Equinox (film)
Encyclopedia
Equinox is a 1970
1970 in film
The year 1970 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 9 - Larry Fine, the second member of The Three Stooges, suffers a massive stroke, therefore ending his career....

 American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

. Originally made in 1967 under the title The Equinox... A Journey into the Supernatural it was directed by Dennis Muren
Dennis Muren
Dennis Muren, A.S.C. is an American film special effects artist, most notable for his work on the films of Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and George Lucas. He has won eight Oscars for Best Visual Effects.-Early life:...

, and stars Edward Connell as Dave, Barbara Hewitt as Susan Turner Frank Bonner
Frank Bonner
Frank Bonner is an American actor and television director best known for playing sales manager Herb Tarlek on the television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.-Life and career:...

 as Jim Hudson and award-winning science fiction/horror writer Fritz Leiber
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...

 as Dr Arthur Waterman.

Plot

The plot revolves around four young friends who head into the woods to look for the lost scientist Dr. Arthur Watermann. A forest ranger watches over the teenagers, who in reality is Asmodeus
Asmodeus
Asmodeus may refer to:* Asmodai, a demon-like figure of the Talmud and Book of Tobit* Asmodeus , Austrian black-metal band*Asmodeus , the name of several characters in Marvel Comics*Asmodeus...

. When the group stumble upon an ancient book, Asmodeus sends a variety of monsters to retrieve the book from them at all costs. After killing Jim, Asmodeus reveals his true form: that of a winged red demon. Asmodeus proceeds to kill Jim's girlfriend and then attacks Dave and Susan. The two run away to a cemetery and destroy the demon with a cross, and his death leads to the cemetery exploding, killing Susan in the process. Although Dave is the only survivor, he sees a shadowy giant who announces him he will be dead in one year and one day, causing Dave to go crazy after that. One year and one day later we see an evil-faced Susan arriving at the hospital to visit him, and the film ends on this ominous note.

Production

While studying business at Pasadena City College
Pasadena City College
Pasadena City College is a community college in Pasadena, California, USA, located on Colorado Boulevard. PCC is the third largest community college campus in the United States. PCC was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. In 1954, Pasadena Junior College merged with another junior...

, Dennis Muren
Dennis Muren
Dennis Muren, A.S.C. is an American film special effects artist, most notable for his work on the films of Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and George Lucas. He has won eight Oscars for Best Visual Effects.-Early life:...

 spent $6500 to make Equinox, which at that time was a short science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 film. Tonylyn Productions, a small film company, liked the film enough to distribute it. Tonylyn hired film editor Jack Woods to direct additional footage in order to make Equinox into a feature-length movie. When the feature-length Equinox was released in October 1970
1970 in film
The year 1970 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 9 - Larry Fine, the second member of The Three Stooges, suffers a massive stroke, therefore ending his career....

, Muren was credited as a producer in spite of having directed much of the film and creating the special effects himself. The movie made enough money for Muren to recoup his $6500 investment.

The Equinox... A Journey into the Supernatural was picked up for distribution by producer Jack H. Harris, who shot new footage for the film with Jack Woods and released it in 1970 as Equinox.

The film includes a cameo from Fritz Leiber
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...

 as Dr. Watermann.

Legacy

Due to the similarities in their plots, Equinox is believed to have inspired Evil Dead, yet this has not been confirmed. It was seen by members of the crew of Evil Dead before production:

"I had seen Equinox at least twice in drive-ins before making Evil Dead. I don't recall having discussed it with [Evil Dead director] Sam Raimi, but the similarities are remarkable. I think they come from the low-budget nature of both films. That is, a few characters, an isolated, inexpensive location, and ambitious special effects. All in all, Equinox did inspire me to continue my goal of making movies. 'If they can do it...'"

—Tom Sullivan, special effects and make-up artist for the Evil Dead movies, as quoted from the booklet included with the Criterion DVD set, "Backyard Monsters: Equinox and the Triumph of Love" by Brock Deshane.

DVD release

Equinox was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 in June 2006 as release 338 in The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...

. It includes both the theatrical version and Muren's original production, the first time the latter has been released.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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