THE SENTINEL
Freaks on parade!
Jeez, my lesbian neighbors never masturbate or grope each other in front of me. Then again, I've seen my lesiban neighbors, and thank you, I'd just as soon not watch.
Keep an eye out in this 1977 film for a bunch of people who hadn't yet hit it big - Tom Berenger, Jeff Goldblum, even Christopher Walken. This movie's loaded with familiar faces - or at least, soon- to-be familiar faces, by 1977 standards.
A commitment-shy model moves into a New York brownstone and meets all the weird neighbors - the aforementioned lesbians, a couple of old spinster twins, and a cheerful old coot who really loves his cat...maybe a bit too much. Then she's told by her real estate agent that other than the blind priest on the top floor, she's the building's only tenant.
This movie tries hard to be a classy and stylish (oh, I hate reviews which toss around that word) take on Omen and Exorcist - style Catholi-horror. It's intriguing enough, but never really seems to come together and form anything particularly compelling. The players all do their best, and there's a lot of great, truly grotesque makeup work at the end, but it all seems, well, weird without being really imaginative. (there are rumors that the freak parade at the end of the movie is actually real people with severe deformities. I have no idea if that's true, and certainly hope it isn't)
Chris Sarandon's mustache is hilarious. But why does the "S" in the title on the video box look like a dollar sign?