Rent a room...in hell!

As a teenager, Alison Parker witnessed her father committing adultery with two women and soon attempts suicide. Later she would attempt suicide again and again she would fail. After leaving the Catholic Church and searching for a place to live in New York on her own, away from the lawyer Michael Lerman (Chris Sarandon) she is currently living with, with the help of Miss Logan (Ava Gardener),she finds the perfect little place, or so she thinks. She soon meets some of her strange neighbors and is shocked to find out that she is the only one living in the apartment building besides a blind priest, Father Francis Matthew Halloran ( John Carradine ). Burgess Meredith ( who played Penguin in Batman from 1966 ) plays Alison's neighbor Charles Chazen who introduces her to her strange new neighbors. After a few really bizarre events one of which that just might be one of the most frightening scenes in horror history involving her undead father, Alison starts to think not everything is what it seems to be in this section of Brooklyn Heights, as Michael investigates some of the strange events. Soon Alison finds out the apartment just may be a gateway to hell producing one of the creepiest and most bizarre endings in horror movie history.

'Don Siegel almost took on the job of directing this film but back out after he read the script and refused to be involved due to the bizarre theme of the film. So Michael Winner was picked up as the director and Jeffrey Konvitz wrote the script. The Sentinel is a true classic in psychological horror, weaving a story filled with mystery and suspense so perfectly it has become a true supernatural thriller that outshines other films of it's era, most of which that fail to do what this film delivers.

The film does drag a bit through from the second act into the third, but never enough to render it completely uninteresting to the viewer. There are definitely a fair amount of "shock" scenes throughout the film that hit harder than bricks. Beverly D'Angelo ( Vacation ) makes an appearance as Sandra in a really weird masturbation scene that has to be seen to be believed. Christopher Walken also makes an appearance as Det. Rizzo.

When the film was released in 1977 there was a lot of controversy surrounding the film because they used real "human oddities" in a scene.

A DVD of The Sentinel was released in 2004 by Universal containing zero extras but a decent transfer of the film in wide screen format.

There is something about good horror films from the seventies that no other decade could capture, maybe it is the grittiness of the films themselves or maybe it was the exploration of more disturbing themes.The Sentinel is a shining example of horror and a proud product of it's time.With it's shocking imagery and unsettling tone, this is horror in it's purest form.

Rating: B-

Review by Jason