Equinox

source: Equinox

Trailer—Equinox

Equinox

EQUINOX is an ultra-low-low budget student project that became a feature film. As such, it's pretty damned good! The basic story about a group of young people tormented by demonic monsters is bleak and full of dread. It includes H.P. Lovecraft's nefarious Necronomicon (book of the dead), bound in human skin. Sound familiar? Hmm, could Sam Raimi have been a fan of this movie? The aforementioned monsters are -mostly- brought to life through stop-motion, a la Ray Harryhausen. Yes, the acting is a bit stiff, the dialogue is rather goofy, and some of the characters are hilarious. Still, this movie has a lot of heart, and builds an effective atmosphere of dread. It goes to show what can be done with some effort and ingenuity...

A very low budget horror film that is successful on many levels. Originality, cool settings, great photography, several monsters { although they do look cheesy} and a very eerie atmosphere. Granted, the acting is quite amateurish but that can be overlooked because of the other noteworthy achievements in this film. I am convinced that Sam Raimi seen this film and based much of his Evil Dead on the ideas presented in this movie { although Raimi claims he never heard of or seen Equinox prior to his movie Evil Dead} . Equinox makes my list of top ten favorite horror films of all time and certainly is much more interesting and original then the consistently overrated and praised Halloween. Check Equinox out and remember that it was made by a bunch of mostly unknowns with a starting budget of $6,500.....

Talk about being influential. Now while this takes notes from other horror movies and also Harryhausen when it comes to claymation so to speak, ot was also influential towards other horror movies. Quite a few people have expressed that sentiment as can be seen and heard in the various documentaries, audio commentaries and interviews on the disc. Having said all that, it doesn't mean that the movie is without flaws. You can complain about stiff acting, some weird cuts and not to forget the "obvious" bad character decisions without whom we wouldn't have a movie more or less. Evil lurks everywhere in this and it is quite predictable. Still it is fun to watch and the models and the horror works even today

"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 passages 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.

Watch this movie late at night, in the right mood, when you're about 12 years old and it's really good. Watch it older, or more cynically, and you will probably find it silly. It's vaguely Lovecraft-inspired, about four young people who go looking for an old professor they know who's living in a cabin in the woods while he studies "eldritch knowledge". They find his cabin crushed as if by a mighty foot (the model probably was), he's missing and his scary book (I believe it's even titled the Necronomicon) is missing. For the time the movie was made and the budget they obviously had, I still find it a valiant effort. How do YOU picture an invisible castle?

Come on, people! This was a zero-budget student film, for God's sake! You can't assess this movie like you would the latest big-budget studio blockbuster. This was an earnest effort of some FX-crazed kids, who did their damnedest to get some cool stop-motion monster sequences on film as a showcase of their talents. Dennis Muren went on to STAR WARS fame and many Oscars, and the late lamented David Allen enlivened many a crappy Charles Band flick (that's actually a redundancy) with superb effects that always belied the pitiful budget he was given to work with. All I know is, my younger brother and I, both stop-motion fans, saw the trailer for EQUINOX at some long-ago Saturday matinée and KNEW we had to see this film. And when we finally did we thought it was COOL! I'd rather see a continuity-challenged, amateur FX effort like this than any multimillion-dollar CG crapfest like VAN HELSING any day of the week!

Bad, good, it doesn't matter. This is one of the great film labors of love. Rent the criterion edition and do as I did. Listen to the commentary over the Muren cut of the film. Then Switch to the Jack Harris, Jack Woods commentary over their cut. I was under the false impression as I watched the kids cut that Woods did not add much when he made his cut. Watching Woods cut you see how much effort went into shaping the final theatrical cut. It's amazing that the actors, unpaid for 2 years, already constantly returning to remote sets to incrementally add to to the shot count, would ALL reassemble for the extra shots that Woods would want to add. Listening to Muren, Danforth and McGee knock their own acting and talent is a real crack up. Everyone involved obviously loved the doing of this film. I am still impressed by the high quality of illusion achieved, especially the forced perspective work and the matte painting by Danforth.