Thursday, October 09, 2008

Time out from politics

The 1970 movie Equinox bears a ton of resemblances to Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead and to his comedic reboot, The Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn. Four college students (four in the first Evil Dead, two in the second) go to a professor's cabin in the woods. The professor is not there, but they find his notes and an old book, described by the professor as the "bible of evil". Reading a few words from the book brings an evil out of hell, or the woods. Claymation is involved. A castle is seen, which turns out to be in Hell. College kid Frank Bonner ("WKRP in Cincinnati"'s Herb Tarlek) is possessed, acting like an evil twin.

Sam Raimi owes someone some royalties.

In quality, Equinox bears roughly the same resemblance to The Evil Dead as the latter bears to The Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn, but it has an original creepiness. The (also-possessed) park ranger played by director/writer Jack Woods went on to edit sound for Naked Gun and Star Wars movies. The other writer, Mark Thomas McGee, wrote more horror flicks before moving into television acting.

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