The Sentinel (1977)

The Sentinel was dismissed by many when it came out as a kind of knockoff of The Exorcist (1973), or being a kind of combination of similar supernatural horror films like The Omen (1976) or Rosemary's Baby (1968) but I found it a very unique, scary, and interesting story, as well as a well made and possibly influential film. The story centers around a woman who rents out an apartment in New York only to learn her apartment building is the gateway to hell, and the building is owned by secret group of priests who are in charge of guarding it and making sure hell's evil is never unleashed. The film is directed by Michael Winner (of the Death Wish series), and  the screenplay was written by the author of the novel the film was based on, the film also has a fantastic musical score by Gil Melle (The Andromeda Strain, and several famous TV show themes from the 70s & 80s), and one of the most star studded casts that have ever been in a horror movie,

featuring many up and coming stars as well as falling ones: Chris Sarandon, Burgess Meredith, Ava Gardner, Jose Ferrer, Arthur Kennedy, Martin Balsam, John Carradine, Eli Wallach, Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berenger, Richard Dreyfuss (as an extra), Sylvia Miles, and Beverly D'angelo. This film's story may strike some of you reading about it as similar to Ghostbusters, and it is, (an apartment building in New York is used to resurrect a demon to end the world) and this movie also has a similar look and feel to Ghostbusters as well, but that only adds to the enjoyment for me because I have always wanted to find a movie with a similar vibe to it. The film is very visually striking; There are Terrifying dream sequences, and some almost iconic shots of John Carradine (his face is on the DVD cover/movie poster), and the apartment building is very old and full of character, and a lot of the rooms in the building are very lavishly furnished, also throw in the fact that the main character is a fashion model and her boyfriend's a rich lawyer, and the film has a lush cosmopolitan vibe. The film's story is very interesting to me and I wish I could say more, but I don't want to give away anything. The film is also pretty scary actually. My only gripe with this one  is that during its climax when the legions of hell awake most of them are physically disfigured. Now I'm not sure what kind of message the film was trying to send with that imagery, but when I see disabled veterans and people suffering with horrible physical deformities, I don't know about you but I don't see those people as the inhabitants of hell, so I'm not sure if that was supposed to relate to an old verse from the bible or something, but I feel most people would see that part as offensive,

  and maybe that is one of the reasons why this film has been pushed into obscurity. The film also has a vibe similar to some of Lucio Fulci's films, and similar to a Mia Farrow movie called The Haunting of Julia (1977 [aka Full Circle]), and The Entity (1983). It is immensely underrated though in my opinion, and if you like supernatural horror flicks I highly recommend it. I give it a 4.75/5 ( I would have given it a 5/5 but it scared me a bit more than I thought it would, in the sense of disturbing me more than I would have liked). The film is featured in all the movie books I have including Rue Morgue Magazine's 200 Alternative Horror Films you Need to See, and it is also featured on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. You can view the trailer below (there are some spoilers in it though):