2010-10-23

The Sentinel (1977)

The Sentinel (Michael Winner, 1977)


Widely inspired from Horror hits like The Exorcist, Freaks, and Rosemary's Baby, Michael Winner's The Sentinel presents the story of a young mannequin who takes a new apartment in New York City. At night she encounters weird things from her neighborhood. Her neighbors, a weird lonely man, a couple of lesbians, a secluded priest and many other eclectic people live in her building. The inspiration of Rosemary's Baby is palpable, the new apartment, the modernism of the city is seen here. On the other side, the themes of catholicism like in The Exorcist are exploited but not in an intersting manner. The ending is precipitated and boring. The plot goes in everyway and the structure of the movie is fragile.

The lead actors are bad, especially Chris Sarandon with his "mustache". I put the "" because it doesn't really deserves the real name for it. The supporting cast has some familiar faces; Beverly D'Angelo (Christmas Vacation, Entourage, American X History), Ava Gardner, John Carradine, Jose Ferrer, and Jeff Goldblum.

Some parts of the film are laughable and some are simply pathetic, this is caused because the film is very outdated and that it doesn't really scare anyone anymore... The Sentinel doesn't have the depth of the classic horror films aforementionned because its story is only on the first level and it misses its target. Avoid this stupid waste of talented actors.

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