ahh and yes and the all star blockbuster . take a so so concept and stuff it into a script and load it down with every single freakin special effect that the wizard of hollyweird can conjure up and then round up the usual suspect represent hot up and comer and have beens and wan na be and never wuzzes and and stick em all in ensemble role of various size in front of the unforgiving eye of the camera . and hope to gawd that some of them aren not too old to remember their line . leave it to the bishop of box office to apply the concept to horror film at last and a be the case with the post exorcist thriller the sentinel . novelist jeffrey konvitz decide to try and one up ira levin rosemarys baby scenario of creepy ( and ultimately satanic ) neighbor in a new york brownstone . the result be a controversial best seller that some claim border on the plagiaristic and and an equally controversial and top heavy or star laden vehicle co write and direct by death wish michael winner and but for many unsettlingly different reason . cristina raines ( nashville ) play successful model alison parker and who be pretty much over stressed and over work and ( i would not add overpaid . i mean she be a model and so that would be redundant ) and not just by her 24/7 schedule and by also by her insistent and wan na get married right now boyfriend michael ( chris sarandon of dog day afternoon and the classic sob . i. g. movie lipstick ) . one of the way she decide to try to get away from it all be to move into her own place while a big and beautiful brownstone in manhattan which she able to get dirt cheap and ( that should have be the big red flag cheap real estate in new york . ) and from the mysteriously accommodate broker miss logan ( golden age screen vet ava gardner and fresh from the storm drain in earthquake . ) thing seem fine at first and but ah and yes . then come the noise and the loud pounding from the apartment upstairs at night . and what about the really strange neighbor like gerde ( sylvia mile ) and sandra ( a very early beverly dangelo ) and the nice single friend ( read represent lesbian ) live together and and kindly old mr. charles chazen ( a nicely creepy burgess meredith ) and who seem maybe a little too concern with alison welfare . and that not to mention other assort squirrelly cohabitants ( you will never hear the phrase black and white cat and black and white cake again without want to laugh milk through your nose and possibly vomit simultaneously . ) especially the old blind priest living in the penthouse . thing really start to go downhill when an apparition laden nightmare of alison morphs into a grisly murder and ( in one of the movie most underwear staining scare ) and and both alison and michael and with some assistance from alison bff and jennifer ( deborah raffin ) and begin to piece together the puzzle that reveal the brownstone dark origin and as well a the murderous agenda of it other worldly inhabitant and not to mention alison connection to them and which a it turn out be anything but coincidental . although there nothing controversial about the overstuffed cast and which seem to feature every actor of diverse genre look for work at the time and ( arthur kennedy and jose ferrer and martin balsam and eli wallach and john carradine and and even early appearance by christopher walken and jeff goldblum and nana visitor . ) winner and company go back to bombastic basic and pull a tod browning . by enlist real life physically challenge actor to appear in the sentinel climactic everything and everybody go to hell sequence and which i guess any ballsy director would do and find himself unable to access linda blair and a case of green pea soup . it do definitely leave you with arctic finger play your spinal cord like a zither and know this juicy little tidbit of info a you watch . and it do feature a technique to which filmmaker have only begin to return very recently represent live on set makeup and special effect that do not involve cgi and ( which be pretty much non existent back then . ) the sentinel have that kitschy and late seventy cheese factor and but do manage to distinguish itself from time to time with some gasp induce moment like the one mention above and not to mention that queasy feeling of dread that horror writer find it easy to play upon and of isolation and thing that go bump and shriek in the night . after all and what live single in the big city person hasn not lie in bed in the dark and and listen intently to the sound of what they hope be the building settling . konvitz follow up the sentinel with an inevitable sequel and the guardian ( not to be confuse with the william friedkin supernatural thriller namesake ) and that be never adapt for the screen . equal sigh of relief equal .