Equinox main backdrop
Equinox main poster

5.1/10 • 70

1970-10-011h 22m

AdventureHorror

Occult Barrier Between Good and Evil

Due to their possession of an ancient mystic book, four friends are attacked by a demon while on a picnic and find themselves pitched into a world of evil that overlaps their own. The film was originally made in 1967 by Dennis Muren as The Equinox: Journey into the Supernatural. Jack Woods was hired to shoot additional footage and expand on Muren's work.

Directors
Jack Woods, Dennis Muren
Editors
John Joyce

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Edward Connell

    Edward Connell

    David Fielding (as Skip Shimer)

  2. Barbara Hewitt

    Barbara Hewitt

    Susan Turner

  3. Jack Woods

    Jack Woods

    Asmodeus

  4. Frank Bonner

    Frank Bonner

    Jim Hudson (as Frank Boers Jr.)

  5. Robin Christopher

    Robin Christopher

    Vicki (as Robin Snider)

  6. James Phillips

    James Phillips

    Reporter Sloan (as Jim Phillips)

  7. Fritz Leiber Jr.

    Fritz Leiber Jr.

    Dr. Arthur Watermann (as Fritz Leiber)

  8. Patrick Burke

    Patrick Burke

    Doctor Branson

  9. Sharon Gray

    Sharon Gray

    Nurse

Reviews1

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Wuchak Avatar

Wuchak

Sep 24, 2024

5/10

The beginning of cabin-in-the-woods horror, sort of Four college-aged youths go out to the woods north of Los Angeles to visit their professor’s cabin and have a picnic, but they stumble upon a grimoire and several malevolent creatures are inadvertently unleashed. “Equinox” mixes “Mysterious Island” (1961) with HP Lovecraft and the low-budget weirdness of, say, The Twilight Zone. It was originally made as “The Equinox... A Journey Into the Supernatural,” a 71-minute flick made for $6500 by Dennis Muren and Mark Thomas McGee in 1967. However, after impressing a producer, a director was hired to shoot additional footage (11-12 minutes) and expand it into a more acceptable feature film with a shortened title. This took a couple of years and explains the 1970 release date. The director enlisted was Jack Woods, who happens to play the weirdo ranger. The colorful special effects in the third act are surprisingly good, all things considered, with the stop-motion stuff reminiscent of “Planet of the Dinosaurs” (1977). Perhaps the best effect is a green giant impressively executed via forced perspective. While the professor’s cabin is barely a factor, this was the precursor to the cabin-in-the-woods trope, along with the contemporaneous “Night of the Living Dead.” It can be traced back earlier, if you consider flicks like “The Killer Shrews” from 1959. The exploration of good and evil is interesting and the flick obviously influenced Raimi’s first two “Evil Dead” pictures from the 80s. Unfortunately, there’s too much marking time in the midsection and, except for the ranger, the principal actors are dull with the two females being bland and unmemorable. One of the young guys, by the way, is Frank Bonner, who went on to play Herb Tarlek on WKRP. It runs 1 hour, 22 minutes, and was principally shot in areas north of Hollywood, such as Tujunga Canyon, Bronson Caves in Griffith Park and La Cañada-Flintridge. GRADE: C

Media

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  • Equinox poster
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  • Equinox poster
  • Equinox poster
  • Equinox poster

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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
$8,000.00
Revenue
$850,000.00
Keywords
monsternecronomicon