Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.
CookieInvent There's a good chance the film will make you laugh out loud, but if it doesn't, there's an even better chance it will make you openly sob.
Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
Pozdnyshev There's a lot about this movie that is "bad." It's not shot very creatively, sort of a point-the-camera-at-the-action thing. The lighting is very flat and the look is grainy, like an old family s8mm film. The special effects are extremely dated, with choppy stop motion monsters and obvious double exposures. But this movie is a GEM. I mean come on, What movie before this had a bunch of teenagers going into a forest and finding giant monsters, a portal to the spirit world, a slick evil sorcerer, disturbing visions, and a death curse? All fully and skilfully depicted with creative (though cheap) special effects? None, not all in the same movie. It's an original story that seemed to influence later movies like Evil Dead II, which also had a lost castle, giant monsters, and the need to use certain rituals to fight the supernatural presence. It's different, non-cliché, and dreamlike. Highly recommended.
Michael_Elliott Equinox (1970) ** (out of 4) This film was originally made in 1967 but it got a distribution deal in 1970 by producer Jack H. Harris but he demanded that there be some re-shoots, scenes re-edited and a few more touches to make it look more professional. Both versions have been released by Criterion (!?!?) but I only viewed the 1970 version. Basically four friends head out for some fun but they stumble across a strange book and soon a large demon and ape creature are stalking them. Look, there's no question that EQUINOX has its heart in the right place but I'm a little confused as to why Criterion would give it such a lavish treatment. I'm not certain if the film was included in a group package with other movies but there's certainly nothing special here to warrant such a release. In fact, a movie-only edition would have been good enough for this thing. Again, I understand this was an extra low-budget movie shot for fun and on that level it's actually not too bad. However, once you start talking about "classic" then things are getting blown out of control. The acting and visual look of the film is quite tame but it actually adds a little charm as our characters run from one thing after another. The stop-motion effects look fairly poor here but you have to that they were simply done for fun. With that said, on that level they add a little charm including the ape creature, which was clearly influenced by King Kong. At 82-minutes the film drags in most spots and the biggest problem is that there's just so many dialogue scenes and not enough action or stuff dealing with the monsters.
HumanoidOfFlesh "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 ages 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.
w00f The best thing on this DVD is the introduction by the late great Forrie Ackerman. The movie itself is rather creative considering that it was made by a bunch of teenagers in their backyard. Still, that doesn't make it a good film. It's a bit like kindergarten macaroni art made by Leonardo Da Vinci; historically interesting, perhaps, but nothing one would consider equal to the Mona Lisa. Its still a movie made by kids, and it shows. This is cinematic refrigerator art. Its wonderful that some of the kids who made this got Ackerman's encouragement and went on to great things, but those kids are in their 50's and 60's now and no longer need our encouragement, and I can't recommend this. The script is trite, the stop-motion animation is dated and amateur, and the whole thing is hard to watch.
