Equinox (film)
| Equinox | |
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| Directed by |
Dennis Muren Jack Woods |
| Produced by | Jack H. Harris Dennis Muren |
| Written by |
Mark Thomas McGee Jack Woods |
| Starring | Edward Connell Barbara Hewitt Frank Bonner Robin Christopher |
| Music by | John Caper, Jr. |
| Cinematography | Mike Hoover |
| Edited by | John Joyce |
| Distributed by | Tonylyn Productions |
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Release date
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Running time
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80 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6,500 |
Equinox (also known as The Equinox... A Journey into the Supernatural, and released on home video as The Beast) is a 1970 American independent horror film directed by Dennis Muren and Jack Woods, and starring Edward Connell, Barbara Hewitt, Frank Bonner and award-winning science fiction/horror writer Fritz Leiber. The plot focuses on four teenagers having a picnic in the canyons of California who stumble upon an ancient book containing secrets of a strange world that exists alongside humans, and consequently unleash a plethora of evil creatures and monsters.
Made on a budget of a mere $6,500 in 1967, Equinox initially gained a reputation as a midnight movie during its theatrical run, but has in later years been noted for its economical yet sophisticated use of stop-motion special effects and cel animation, which were provided by Dave Allen and Jim Danforth; the latter later worked on Flesh Gordon, in which he animated a giant monster similar to the ones in Equinox. The film has been influential to the horror and sci-fi monster genres, receiving praise from filmmaker George Lucas and effects artist Ray Harryhausen; it was also noted as a main inspiration for Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1983). It was released on DVD by The Criterion Collection in 2006.
Four young adults – David (Connell), Susan (Hewitt), Jim (Bonner) and Jim's girlfriend, Vicki (Robin Christopher) – head into the woods to look for a lost scientist, Dr. Arthur Waterman (Leiber). The friends have a picnic and glimpse a mysterious castle in the woods. They find that Dr. Waterman's cabin seems to have been destroyed. A forest ranger (Woods), who is Asmodeus in human form, watches over the teenagers. When the group stumbles into a cave, a strange old man (Irving L. Lichtenstein) presents them with an ancient book filled with magical lore and symbols. Asmodeus sends monsters – a giant ape-like creature and a green-skinned, fur-clad giant (Jim Duron) – to retrieve the book from them at all costs. The ape-like creature kills the old man. The castle seems to have disappeared, however the friends discover that it has been rendered invisible by magic.
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