THE SENTINEL (1977)
Starring Chris Sarandon and Cristina Raines
Weak attempt by major Hollywood to duplicate the success of big-budget horror films "The Exorcist," "The Omen" and "Rosemary's Baby" goes out of its way to imitate all three—and falls flat on its face. Some nice gore effects by Dick Smith make it a somewhat worthwhile rental though. Also John Carradine plays a blind priest. Hooray! Ava Gardner, Arthur Kennedy, Burgess Meredith, Elli Wallach and Christopher Walken round out the celebrity line-up.
Raines plays a model who moves
into a New York apartment (just like Rosemary did) and discovers it's the gateway to hell.
The shit really hits the fan and zombies and visions of her dead parents show up all over
the building. In a shocking twist ending I'm about to reveal here (spoiler ahead),
it turns out she was destined to become a blind nun who replaces Carradine as the guardian of the gateway.
About two thirds of the movie is set as a mystery with Sarandon (as her
boyfriend) trying to figure out what happened to her after she reportedly
murdered her (already dead) father in her new apartment building, and saw
tenants who never lived there.
Walken is utterly wasted as the meaningless assistant to police investigator Wallach. Beverly D'Angelo appears in one of her earliest films (as a lesbian ghost/demon), and she naturally takes off her clohtes. Meredith is a welcome sight as the lead tenant/demon terrorizing Raines and trying to get her to kill herself. Raines can't act, and much of the movie is carried by Sarandon. Winner's direction is pretty dull. He also wrote the movie. He should have stuck with Charles Bronson "Death Wish" films. "The Sentinel" is a little fun, thanks in no small part to the zombie/damned that show up at the end (some of whom were played by real freaks apparently) but watch it with low, low, low expectations. You can also buy it on DVD for about $9.99 in some places. Maybe look for it used.