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Equinox (1970); Criterion Marathon #6
Topic Started: Apr 13 2011, 03:05 PM (306 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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Four teenagers on a picnic discover a creepy old man in a cave; the guy's in possession of a stinky book, and I don't mean the book is BAD, I mean it smells like sulfur. Anyway, he presents it to the kids, who find out - to their chagrin - that it's full of evil, bad, nasty and unpleasant things and that a local scientist had decided to see what would happen if he recited a few of the ancient spells in the book. Bad move, Prof, as a bunch of demons are running around loose, and the local Deputy has been possessed by on of them. He's intent on killing the young people and getting his book back.

Infamous film created by teenagers in the late 1960s, using stop-motion techniques learned from multiple viewings of King Kong and 7th Voyage of Sinbad. The original budget was (get this) $6,500 - one of the kids' college fund. Producer Jack C. Harris (The Blob) liked their film enough to buy it, shoot a few new scenes with the same actors (watch their sideburns go up and down from scene to scene!) and make enough money with it to show a tidy profit. The young special effects "wizards" of the film went on to When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, The Howling, Star Wars, and Young Sherlock Holmes, Dragonslayer, and Jurassic Park, and a slew of Oscar nominations and wins. Not bad for a $6,500 investment.

The film itself is, um, laughable and fairly awful, but since you're pretty much watching a home movie shot by teenagers, it's also impressive. It never bores. It was heavily promoted in Famous Monsters of Filmland back in the day, and I can't believe I've never seen it before, but since it's original release, it's been kind of scarce. Criterion put it out as a 2-disc set with the original 1967 cut and a bunch of bonus material. Most of the monsters have Harryhausen Fans written all over 'em, but they're impressively animated, particularly a flying demon. Unfortunately, the deputy (added to the new cut) is a jerk and a joke; he chases the leading ladies around, pushes them down, and drools on them. Ewwww.

Daffy dialog, teens in trouble, impressive but dirt-cheap special effects.... Hey, I've seen worse.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Sgt King
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I remember loving the look of the main monster on the poster of this movie. My girl friend and I went to the drive-in to see this and boy were we disappointed!! But the stop motion worked pretty.
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