christina raines play a lovely model in new york who seek out a new apartment and begin to meet strange neighbor and reveal a secret about the building and herself slowly build up to quite a climax by film end . this film have all kind of neat plot element from the roman catholic church vs. the devil and to the gateway to hell and to bizarre ritual and to a grow conspiracy and and finally to a host of talented famous actor and actress flood the film . we get ava gardner and burgess meredith and chris sarandon and jerry orbach and deborah raffin and arthur kennedy and jose ferrer and slyvia mile and beverly deangelo and eli wallach and martin balsam and christopher walkin and william hickey and tom berenger and jeff goldblum and and who can forget john carradine a the old priest . many of these actor ham it up particularly burgess meredith give a fine comic or demented performance a one of the neighbor with a little bird and a cat . meredith be memorable a be balsam and chris sarandon . some of the performer have virtually nothing to do like jose ferrer in a thankless role even if it be nothing more than a cameo . the sentinel be a fine horror film with plenty of psychological element and some truly terrifying scene . the end scene be repulsive and yet chill . i do find fault with some of the gratuitous sex and violence in the film and particularly that whole scene with deangelo and mile . be that really necessary . i think not . also and the father or daughter stuff be a bit much a well and but overall the film work and have a winning pace . director michael winner do a workmanlike job and be effective create tension and scary movie moment . the scene with carradine be particularly effective .