This movie isn't for everyone. I'm honestly not sure why I like it as much as I do. Any movie I find myself watching over again is a good one, for me. I watch this at least once a year. There's just something about it that delivers for me. My biggest complaint is that the movie takes so long to get going and that the weird events leading up to the climax are more bizarre than scary and too many scenes have little to do with moving the story along. It's not likely to hold the attention of many viewers in this age of short attention spans. Maybe in saying so, I'm showing my own lack of attention span.The movie's central character is Alison Parker, played quite well by Cristina Raines. According to the trivia section here, Kate Jackson was offered the part but turned it down. Cristina Raines is a perfect stand in for Kate, but I would have loved to have seen what Kate would have done with this. Here's my attempt to sum up the overall plot with the interesting parts of the movie (major spoilers ahead): Alison is a successful model who is in a serious relationship with a successful lawyer. She ends up renting a dream apartment in New York for an incredibly reasonable price because she's not quite ready for marriage and wants her own place. She notices a spooky priest staring out of the window of the apartment above her but the real estate agent says he's a blind recluse and isn't anyone to be worried about. Alison wonders what he's staring at if he's blind. After she moves in, a strange assortment of other tenants led by Burgess Meredith's character hold a birthday party for a cat and invite Alison to join them. She finds them all odd, but has a great time anyway. When she mentions this to the real estate agent later, she is told that no one but she and the priest are living in the building, and that no one else has for years. It's discovered that the names of all those attending the party are murderers who were put to death. Alison hears strange noises from the priest's room above her during the night and her health deteriorates as she suffers from intense headaches and trouble sleeping. Her boyfriend investigates and finds out that the priest in question has a long line of predecessors who became priests or nuns immediately after each of their predecessor's deaths. And Alison is next in line. All of them, including Alison, had attempted suicide and apparently their penance is a lifelong vigilance watching over the gates of hell, where the building stands. (I think.)That sounds pretty intriguing, right? Well, I think my main gripe about the movie is that too many scenes have little to do with the central plot. The ones that do are sometimes just bizarre in a blatant attempt to shock the audience (a newly introduced Beverly D'Angelo masturbating in a leotard in front of a very uncomfortable Alison is a prime example). The ending felt like kind of a mess as well. I think maybe I like the idea of this more than the execution of it and find myself forgiving it for what I see as flaws.Possibly the craziest thing of all about this movie is that besides the number of celebrities in the main cast, there is a number of now well known actors who were in this thing before they got famous. Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum (whose voice was apprently dubbed, which I find hilarious), Jerry Orbach, and Tom Beringer. They have such tiny parts that they aren't a reason to watch this, but it was fun to see them scattered throughout the movie.I've heard other reviewers call this Rosemary's Baby meets The Exorcist, and I can see why they say that, but while it describes the general feel of the movie, it gives the movie overall way too much credit as far as effective execution.If you like slow burning 70s horror movies in general, I think you'll definitely want to check this out.

When we meet Alison Parker (Cristina Raines, daughter of The Invisible Man), she's a busy New York model. She's gorgeous. And she's always crazy, suffering strange psychosomatic issues such as night terrors, insomnia and random flashbacks to all of the times she tried to kill herself. After she moves into a spiffy Brooklyn brownstone — because she wants to see if she can live on her own and not with her rich boyfriend, Michael (Chris Sarandon, more on him later) she starts hearing random noises and meeting people who don't exist.That all leads to work-related trauma, as she often passes out while modeling and ends up in the hospital. A young, pre Law and Order Jerry Orbach is having none of her shenanigans, asking if they can just move her and give her clothes to another model.Oh yeah — she also hated her dad, who just died. Her first suicide attempt came after she walked in on her ancient pa playing with an entire roomful of prostitutes. And it turns out that her boyfriend is being investigated by the police (played by Eli Wallach and a super young Christopher Walken) for killing his wife. Whew! Needless to say, she's gorgeous but doesn't have issues. She has subscriptions.Only one person — supposedly — lives in the building with Alison: Father Halliran ("Skinny Dracula_ himself, John Carradine), a priest so blind that his eyes have gone whiter than Emily from The Beyond. All he does is sit in front of his window and stare into the void. Turns out that Alison's new home is really owned by a secret society of excommunicated Catholic priests — all the cool ones are — and they guard the gateway to Hell. And that gateway? Yeah, it's right here in the building. And Father Halliran is the Sentinel, the blind guardian of the abyss.Read more at http://www.thatsnotcurrent.com/40-years-later-look-back- sentinel-1977/

The Sentinel is one of the weirdest thing you'll ever see. It's less of a horror and more just a parade of bizarro world situations strung together loosely by a vague haunted apartment story. A young model (Christina Baines) has found a sweet deal on an uptown flat, inhabited by only herself and a blond priest (John Carradine). It's just too bad that when a deal seems to good to be true in these kinds of movies, there's almost always some kind of sinister agenda behind it. It's not too long before spooky stuff comes along, starting with strange physical problems, creepy encounters with her odd lesbian neighbors, flashbacks to her attempted suicide and psychic disturbances that can't be explained. She soon realizes that she has been brought to this building for a very specific and decidedly sinister reason. The way I described all that sounds kind of routine and pedestrian, but trust me when I say that there's nothing generic or run of the mill about this absurdity of a film. Everything has a very disconcerting and surreal feel to it, particularly in a whopper of a climax where a portal to hell is opened and all sorts of babbling loonies pour out, deformed, whacked out and adorned in some of the most creatively gross practical effects that will give your gag reflex a solid workout. The film also speckled with a diverse group of actors, some of them quite young looking when you remember that this was 1977. A chatty Eli Wallach shows up as a detective, with a youthful Christopher Walken in tow as his partner, Ava Gardner of all people has a cameo, and watch for Burgess Meredith, Jerry Orbach, Beverly D'Angelo, William Hickey, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Dreyfuss, Chris Sarandon, and Tom Berenger in what must have been one of his very first gigs, a literal walk on part. Very distinct and memorable film, one that pushed the boundaries considering the time period, and never let's the weirdness mellow down for a single minute.

Although, The Sentinel has received more popularity and distinction as time has progressed, there still remains to be a really mixed mood on how good of a horror film it actually is. The film, made with obviously an Italian influence in the United States is a horror film that really keeps the viewers guessing throughout. Also, with many 70's horror films there is a typical slow, work into the climax. The Sentinel goes against this perception having a few frightening scenes occur unexpectedly. That doesn't account for scenes showing the excessive amounts of unnecessary nudity by unattractive actresses.With a decent, creepy story, which isn't too confusing, leads to the incredible cast that was pulled together. An all-star cast, included fine leading performances from Chris Sarandon and Cristina Raines. There was also a mixture of older, legendary performers (John Carradine, Eli Wallach, Martin Balsam, Jose Ferrer Ava Gardner) and upcoming household film stars (Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Beverly D'Angelo). With a spooky atmosphere and a popular religious sentiment for the time period, it's still puzzling why the film didn't succeed like it could have. The Sentinel should be given more credit as an entertaining, unsettling film but clearly the masses have spoken, not finding the film with a similar high-esteem.