The Criterion Collection is a very artsy line of DVDs. Most of their films are foreign or occasionally independent films--the sort of stuff the average person probably would never watch. Because of this artsy-fartsy image, I was shocked when I watched "Equinox" because there is absolutely NOTHING artsy or sophisticated about this film--in fact, it's horrible. While not quite as horrible as "Robot Monster" or "Plan 9 From Outer Space", it is very close! Four young idiots (one of which is Frank Bonner who played Herb on "WKRP in Cincinnati") go off into the hills for a picnic. The wander into a cave and meet a crazy old man who gives them a book--a book containing evil demonic secrets! However, Mr. Asmodeus (dressed as a ranger) wants the book and he can create monsters to attack them! Can these four idiots manage to survive or will they succumb to the forces of evil? And, will anyone watching this horror film even care?! This story was apparently originally a school project and was eventually expanded into movie format. Unfortunately, in doing so, hair lengths, belts and clothing change back and forth A LOT--and you could watch the film repeatedly just to see this and laugh at it. However, my vote for dumbest thing about the movie are the stop-motion clay monsters. Never have I seen stop-motion integrated so poorly and sloppily or characters so clay-like!! I also loved the driver-less car at the end--especially since in long shots you can CLEARLY see that there IS a driver!! All in all, very silly, sloppy and dumb--and a lot like a YouTube horror film made by 14 year-olds. If I was this guy's professor, I would have given him a D minus! Which leads me to wonder HOW this became a Criterion release. Were they playing a joke on us?!

This movie stinks.Bad script, bad acting, nothing scary, offensive to women (or any thinking human being), and stupid, stupid, stupid. The rating here is wrong. It's not a 5 star movie. It's not a 3 star movie. It's just awful.The story is a flashback narrated within a flashback narrated within a flashback, about an evil book and magical signs and the four stupidest young people on the planet who are forever splitting up when they know something is out to get them. I particularly like the way they wander off from each other in an unfamiliar cave. They're the sort of idiot characters who, by the first 20 minutes, make you root for something to kill them and thereby improve the human gene pool.Most awful, for me, was the blatant sexism of the thing. "We can't climb up there, the girls are with us." "You girls stay here." "Where's my food, woman?/You suck at cooking." On and on and on, ugly and relentless. True to 1970, I suppose, and thank goodness we are not living there any more. (Reminds me why as a child I used to hope to grow up to be a lesbian--I wasn't one, but it seemed a far better choice than dealing with men like this.)Let me say something positive about the movie: You could make a good drinking game out of it. Every time the obnoxious male leads say to their girlfriends, "you girls stay here," or "we're going alone" or something with that meaning to it, take a shot. You'll be falling down drunk halfway through.Claymation? Who cares? I've seen it before, and I've seen it better. If it were the best I'd ever seen (and it isn't) it doesn't make up for the fact that this movie is terrible, a half-star out of ten sort of terrible, a terrible that makes you long for a black and white Roger Corman film instead.Seriously, it's awful.

When I first saw this on TV's "Late Late Show," in 1974, I was transfixed by what I thought was a cheaply shot 'teenage' devil movie that actually had an unusual story and some very bizarre special effects, making the film seem very creepy for 12:30 a.m.It's the story of four teenagers discovering an ancient text (in Bronson Canyon) that holds the key to the balance of good and evil forces in the universe. They encounter a strange looking multi colored King Kong like ape thing, a giant blue man, a disgusting looking gigantic kraken octopoid creature, and the Devil himself, Asmodeus, both as a man and a winged devil. Needless to say, the teenagers are all doomed, with the last escaping survivor being confined to a mental institution, which is where the story, told in flash backs, begins. By the end we know that not even he will escape.The film was originally made by Dennis Muran and his friends in 1967. Jack H. Woods, the producer of 'The Blob' (1958), bought the film and reassembled the cast for additional shooting in 1969 (they even use the exact same wardrobe!). The version we see is the revised one which mixes in footage from the original film. In comparing the two films, it is clear that all the additions and deletions by Jack Woods, who plays Asmodeus, really added to making it a better film. They also gave it a better music track and deepened and improved the color. Frankly, this is the magic of Hollywood-- how they seamlessly spliced parts of the two films together. In some scenes you can see that Vicki's face is thinner than it was in the first version, but other than that, what a work of art! The high point of 1960s teenage horror films! All that was missing was a teenage rock 'n' roll band and everyone doing the twist.While it featured non-stars (even for teenage movies) Frank Boer, Jr. was clearly the best of the four leads. He went on to fame as Frank Bonner, playing Herb Tarlek, a cast member of 'WKRP in Cincinnati' during the 80s. He even directed some TV. Jack Harris also produced the great comic sequel to 'The Blob', 'Beware! The Blob' (1972), with Richard Webb, Robert Walker, Jr., and a dozen funny cameos, and 'Dark Star' (1974). The only other scary movie that takes place completely in daylight that I can think of is 'Duel' (1971). 'Equinox' is a little 60s wonder that is still enjoyable to watch today. I'll give it a 6.

I remember staying up to watch this movie one weekend when I was in junior high: that would be somewhere around 1975. I had completely forgotten its existence until 1999, when I saw "The Blair Witch Project" in the theater. A few months later "Equinox" aired on American Movie Classics, confirming my original suspicion: "Equinox" was the original "Blair Witch Project." While not nearly as good a movie, it's far better than most give it credit for being. But consider the plot: a group of naive college students go off into the woods where they tangle with a supernatural evil. Only one survives. Although there are obvious differences, anyone who doesn't think the makers of "The Blair Witch Project" were inspired by this movie needs his head examined. The final gotcha is a killer. One problem: why are people in horror movies (and horror novels) so dumb? Nobody got warning signs from the forest ranger being named (I kid you not) Warren Asmodeus! Asmodeus is the name of a demon that appears in the apocryphal/deuterocanonical Book of Tobit. The ignorance of Biblical lore in this supposedly Christian country is frightening! (It's true, most Protestant Bibles omit Tobit, but you can always borrow a Catholic Bible!)