ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - January 7th
"THE SENTINEL" released in 1977
A fashion model moves into an unbelievably nice Brooklyn Heights apartment, where frightening occurrences turn into a much more terrifying turn of events, Michael Winner's adaptation of the supernatural chiller, The Sentinel!
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Alison Parker (Cristina Raines), a beautiful but severely neurotic fashion model, moves into a gorgeous Brooklyn brownstone house that has been divided into apartments. The house is inhabited on the top floor by Father Halliran (John Carradine), a reclusive blind priest who spends all of his time sitting at his open window. On the same day Alison inspects the building, Halliran is visted by Monsignor Franchino (Arthur Kennedy) to talk about his "legacy". After moving in, Alison begins having strange physical problems, including insomnia, and has some terrifying flashbacks of her attempted suicides. Looking for distraction, she tries to ingratiate herself with the building's other occupants - but finds that they are bizarrely eccentric and obnoxious, especially Gerde Engstrom (Sylvia Miles) and Sandra (Beverly D'Angelo), with whom Alison shares an extremly "uncomfortable" afternoon tea with. One day, Alison receives a visit from her neighbor Charles Chazen (Burgess Meredith) who welcomes her and introduces the new neighbors to Alison, later inviting her to his cat Jezebel's birthday party that night. Over the next few days, Alison's insomnia worsens due to the strange noises caused by the other tenants until she complains to the real estate agent of the disturbances. The agent is confused, telling a shocked Alison that there are no neighbours - besides for herself and Fr. Halloran, no one else lives there. That night, the behavior of her "non-existent" neighbors becomes increasingly surreal and disturbing.
Frightened, Alison turns to her boyfriend, lawyer Michael (Chris Sarandon) to help her discover what is going on. Unbeknownst to Alison, Michael is also being investigated by Det. Gatz (Eli Wallach) and Det. Rizzo (Christopher Walken) for the suspicious murder of Michael's first wife. Michael breaks into a records archive of the Catholic Church. Researching the past of Fr. Halloran, Michael learns that the man has none. Rather Halloran's life "began" the day that another man's life apparently ended, leading Michael to believe that the two men are one and the same. He also finds similar records for a woman, a nun named Sister Therese who is to reside in Alison's building. Michael soon concludes that Sister Therese is actually the woman that Alison is meant to become.
Meanwhile, Alison returns from her meeting with the agent and finds Michael waiting for her. He explains the building is owned by a secret society of excommunicated Catholic priests and is a gateway to Hell - with all the "tenants" in fact being dead murderers and criminals condemned to endless torment. The blind priest is the guardian who ensures that the demons do not escape. But Father Halliran is nearing the end of his life, and a new guardian is needed - the society has chosen Alison to take his place, because her two suicide attempts qualify her as the perfect candidate. She is told that she must pay for the sins she has committed by becoming the next Sentinel, and only by doing so she will be allowed into Heaven. Terrified, Alsion tries to flee but is confronted by Chazen and all of the minions of Hell; among them is Michael, who was secretly killed earlier and is damned for killing his wife. Chased through the building by grotesque and deformed creatures, Alison runs to the top floor and into Father Halliran's room, where the demons corner her. Chazen hands her a knife and tries to convince her to commit suicide to avoid this torment, until Father Halliran and Monsignor Franchino enter the room - Franchino supports the infirm Halliran as he wields a large crucifix, driving the demons back. But will Alison once again give in to her sorrow or find the strength to embrace her destiny as the new Sentinel?
Frightened, Alison turns to her boyfriend, lawyer Michael (Chris Sarandon) to help her discover what is going on. Unbeknownst to Alison, Michael is also being investigated by Det. Gatz (Eli Wallach) and Det. Rizzo (Christopher Walken) for the suspicious murder of Michael's first wife. Michael breaks into a records archive of the Catholic Church. Researching the past of Fr. Halloran, Michael learns that the man has none. Rather Halloran's life "began" the day that another man's life apparently ended, leading Michael to believe that the two men are one and the same. He also finds similar records for a woman, a nun named Sister Therese who is to reside in Alison's building. Michael soon concludes that Sister Therese is actually the woman that Alison is meant to become.
Meanwhile, Alison returns from her meeting with the agent and finds Michael waiting for her. He explains the building is owned by a secret society of excommunicated Catholic priests and is a gateway to Hell - with all the "tenants" in fact being dead murderers and criminals condemned to endless torment. The blind priest is the guardian who ensures that the demons do not escape. But Father Halliran is nearing the end of his life, and a new guardian is needed - the society has chosen Alison to take his place, because her two suicide attempts qualify her as the perfect candidate. She is told that she must pay for the sins she has committed by becoming the next Sentinel, and only by doing so she will be allowed into Heaven. Terrified, Alsion tries to flee but is confronted by Chazen and all of the minions of Hell; among them is Michael, who was secretly killed earlier and is damned for killing his wife. Chased through the building by grotesque and deformed creatures, Alison runs to the top floor and into Father Halliran's room, where the demons corner her. Chazen hands her a knife and tries to convince her to commit suicide to avoid this torment, until Father Halliran and Monsignor Franchino enter the room - Franchino supports the infirm Halliran as he wields a large crucifix, driving the demons back. But will Alison once again give in to her sorrow or find the strength to embrace her destiny as the new Sentinel?
Alison Parker: [with growing fear and terror] Michael? I don't...
Michael Lerman: You don't understand? I'm dead. I was killed a short while ago by Monsignor Franchino for trying to strangle Father Halliran. I'm damned to enternal Hell for my sins. For having Brenner murder my wife so I can be with you. And for killing Brenner to tie up loose ends. I am one of the legion of the dead!
Top: Alison (Cristina Raines) starts to experience terrifying occurrences ever since she moved into the mysterious brownstone;
Above: Alison's boyfriend Michael (Chris Sarandon) tries to help discover the truth, while hiding his own dark secrets
Originally, Universal Studios approached Don Siegel to direct Jeffrey Konvitz's screenplay (based on his own novel The Sentinel, published in 1974). However, Siegel ultimately bowed out of the project due to his discomfort with this particular movie genre. Universal then hired Michael Winner, who had become primarily known in Hollywood as an action film director after filming Death Wish in 1972 with Charles Bronson and was now attempting to branch out into other genres. Winner ultimately re-wrote much of Konvitz's script, including the finale where Winner was later criticized for including real human oddities for the Dead rising up from Hell scene at the film's conclusion.
Cristina Raines, under contract with Universal at the time, almost didn't get the leading role due to a female executive at Universal who was more interested in pushing other clients for parts and ignoring her. Raines was told this directly by Winner, who went against the executive's wishes and cast her anyway. Cristina later said this may not have been for the best, however, and as she didn't like Winner's maddening approach to directing (the actress further says she cried every day on her way to work, and admitted in a recent interview that she has never watched this film due to the treatment she received on the set). Winner wrote in his memoirs that he wanted Martin Sheen to play the male lead of Michael, but the studio vetoed this saying he was a TV name (the role instead went to Chris Sarandon).
Cristina Raines, under contract with Universal at the time, almost didn't get the leading role due to a female executive at Universal who was more interested in pushing other clients for parts and ignoring her. Raines was told this directly by Winner, who went against the executive's wishes and cast her anyway. Cristina later said this may not have been for the best, however, and as she didn't like Winner's maddening approach to directing (the actress further says she cried every day on her way to work, and admitted in a recent interview that she has never watched this film due to the treatment she received on the set). Winner wrote in his memoirs that he wanted Martin Sheen to play the male lead of Michael, but the studio vetoed this saying he was a TV name (the role instead went to Chris Sarandon).
Det. Gatz: [looking at old police mugshots] Rebecca and Malcolm Stinnett. Sell. Gerde Engstrom. Emma and Lillian Clotkin. Anna Clark. All people the Parker girl said she met.
Det. Rizzo: All killers, all dead. She went to a party with eight dead murderers.
Det. Gatz: Doesn't everybody?
Top: Alison joins Charles Chazen (Burgess Meredith), Gerde Engstrom (Sylvia Miles) and Sandra (Beverly D'Angelo) for Chazern's cat's birthday!;
Above: As Alison is pursued throughout the building, she witnesses visions of demons - including Gerde and Sandra murdering and eating Michael!
The relatively new actors also cast were Deborah Raffin as Jennifer, Christopher Walken as Detective Rizzo, Jerry Orbach as Michael Dayton. Jeff Goldblum as photographer Jack, and Beverley D’Angelo as lesbian Sandra. The Sentinel also included alongside the up and comers a rich cast of veteran actors: Arthur Kennedy as the ‘good’ priest Monsignor Franchino who eventually, and very nearly, saves the day; Jose Ferrer as another priest seen briefly in the opening Northern Italy prologue; Ava Gardner as the real estate agent Miss Logan; Martin Balsam as the absent-minded Latin professor Ruzinsky, who helps decode the Latin phrase that priests Kennedy and Ferrer recite in the opening; Eli Wallach as police detective Gatz with a grudge against a lawyer (played by Sarandon), who’s previous wife and girlfriend committed suicide; John Carradine as Friar Francis Matthew Halliran; Sylvia Miles in the juicy role as one-half of a lesbian couple, Gerde Engstrom; and, last but not least, Burgess Meredith as Charles Chazen, cast against type as the proverbial eccentric old man who ends up being the malicious evil figure of the piece.
Filming began on The Sentinel on 21 May 1976, with the film crew actually using the exterior and the interiors of the Brooklyn Heights brownstone for the film. Raines says a lot of strange things happened while they were shooting there, particularly when she was assigned an apartment to use as her dressing room and found out it was being rented by a priest. Academy Award-winner John Williams was originally supposed to score the music, however Williams backed out to do a little project with a relatively unknown director George Lucas (the film in fact being Star Wars!). Michael Small was later supposed to be a replacement, but eventually was also unable to do the score which led to Golden Globe-nominee Gil Melle, who composed a chilling score which blends the elements of Williams, Jerry Fielding, and James Horner.
Filming began on The Sentinel on 21 May 1976, with the film crew actually using the exterior and the interiors of the Brooklyn Heights brownstone for the film. Raines says a lot of strange things happened while they were shooting there, particularly when she was assigned an apartment to use as her dressing room and found out it was being rented by a priest. Academy Award-winner John Williams was originally supposed to score the music, however Williams backed out to do a little project with a relatively unknown director George Lucas (the film in fact being Star Wars!). Michael Small was later supposed to be a replacement, but eventually was also unable to do the score which led to Golden Globe-nominee Gil Melle, who composed a chilling score which blends the elements of Williams, Jerry Fielding, and James Horner.
TRIVIA: The Sentinel was ranked #46 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments in 2004.
Top: Director Michael Winner;
Above: Winner on set with Chris Sarandon and Cristina Raines
Released in 1977, The Sentinel was a modest hot at the box office and garnered mostly postive reviews. Brian Mckay of eFilmCritic wrote in 2003 The Sentinel was, "One of the best horror films of the 70's. An intriguing story and disturbing imagery make this one stick out in the psyche.", while Ian Berriman from SFX Magazine wrote (in 2011), "The cast is certainly impressive, but in every other respect this horror in the vein of Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist is a second-rate piece of tut." Mountain Xpress' Ken Hanke probably best summed up the movie in 2002, writing, "How any self-respecting horror film fan can not like a movie that works on the premise that the entrance to hell is in a Brooklyn apartment building is beyond me."
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 58%
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