Equinox (1970)

reviewed by
Dennis Schwartz


EQUINOX (AKA "THE BEAST") (director/writer: Jack Woods screenwriter: from story by Mark Thomas McGee; cinematographer: Mike Hoover; editor: John Joyce; cast: Edward Connell (Dave), Barbara Hewitt (Susan), Robin Christopher (Vicki), Jack Woods (Asmodeus), Fritz Leiber, Jr. (Dr. Waterman), Frank Bonner (Jim Hudson), James Phillips (Reporter Sloan); Runtime: 80; Tonylyn; 1971)

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

A sci-fi film, originally started as a student project, noted only for its great special effects, as created by Dennis Muren. He raised $30,000 with the help of friends and took about 4 years to make this film. In order to get it released, he sold it to producer Jack H. Harris, who shot some scenes over again and released it in 1971. Muren now does the special effects for George Lucas on his Star War films and won an Oscar for his work. This film is a good example of his first effort doing special effects in a feature film.

The problem with this film -- that came 30 years before Blair Witch Project and has its same scary themes played out in the woods by students -- is its amateur acting, shoddy production values, horrible script, and ridiculous story. The acting is so flat and awkward, that the film never seemed professional, even though it was reworked for theatrical release. It has, nevertheless, over the years, become a cult favorite on video (where it is titled "The Beast"). It could be appreciated by some horror film buffs despite all its shortcomings and genre clichés for its crudeness. There are just some people who love bad films.

The film opens with a young man in the woods, Dave (Edward Connell), calling for "Susan (Barbara Hewitt)" and then running out of the woods in fright and onto the highway, where he tries to flag down a car driven by itself, which runs him over but another car with people in it immediately comes along and takes him to the hospital. That accident happened one year and one day ago and now a reporter comes to the mental hospital where Dave is in a sulken depressive state, clutching onto a small cross on a chain. It's a slow news day, so the reporter thinks he might come up with a story about the bizarre tragedy that hit the news exactly one year ago, as the doctor currently treating Dave allows for the visit. Dave is quiet until the reporter shows him a picture of an older man, Dr Waterman (Fritz Leiber-in real life a science fiction novelist), thereby Dave attacks him, ending the interview, though in the attack the reporter comes into possession of the cross, turning it over to the doctor. The doctor then plays for the reporter a tape recording Dave made on the day he was brought to the hospital after being hit by the car.

The film is one long flashback of Dave's recollections, as he seems to be also recollecting things he wasn't even involved with. Don't ask me how he can do that!

Dr. Waterman is Dave's geology professor and urgently invites him to his mountain retreat to discuss an important discovery. Dave decides to make this visit a picnic by inviting some airhead young friends along with him: Jim (Frank Bonner) and his girlfriend Vicki (Robin Christopher), she brings along her friend Susan (Barbara Hewitt) as a blind date for Dave. They seem to be lost and are not sure if they are on the right road, but when they leave their car on the impassable road and walk to Dr. Waterman's cabin, they find it caved in and unlivable. A park ranger happens by on horseback and tells them his name is Asmodeus (Jack Woods), and that Dr. Waterman is probably back in town.

Vicki sees a castle on a nearby cliff. Dave suggests, maybe that's where Waterman is and so they decide to go there. On the way, they hear a madman laughing from a cave and find nearby gigantic footprints made by a beast. The intrepid but foolish youngsters light some torches and go into the cave, where a cackling Old Man forces a large tome on them which is locked. "The Book," which is old and smells of sulphur, contains satanic symbols and a note from Dr. Waterman about good and evil living together, and how this Book is a Bible of Evil, over a thousand years old and comes from the Persian Gulf. It is translated into many languages, which made it difficult for the professor to decifer all of it, but he did create some beasts from the Book's symbols, but is disappointed that his experiment was a failure, as he couldn't control these mutant-beasts (in flashback we see one of them destroying his cabin). In the spirit of ecumenical tolerance, the Book has remedies against evil--that a cross or a Star of David or numerous other symbols would ward off the evil spirits. Jim, in between bites on his picnic chicken, says this is pretty heavy stuff.

Hey, Jim! what comes next is more than heavy, as Dr. Waterman steals the Book and while running away is chased by the boys and falls by a shallow stream and dies. When the boys don't come back, Vicki leaves Susan alone and goes to round up the boys. The boys are baffled that the dead body of Waterman disappears, as Asmodeus appears on the scene, questioning the boys, then putting a special oversized ring on his finger, as he makes his face go contorted and puts Susan in a trance as he attacks her. But the cross she wears around her neck saves her, as he backs off from that powerful symbol and when she awakens, only remembers that she was attacked, but not recalling who did it. Dave realizes that the cross saved her, so the others make symbols out of willow twigs to wear on them, which they copy from the Book.

The remainder of the film is a testimony to the special effects created on such a limited budget, but the story can only be constued as ridiculous, as the four young students who must have taken stupid pills to still be hanging around in the woods, continue on with their adventure.

What pops up next, is a huge, animated, mutant-gorilla who is chasing the Old Man around and frightening the girls, as the guys are heading for the castle atop the mountain, seemingly not concerned about leaving the girls behind. But the castle has mysteriously vanished. Upon hearing the girls screaming, the boys return to stop the monster from stealing the Book and Dave will make a wooden spear to kill the monster.

Asmodeus will show his true face to Jim and make him an offer for the Book, offering to conjure up anything in the world he wants for it, which sounds like a fair trade, if you ask me. But Dave wants to keep the Book to learn the secrets to cure Susan of the evil she was infected with. With that, Asmodeus promises that none of them will get out of the woods alive--even if they hold up a symbol that could deter him.

Then a huge mutant ogre attacks the Book carrying Jim and chases him into an invisible zone, but he gives the Book to Dave who passes it onto the girls and tells them to go back to the car and wait for him, while he goes into the invisible zone to rescue Jim.

Dave is the only one who manages to escape from the flying mutant-bats and other mutant creatures attacking them, but he is told by a mutant-hooded figure that he will die within one year and one day.

The film ends in a question mark, as Dave is left in a straight jacket, yelling for his cross, as the insensitive and dull reporter leaves the mental hospital saying there's no story here, and the dumb doctor must also be deaf, because he doesn't give poor Dave his cross back, and Susan, who is apparently still alive, looking slightly contorted while wolfishly smiling before she even gets into the evil mood, is seen heading to the hospital's front door.

REVIEWED ON 3/16/2001     GRADE: C

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ


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