, woman goes crazy" movies that was done so much better in "Rosemary's Baby" and "Repulsion".There are two main problems: one, the lead actress just doesn't really work, has no presence and blends into the screen, and two, the movie is just boring shock tactics that are never shocking in the least.Aside from that, the movie is teeming with characters and character actors, including John Carradine, Ava Gardner, Eli Wallach, Christopher Walken, Beverley D'Angelo, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berenger...There is so much pointless exposition from these actors about nothing in particular, adding nothing at all to a central story that didn't need these complications.

ConsistentlyFalconer I reckon there are three types of bad film. There are the bad films that are just plain bad, like Waiting To Exhale (1995), Spider-Man 3 (2007) or Police Academy 6: City Under Siege (1989).Then there are the ones that are So Bad They're Good, like The Room (2003), The Incredible Melting Man (1977) or Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959).And then there's this third category. Films that are pretty rubbish, but which for some bizarre reason are really enjoyable - and not in an ironic way either. I would put Constantine (2005) in this category, and the wonderfully mental Lifeforce (1985)... and also this bizarre little horror gem.It's like an cheap knock-off of Rosemary's Baby, complete with urban paranoia, things going bump in the night, a neurotic heroine and creepy neighbours. There are some genuine scares (such as Alison's dead father appearing in the night), and the cast is really quite astonishing (Martin Balsam, Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, Eli Wallach, plus interesting cameos from Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum and - in a very uncomfortable scene - Beverly D'Angelo). Meanwhile Christina Raines seems like someone who can act but chooses not to; Chris Sarandon seems like someone who can't act at all but doesn't know it, and Deborah Raffin is someone who probably should have got Christina Raines' part. I don't know... sometimes it feels as if Michael Winner was feeding the actors their lines as they went along!The flashback scenes are mental (it's Michael Winner, after all), there's a fair bit of gratuitous nudity, some cheap gore, and the plot is - despite everything - intriguing, especially as we start to guess what Alison's fate might be.It's definitely one to watch, but I'm not entirely sure why! yetanotherfilmreviewblog.tumblr.com

utgard14 A model (Cristina Raines) moves into an apartment building where strange things occur and her odd neighbors are not what they seem. An interesting, but flawed, horror movie that peddles in weirdness just for the sake of weirdness. Pretty Cristina Raines is fine but does nothing to rise above the material. Mustachioed Chris Sarandon plays her boyfriend and it's pretty hard to take him seriously looking like a guy who belongs at Studio 54. The supporting cast helps the movie out greatly. Screen vets Ava Gardner, John Carradine, Burgess Meredith, Eli Wallach, Martin Balsam and Arthur Kennedy are all fantastic. Also early roles for Christopher Walken, Jerry Orbach, Jeff Goldblum, and Beverly D'Angelo. In the "blink and you'll miss them" category, there's Richard Dreyfuss and Tom Berenger. A packed lineup for a movie like this. It's not a great horror film. It's not scary and is seldom suspenseful. But there is something undeniably curious about it. The controversial climax may repulse sensitive types.