*** Welcome to piglix ***

Equinox (film)

Equinox
Equinoxposter.jpg
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
Release date
  • October 1, 1970 (1970-10-01) (US)
Running time
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.


...
Wikipedia

...