Equinox (1970)

How sad is this?

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

There are two versions to Equinox, one more coherent than the other. Unfortunately both have several issues. Both, do have a certain charm however. For such a low budget production the effects are okay, there's some early stop motion effects by David Allen (Laserblast). These effects are decent but jittery and at times a little sloppy. Allen's later work is certainly better. There are several creatures on display-all from Allen's wonderful imagination. There's a King Kong-like demon ape (seen on the film's poster), a Cthulhu-like squid creature, and a devil-like demon. Presented in all its weak and terrible glory is a man painted green in an animal pelt who resembles the Jolly Green Giant. The stop motion creatures are serious and diabolical, clicking with the film's tone-then along comes that eye sore which comes and then goes. The characters are bland but occasionally likable but the acting ranges from moderately decent to awful. The story is actually pretty interesting and inspired Sam Raimi's Evil Dead (1981). Basically there's two versions to the film (hurray for confusion) there's the 1967 film and the 1970 film.67 Plot- David receives a call from his teacher (who resides in a cabin in the woods). David sets out to visit his friend with 3 other friends. They find the place in shambles and all begin to explore. Vickie finds a castle and gathers the others. Once inside they wind up in a cave with an odd old man. He gives them a book and tells them to leave. David skims through the book and reads a note left by his teacher. The book is a gateway between the realms of shadow and light. His teacher snatches the book away as they're attacked by a monster, then the Jolly Green Giant appears, as does a demon...70 Plot- Best friends Jim, David, and their girl friends go on a picnic. They have a run in with Asmodeus the park ranger (cool name), find a book, and monsters.The 1967 film is highly recommended, it has a dull driving sequence but has a fluent flow. The 1970 film is a real chore to get through with sloppy editing, odd/uneventful pacing, and is overall awful. Sadly people are most familiar with the 1970 version, which is why so many people hate it. I say give the 67 film a watch, it's no Evil Dead but for a low budget horror film from the 60s (a time when sci-fi was all the rage) it's pretty entertaining and imaginative with a campy charm.

Spoiled Generation Xers and the Young Millennials Who Haven't Stopped to Think Much About it, Make Stupid Remarks About This Labor of Love that Are, To Be Kind, Uninformed. They Just Do Not Have a Clue Just How Difficult it was to Make a Movie in the 1960's with Virtually No-Budget.In the Pre Digital Age there was Only 16mm and Super 8 and All Movie Cameras at the Time were Clunky and Very Limited, Analog Reel to Reel Tape Recorders (even the Cassette Tape was just being developed but not in wide use). Films had to be Hand Spiced with Glue and Tape and SFX of Any Kind were a Daunting Task.But that Didn't Inhibit these Film Fanatics from Their Goal, In Retrospect, to Include an Insane Amount of Movie Magic . These Cinema Crusaders were Weaned on Famous Monsters of Filmland (Forrest J. Ackerman's Influential "Fanzine"), The Late Late Show, Saturday Matinees, and The Drive-In. These First Generation Fanboys Took a Couple of Thousand Dollars and Went to Work.It was a Lot of Work. Their Efforts Resulted in This Underground Classic. The Film is Filled with Incredible Imaginative Stuff. The Stop-Motion Creatures were Varied and Charming. The Story is an Homage to Films that Include The Occult, Monsters, Parallel Dimensions, Satan, Dementia, and More. The Impressive Cinematography with Forced Perspectives and the Like Make This an Awesome Achievement.Combining Talent and Sheer Willpower They Made a Movie that is Still Talked About Today. Just Ask the Folks at Criterion, No Slouches When it Comes to Recognizing Film as Art. This is a Masterpiece of Primitive Art, So Rich and Realized that it Inspired Future Filmmakers and is an Example of the Sometimes Unbridled Drive and Ambition that is the Human Spirit. We are Creative Creatures, Yearning to Express and Examine, and These Kids Surely Did.Overall, a Must See for Youngsters Eager to Explore Movie Making, B-Movie Lovers, Stop-Motion Freaks, Drive-In and Grindhouse Fans, and Anyone Interested in Just What Can Be Done with Limited Resources and Unlimited Imagination.

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.

Please understand. When I give this only a 2/10, that really is a pretty accurate assessment of the quality of the movie in almost every respect. I'm not knocking the kids who made it. It was apparently done by a bunch of relatively inexperienced young people on a shoestring budget, and I respect the effort that was put into it - but the fact that somebody tried hard isn't going to make me pretend that this is anything but what it is - a really bad horror movie about four young people who on a hike through the woods discover a book about evil that eventually has them doing battle with the devil. The stop motion animation on the various creatures that appear can be forgiven - not only was this a shoestring budget, but it was also made in 1970. The field of special effects was still developing, and the creatures were quite fine. It was more the acting and the dialogue than any of the technical aspects that dragged this down. The dialogue between the characters didn't seem natural. More than anything, it sounded dubbed (even though this was obviously done in English) - almost as if the movie had been filmed and then the dialogue was redone later. Maybe that was typical of very low budget movies in the era? I'm not sure about that but I found it very distracting, because the dialogue wasn't always in sync with the mouths of the actors - even though even a cursory bit of lip reading confirms that the actors were saying the words we were hearing.Really this is most interesting for some of the names that are associated with it. One of the four young people (Jim) is played by Frank Bonner, who would go on to much greater fame some years later as Herb Tarlek on the TV show "WKRP in Cincinnati." I also did a double take when, glancing at the credits as they rolled at the start of the movie, I noticed that the assistant camera man was Ed Begley, Jr! Also, Dennis Muren (uncredited as one of the directors) went on to do some visual effects work on some pretty big movies, including several of the Star Wars episodes and Battlestar Galactica. So there was obviously some talent (or at least some potential talent) involved with this which makes it worth watching as a curiosity, but little more. (2/10)