Horrorfest 2026: The Sentinel

THE SENTINEL
Written and directed by Michael Winner

Starring Cristina Raines, Chris Sarandon, Burgess Meredith, Ava Gardner, Martin Balsam, John Carradine, José Ferrer and Eli Wallach

USA, 1977

THE SENTINEL is one of those '70s horror movies with a cast so ridiculously packed with recognizable actors that you start wondering how they managed to get everyone together. Cristina Raines and Chris Sarandon are the leads, but there's also Burgess Meredith, Ava Gardner, Martin Balsam, John Carradine, José Ferrer, Eli Wallach, Arthur Kennedy, Sylvia Miles, Christopher Walken, Beverly D'Angelo, Jeff Goldblum and Jerry Orbach. And that's not even everybody. Some of these people barely have enough screen time to justify showing up for work.

Raines plays a fashion model who moves into a New York apartment building populated by some very strange people. There's an eccentric old man played by Burgess Meredith, a couple of unsettling women and a blind priest who spends his days sitting at an upstairs window. Before long, our heroine begins experiencing bizarre visions and encounters that suggest something supernatural is going on. Also, her boyfriend (Sarandon) may or may not be involved in something sinister.

The movie was directed by Michael Winner, who made DEATH WISH, and it has that brand of '70s filmmaking where everything feels a little sleazy, even when it isn't supposed to. There's a lot of Catholic imagery, some pretty unpleasant violence and a general atmosphere of people behaving in ways that don't make sense.

The plot eventually involves a gateway to Hell and a religious order charged with keeping the forces of evil from escaping into the world. Points for an ambitious premise. But the movie takes such a roundabout route to get there that I spent a good deal of the running time wondering what I was watching.

And then there are the supporting characters. Burgess Meredith seems to be having a wonderful time playing an increasingly bizarre neighbor, while Ava Gardner turns up as a real estate agent, and Christopher Walken appears as a cop without having much to do, playing second fiddle to his cop boss, Eli Wallach, who also doesn’t have much to do. 

Is THE SENTINEL good? I dunno. It's certainly weird. It’s not a great horror movie, but it’s wacky enough that I think it's worth seeing. If nothing else, you can pass time playing spot-the-celebrity. Blink and you’ll miss José Ferrer.