The Sentinel (1977) - Blu-ray Review

Details: By Loron Hays; 24 September 2015

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The Sentinel - Blu-ray Review

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God bless Burgess Meredith. I mean really. God bless him. Whether cantankerous, goofy, or playing a booklover facing a world without people and spectacles, his performances dramatically elevates the material. Here, in Michael Winner’s atmospheric The Sentinel, his bizarre take on one woman’s apartment neighbor is both inviting and deliciously evil. And, with the movie’s emphasis on containing evil, there’s much of it to go around in his role as one unsuspecting woman’s overstepping neighbor.

It seems I’ve waited decades for this release from Scream Factory to arrive. There are some truly disturbing moments in this one and, yes, they do haunt my dreams and nightmares. My first introduction to the world of The Sentinel would have to have been from a healthy rotation of Judas Priest’s ninth album, Defenders of the Faith. The fourth song in is their take on The Sentinel and it is an epic reconstruction of some of the battle-like themes in Winner’s movie in its epic challenge to evil. As a film, The Sentinel gets so many things perfect in a hypnotic narrative that turns one Brooklyn brownstone into the gateway to Hell.

Full of the grotesque, The Sentinel is the story of a fashion model (Cristina Raines), her search for an apartment in New York City, and her descent into madness courtesy of an upstairs blind guardian, Father Halliran (John Carradine), who is nearing the end of his life and needs replacing. It seems that Allison and her troubled past – including two attempts at suicide – mark her as the perfect replacement for Father Halliran in his duties at keeping watch over the gateway to Hell and all the demonic inhabitants therein.

Just listen to the talent is featured in this production. On top of Meredith and Carradine, you’ve got Jose Ferrer and Martin Balsam with the other characters fleshed out by a young Christopher Walken, Jerry Orbach, Beverly D'Angelo, Jeff Goldblum, and a fresh-faced Tom Berenger. You simply cannot go wrong with the talent assembled and, at the helm, is Winner who made a fashionable name for himself upon the release of 1974’s Death Wish.

While the film has a lot of characters, the story remains focused on the mental breakdown of its lead character. Once she moves in to her new furnished apartment, noises are heard from the empty room above, she’s invited to weird parties the neighbors throw, and the priest at the very top of the brownstone remains perched in the window – overlooking everything and everyone. And, yet, he CANNOT see! What is he watching?!?!

Tonally, the film walks a fine line between what’s weird and what’s expected in the surreal world we are presented with. Winner even nails a few nightmares. It’s a film that slow burns its way into the subconscious as it feels more successful upon reflection than it does as it unfolds. The Sentinel is never out of step with its Exorcist -like attitude and sway.

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[tab title="Film Details"]

MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 92 mins
Director: Michael Winner
Writer: Michael Winner
Cast: Cristina Raines, Ava Gardner, Chris Sarandon
Genre: Horror
Tagline: She was young. She was beautiful. She was next!
Memorable Movie Quote: "All killers, all dead. She went to a party with eight dead murderers."
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Official Site:
Release Date: January 7, 1977
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: September 22, 2015
Synopsis: Not ready for marriage, a fashion model moves into an unbelievably nice Brooklyn Heights apartment, where scary occurrences turn into a much more frightening turn of events.

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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

The Sentinel - Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - September 22, 2015
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD)
Region Encoding: Locked to region A

The film is presented with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer using an aspect ratio of 1.69:1 from Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory. Winner’s atmospheric film is represented in an absorbing style on blu-ray that displays a crisp focus on its set design with an image clean and free of over-processing. Certainly, despite the clarity of the presentation, the film is still allowed to breathe and retains a level of grain that ensures an authentic and credible appearance. Even dark scenes are rarely problematic, with the blacks proving extremely solid, and the level of accuracy ensuring that this gothic masterpiece is visually absorbing throughout. The audio is presented in Linear PCM 2.0 mono track.

Supplements:

Commentary:

There are three commentaries for those interested enough to sit through them. You might ask why three separate ones. Well, it seems like there was a lot of friction on the set and, quite possibly, people still hold some grudges. Anyway, the three tracks are as follows: writer/producer Jeffrey Konvitz. Konvitz talks about his personal experience with the movie, in another writer/producer/director Winner explains the film from his perspective, and its star Cristina Raines has her own.

Special Features:

Outside of an interview with the film’s assistant director, Ralph S. Singleton, there’s nothing but a trailer, TV Spots, movie stills, press photos, and lobby cards.