this happen to be one of my favorite horror film . it a rich and classy production boast an excellent cast of ensemble actor and beautiful on location cinematography and a haunting musical score and an intelligent and novel plot theme and and an atmosphere of dread and menace . it reminiscent of such classic film a rosemary baby and the shining and wherein young and vulnerable woman find themselves victimize by supernatural force in old and creepy building with a macabre past . here and cristina raines play a top new york city fashion model name alison parker . her happy and outgo exterior mask a deeply conflict and troubled soul . this be evidence by the revelation that in her past and she attempt suicide twice once a a teenage girl after walk in on her degenerate father cavort in bed with two woman and have him rip a silver crucifix from her neck and toss it on the floor and and the second time and after her married lawyer boyfriend wife supposedly commit suicide over learning of their affair . tell her beau ( play by a suitably slimy chris sarandon ) that she need to live on her own for a year or so and she answer a newspaper ad for a fully furnish and spacious one bedroom apartment in an old brooklyn height brownstone . this building actually exist and be locate at 10 montague terrace right by the brooklyn height promenade off remsen street . the producer actually film inside the building and it apartment and pay the resident for their inconvenience and of course . the real estate agent and a miss logan ( ava gardner ) and seem to be very interested in have alison take the apartment an interest that can not be solely explain by the 6 % commission she would earn . especially when she quickly drop the rental price from $ 500 . 00 a month to $ 400 . 00. alison agrees and upon leave the building with miss logan and notice an elderly man sit and apparently star at her from the top floor window . miss logan identifies the man to her a father halliran and tell alison that he blind . alison response be very logical blind . then what do he look at . after move in and alison meet some of the other resident in the building and include a lesbian couple play by sylvia mile and beverly dangelo and who provide alison with an uncomfortable welcome to the building . alison mental health and physical well be soon start to deteriorate and she be plague by split headache and fainting spell . when she relay her concern to miss logan about her sleep be disturb on a nightly basis by clang metal and loud footstep come from the apartment directly over her and she be dumbstruck to learn that apart from the blind priest and now herself and no one have live in that building for the last three year . summon the courage one night to confront her nocturnal tormentor and she arm herself with a butcher knife and a flashlight and enter the apartment upstairs . she be confront by the cancer riddle specter of her dead father and use the knife on him in self defense when he come after her . the police investigate and find no sign of violence in that apartment no corpse and no blood and nothing . yet alison flee the building and collapse in the street and cover in blood her own and a it turn out . but there nary a mark on her . what alison doesn not realize until the film denouement be that her be in that brownstone have a purpose . she be put there for a reason a reason whose origin date back to the biblical story of the garden of eden and of the angel uriel who be post at it entrance to guard it from the devil . she be be unknowingly prim and prepped by the catholic church to assume a most important role one that will guarantee that her soul and which be damn for her two suicide attempt and can be save . at the same time and the invisible neighbor and who turn out to be more than just quirky oddball and have a different agenda in mind for her . this be a competent and intelligently do film and one that surprisingly portray the church and it representative in a mostly sympathetic light .