Equinox - Movie Review

Four college friends venture into the woods to make a day out of helping their geography professor when they stumble upon a mystic tome with ties to a parallel dimension within the forest whose creatures and spirits have invaded our own world in search of the tome. David (Edward Connell) is the sole survivor of the group and while being monitored in a psychiatric ward, he assists a local detective by telling him the story as the movie progresses through a series of flashbacks, but the tales of demonic creatures and invisible castles are too farfetched for the officer and the psychologist to believe.

Equinox is a movie that I have had on my must-see list for the longest time. I knew how terrible the acting and special effects were going to be when I saw it, but it’s one of those horrible classics that one must see for themselves to truly appreciate not only the horridness but also the effort to do something epic on a miniscule scale.  

The acting is terrible by everyone involved, and with the handful of fight scenes and action sequences it’s amazing how everyone maintains such prim and proper attire. The creatures that the quartet encounters are the homeless man’s Ray Harryhausen concoctions. There’s an undecipherable jumble of clay that looks like it came out of a terrible Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer meets The Kraken from Clash of the Titans and a Satan-like winged demon that could have fit right along in Davey & Goliath Go to Hell. The one shining lucifer of hope is the leopard clad toga wearing Incredible Hulk gorilla, which was a live action creation using an actor, a heck of a lot of makeup, and what looks like a shredded car seat cover.

I enjoyed Equinox for its ambition as well as its cheese. There are several ideas and scenes that lead me to speculate that this film may have had a hand in inspiring Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead, so if you need a good laugh or are just in the mood for something a bit off kilter, Equinox is a fun watch and should not be taken seriously at all.