The Sentinel

(1977) ****

I mentioned in my review of the prequel to The Thing that the '82 version got a boost from a roster of talented and recognizable character actors. The Sentinel gets the same boost. A young and suave Chris Sarandon, Jeff Goldblum in a surprise role as someone other than Jeff Goldblum; also Burgess Meredith, Jerry Orbach, Christopher Walken, Tom Berenger. I think I read that Richard Dreyfuss makes a cameo as some dude on the street. Would I have been less impressed by this aspect The Sentinel had I seen it right when it came out, before any of these awesome character actor stars-to-be became big names? Give me some amnesia pills and a time machine and I'll tell you. Or wait — cause I just saw Caligula for the first time too. Can you drop me off there first? In that scene with all the group sex, not the scene where everyone's getting their head chopped off.


Speaking of kinky sex, there's oodles of it in the Sentinel. There's that scene of Alison Parker walking in on her dad while his two jiggly mistresses smear cake all over his gob. Then there's a young Beverly D'Angelo masturbating on a couch as Alison looks on, appalled.

I'm troubled by the negative portrayals of sexuality. I mean, accepting that this is a movie about a physical gateway to Hell, why is kinkiness the target? Shouldn't the target be something like greed or wrath or something? The Exorcist picked on sexuality too, but that was one short crucifix-masturbation amid a whirlpool of violence and murder. How is Beverly D'Angelo's chronic masturbation the banner moment of Hellworthiness? Girl just wants to get her O on. Doesn't seem fair.



I also found a teeny bit unfair that there was any sort of controversy around the casting of disfigured people and circus freaks as demons in the last fifteen minutes of the movie. I imagine that every one of them was well payed for their appearance in the film and nobody seemed to be mistreated. Seems like no real cause for anyone to be up in arms about anything. And if advocates of the physically malformed are so concerned with the public image of people with disfigurements, why not make your own damned movie about the disfigured living completely normal lives? Remake Hitch but with someone with elephantiasis in the title role. I'd watch it. Hell, I'd review it. Not for Horrorthon though. That would be missing the point entirely, and I don't miss points.


This came highly recommended by a number of horror enthusiasts and it did not disappoint. The directing and performances are all good. There's one really good heebie-jeebie moment when Alison goes to visit her neighbor upstairs — Octopunk pointed it out in his review as well, saying, "The good scare is down to a subtle move, too -- the ghost simply emerges from the shadows and walks across the room into some other shadows. The result is perfectly chilling." No lags in the pacing and no weaknesses in the script at all really. Solid piece of work.