Equinox

Four friends, David, Vicki, Jim and Susan, head out into the woods to visit David's professor, Dr. Waterman. They find Waterman'home destroyed, the professor missing, and a mysterious book. It soon becomes apparent that in meddling with the book, Waterman accidentally opened a portal to another, hellish dimension, and now the demon Asmodeus (posing as a park ranger) wants to acquire the powerful book. The four friends must fight against a variety of ghoulish monsters sent after them by Asmodeus, and eventually Asmodeus himself, in order to make it back to civilization alive.

Often considered one of the best-worst movies of all time, Equinox was a student film made by a young Dennis Muren which producer Jack Woods picked up for cinematic distribution, casting himself as Asmodeus and shooting some new scenes. On the one hand, this seems like a strange movie for Criterion to release, especially in a two-disc set, however despite its ineptitude it features some charming stop-motion animation for the various monsters (and some impressive forced-perspective shots to turn an ordinary stuntman into a blue-skinned giant) and it's also certainly worthy of being preserved if only because Dennis Muren and his friends had such a piddly budget to work with that it' a miracle they even had a completed (albeit rough) film, even before Jack Woods came along.

When I rented this, I thought, "Oh God, this is going to be a total cheesefest." And it was. From the animated box cover that reminded me of all those cheesy movie posters in the fifties and sixties, to the bad acting, to the claymation, to the confusing ending, it was all cheese. But looking back, I LOVE this movie!

I rented it as "The Beast" and was expecting something as basic as that name. But I was pleasantly surprised to find an interesting story, with something constantly happening, and so much to like about this all. It was really cool how, all on one afternoon, this happened. Sure, there were some aspects that just weren't good. The acting was terrible, and the claymation scene of the octopus-type creature destroying that doctor's cabin was so terrible. Though, I laughed throughout the whole scene. And how they dealt with the doctor's death was a little hokey. But I could look past that. There was a lot to love about this. The weird ranger, Asmodeus, who was really odd. And when he attacked the one girl--Susan?--he was so freaky. And when the beast started menacing them, I knew this was great. I mean, the cheesy claymation really did it for me. Then when the one guy went to find the other guy in the "other world" (the whole scene was just tinted with red)--I was really interested. I mean, that just added to all that was going on. What was also cool was, it wasn't one of those stupid movies that when the guys told the girls "You stay here"--which they said a lot--the girls didn't just leave the movie. Stuff happened to them too. And by the end, so much happened that you just had to sit back and marvel.

Of course, the movie had the scene of the ending at the beginning--sort of to say that the survivor was looking back on the whole case--and that kind of gave too much away of what would happen to everyone. But then the final ending came. It was extremely confusing, and that was the only really bad part, but everything else was great. I simply love this movie, and I recommend anyone with a taste for cheese should see this. One of the best B-movies ever made.

{This review includes comments on EQUINOX (Jack Woods, 1970) **1/2}

When this was first announced as a Criterion release, I was only vaguely familiar with it; I purchased the 2-Disc Set recently (as it was on sale) without really knowing what to expect; the result is certainly interesting – especially having two versions of the film to compare…even if it doesn't quite belong in the "Collection".

Originally made in 1967, THE EQUINOX…A JOURNEY INTO THE SUPERNATURAL is basically a 70-minute home movie – amateurish if clearly made by fanatics of the horror genre, talented enough to create their own monsters (which aren't too bad into the bargain)! When the film was eventually picked up for release by Jack H. Harris, he ordered several reshoots, changed the order of scenes around, tightened some others, replaced a lot of the dialogue, etc. – this didn't necessarily make for a better film (in fact, I think that the original is still the superior effort) but, at least, it now felt like a proper movie!

What the theatrical version did, primarily and ultimately to its detriment, was to eliminate a lot of the surprise which the original held – for instance, the figure of the demon towering over the hero at the very start of the 1967 version is missing from the theatrical-release print; similarly, we're shown the driverless car which mows him down prior to the accident. Also, the revelation that the demon is taking possession of the characters (having already established that this is what caused the Professor and the hero's blind date to go crazy momentarily in the re-edited version) takes away from the scene in which his best friend is likewise 'afflicted'; and, again, the impact of the twist ending is lessened when we already know that Susan is capable of evil.

The teenage leads are likable enough to overcome their essential inexperience; popular horror writer Fritz Leiber appears as the obsessive Professor who unwittingly unleashes the Forces of Darkness in the wilderness; in the 1967 version, we also get to hear the voice of horror/sci-fi authority Forrest J. Ackerman (who, then, appears on the DVD for a special introduction). The one major addition to the cast list for the 1970 version is, ironically, the character played by the re-shoots director himself – a creepy-looking Ranger with the equally strange name of Asmodeus (as it turns out, one of the devil's various monikers!). While he was, perhaps, intended to beef up the picture's scare factor (even attempting to rape the two girls), it's really a pointless role and basically represents a distraction from the central narrative (which deals naively with the eternal struggle between Good and Evil, as shown in an ancient tome kept by a crazy old man living inside a cave – and which involves much religious symbolism and an invisible barrier leading into the netherworld)!

Finally, we get to the special effects: they're very primitively done and a couple of the creatures (the squid and the giant native) aren't very effective but the ape-like monster and the demon are quite marvelously designed and one isn't overly bothered by the essential lack of refinement in the stop-motion animation involved. Unfortunately, the print utilized for the transfer of the 1967 version is very poor – with a number of shots being several generations removed from the already substandard master and lip-synch problems during a fair chunk of the duration (attributable certainly to its rarity, but which also adds to the inherent charm of its rough-and-ready quality)!

"Equinox" is a low-budget and wholly independent precursor of Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead" about a group of teenagers,who accidentally unleash supernatural forces after reading passages from a mysterious book Necronomicon found in the woods.The main difference between "Equinox" and "The Evil Dead" is that the latter is drenched with gore and violence,whilst"Equinox" plays more like 50's creature feature combined with cheesy stop-motion monster roaming the woods.I must say that the stop motion monster effects are pretty impressive as are the split screen effects.The acting is amateurish and the writing leaves a lot to be desired.Who would of ever guessed that Park Ranger Asmodeus would turn out to be Satan incarnate.Still strong 8 out of 10.

I love bad movies. This is a bad movie. I was channel flipping and saw one of the monsters cavorting about until gored by a sharp stick. I had to watch after that. Truly bad acting, unintelligible plot and a swarthy demon with the classic "Bru haa haa haa" laugh that only is done in the worst of movies. Very entertaining. I recommend you watch it with friends. Not a first date movie unless you know them well. Rather good special effects for a low budget film.