Blame the Brothers Grimm (go ahead — blame them! They’re German!) but for my money you just can’t put a foot wrong by sending teenagers or young adults or even thirtyish people cast as twentysomethings out into the woods to meet the Devil or sundry agents of Big Evil. I’m hard-pressed to think of any movie that employs that logline from which I cannot derive some joy. Think THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999). Think THE EVIL DEAD (1981). Think THE CURSE OF BIGFOOT (1976). Think EQUINOX (1970).
The long and short of EQUINOX, a perennial late night favorite that a lot of us old cats first heard about via Famous Monsters of Filmland, is that it was a pet project-cum-demo reel cooked up by future Hollywood special effects man Dennis Murren (whose career trajectory led from here to grunt work on WILLIE WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and STAR WARS to more lucrative and rewarding gigs as an effects cameraman and, later, visual effects supervisor on THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, E.T. – THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, JURASSIC PARK and many a juggernauty franchise sequel and lots of Academy Awards) and his Simi Valley wingman Mark Thomas McGee (later screenwriter of SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE II, BAD GIRLS FROM MARS, and Jim Wynorski’s kind of sublime SORCERESS). Friends and family (among them CONJURE WIFE author Fritz Leiber, Jr. — whose services were donated through the intercession of Famous Monsters editor Forrest J. Ackerman — former Rose Bowl Queen Barbara Hewett, budding animation specialists Jim Danforth and David Allen, and future WKRP IN CINCINNATI star Frank Bonner) helped complete the film — about a youthful foursome who encounter demonic forces while on a picnicking excursion — at the expense of two years of lost weekends and a payout of $6,000 and change.
The impressive, if occasionally naive, stop motion effects of EQUINOX… A JOURNEY INTO THE SUPERNATURAL (1967) impressed independent producer Jack H. Harris, who offered Murren and McGee a deal to recut and rework their material into something he could sell to the drive-in circuit. Years earlier, Harris, who had made his bones in the industry as a film distributor, had cobbled together church funds from various Pennsylvania ministries to make THE BLOB (1958), about a group of teens who encounter a predatory alien entity; as he had once taken a chance on an up-and-coming actor named Steve McQueen, so Harris rolled the dice on Murren-McGee. (Harris would only a few years later put his weight behind John Carpenter’s first film, DARK STAR.) Bringing on board film editor and John Cassavetes associate Jack Woods as a new director, Harris ordered new footage shot for what would be released as EQUINOX that included, but was not limited to, wraparound footage set in a psychiatric facility (shades of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, INVASION OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE and, to my eyes anyway, THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE) and a subplot involving a demonic park ranger named Mr. Asmodeus (played by Woods himself). In the bargain, the young filmmakers made a $150,000 sale and Harris banked a cool million. Ultimately, though, the greatest thing one can say about EQUINOX is not that it broke the bank or that it was acclaimed as the new face of terror… but merely that it was remembered.
EQUINOX is perfect viewing for TCM Underground, as it has a full complement of the occult, practical special effects, amateur acting, post-synch hollowness, and an obvious love for its chosen genre. Of course, you are more than welcome to laugh from end to end, to do your own MST3K takedown for your own amusement and/or that of your friends, but I’m able to enjoy the movie on its own merits, warts and all, and to slot it in my mind alongside such worth company of — in addition to the movies I’ve already mentioned — 70s occult stuff like THE WITCHMAKER (1970), THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN (1971), THE DEVIL’S RAIN (1974), and RACE WITH THE DEVIL (1975). Having been a pre-teen and teen through the years when these movies were released and played on late night TV, I can tell you that this was a hell of a time to grow up. These movies were my church and I continue to worship them; I don’t ask that you share my belief system, but I trust you will remove your hat and show some damned respect.
In the overnight slot we have BLOODY BIRTHDAY (1980), a Glendale-shot killer kid movie making its return to TCM:U. I wrote about this when it premiered in November. My favorite thing about this movie is spotting ADAM-12‘s Bill Boyett standing about among the supporting players and wondering “What the hell is he doing in this?”