October Horror Movie Challenge: The Sentinel (1977)

 This movie very likely did not influence anything in the AD&D Monster Manual, but it certainly has the right vibe of the movies I would have been watching at the time and altering the printed monsters to fit my needs. Plus, this one has a solid cast. More to the point, I can't believe I have never seen this one despite my desire to watch it back then. 

The Sentinel (1977)

Alison Parker (Cristina Raines, who was a model in real life) is a model in love with her lawyer boyfriend, Michael Lerman (Chris Sarandon). He wants to get married, but she wants to live on her own for a bit. She finds a new apartment and moves in. She meets her neighbors, Charles Chazen (Burgess Meredith), Gerde (Sylvia Miles) and Sandra (Beverly D'Angelo who barely speaks in this), and encounters the blind priest Father Francis Matthew Halliran (John Carradine).  Alison has serious migraines and a history of suicide attempts, once after she caught her father in bed with two other women. 

The movie is slow to start, building up by showing us the collection of odd inhabitants living in the building. Alison has all sorts of weird visions and nightmares. We also learn from the landlady that aside from the Priest and Alison, no one else actually lives in the building. When the landlady takes her to each apartment, she learns that none of them has been lived in for years.  We later learn that all of the people in the apartment are, or were, all murderers who were killed years ago. 

We learn that Michael's previous wife killed herself. We also learn that Michael hired private detective Brenner to kill his first wife and now scare Alison, only he ends up dead in the exact same way Alison hallucinates that she killed her dead father. The film has a real "Gaslighting" feel to it, both the movie and the term, with actual supernatural overtones. 

Michael breaks into the priest's office and learns about all these priests and nuns who, in life, attempted suicide and then were given a new name. There is a list going back hundreds of years and Alison's name is next on the list, to become Sister Theresa. These names are all Sentinels, the guardians of Gates of Hell tasked by the Archangel Uriel. The only time a Sentinel can be stopped is if they kill themselves before taking over their post. So Micheal (now dead), Charles and the other lost soulstry to drive Alison to suicide. 

Father Halliran shows up at the end to help Alison and gives us a great demonstration of cleric turning.

The building is demolished and new one is put up. In Apartment 5a we see a now blind and older Alison, now Sister Theresa, standing her vigil. 

Additionally, this movie features Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Jerry Orbach, with Tom Berenger, and a young Nana Visitor as the couple at the end.

David Caradine is barely in this, but he still shows us why he was one of the big names in horror. 

The 1970s were a great time for demonic and satanic themed horror and this one is still good example. Not the best example, but a very good one all the same. 

Featured Monster: Devil

While there are no overt devils per se in this film, I would argue that Burgess Meredith's Charles Chazen was not so much a damned soul as a devil. Not an Archduke, but certainly a higher-ranking one. I ran his name through an anagram program and created Charnazel Sech or Sharcazel Chen as possible diabolic names. 

Game Content: Sentinel

A Sentinel is a Theosophist (in NIGHT SHIFT) that has somehow lost their way. Their holy task is to keep demons and devils from escaping hell. They no longer advance as a Theosophist and now advance as either a Survivor or as a Veteran. Their task, much like the Paladins of old, is to guard one of the many gates of hell.  They position themselves near the gate to fight the demons, devils, and other lost and evil souls who might escape. 

A Sentinel works best as an NPC or PC, if they don't mind not traveling too far from the Gate of Hell they are supposed to guard.

Does this sound like Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Yeah, it does, but this movie predates that movie by 15 years, and the book even more than that (1974).  It is also similar to the idea of the Wynonna Earp. 

This shows that there are not any new ideas. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
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