Equinox (1970)

Watching Jack Woods’ manically strange Equinox I was struck by the obvious parallels between this film and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead. Both films were inexpensively made student projects that demonstrated a puissant craft despite their meager budgets. Both involved a mysterious occult book dealing with demonic invocations, and each eventually resulted in the accidental discovery of an alternate dimension out of which emerged a strange dark force that proceeded to terrorize a group of unsuspecting teenagers. However, one thing that The Evil Dead lacked that granted Equinox an upper hand in the effects department was the contribution of Dennis Muren, the nine-time Academy Award winning special effects artist best known for his work on Star Wars.

Yet, despite all this prestige, the film works best not when you view it as a precursor to what followed in the realm of stop-motion animation, but simply when you appreciate it for what it is – a thoroughly entertaining B-movie. People may blindly flock to theaters to witness a film purposely manufactured as an exaggerated B-movie as they did with Snakes on a Plane but market ploys such as that cannot supplant the genuine effectiveness of a true B-movie, produced in all its heedless, impetuous zeal. Here is a film in which the director casts himself in the role of a park ranger named Asmodeus who may or may not be the physical embodiment of the devil – as if one could offer any other reasonable explanation for a park ranger being named Asmodeus – then proceeds to make-out with the best looking woman of his cast and drool all over her in the process… seriously.

The film hastily rushes through its goofball plot, saturated with hammy acting, a plethora of zany canted frames and zooms; as well as little regard for a logical progression of events. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoyed every moment of it, but I did so with a self-aware smirk, fully attentive to the absurdity of the material but appreciating it nonetheless. Thankfully, the Criterion Collection helped unearth this treasure and I, for one, am grateful to see it finally reach a wider audience.

On a brief side note, the disc I rented contained two versions of the film: the 1970 version directed by Jack Woods and containing the extra footage that inserts the character of Asmodeus into the plot, and the rarely seen 1967 version directed by Dennis Muren and titled Equinox… A Journey into the Supernatural. I watched the 1970 version first and – pressed for time – only skimmed through the second version. From what I observed, the two films use much of the same footage with the later version appearing more touched up in certain scenes. In addition, they pursue different structures with the Jack Woods version displaying far more dynamic pacing. Regardless of which version you may feel to be more effective, I strongly urge you to go watch Equinox as soon as possible. It’s one of those rare b-movies that deliver some genuinely campy entertainment.