"See the movie called Equinox: A Journey Into the Supernatural, not the movie called Equinox the movie the studio butchered."

http://youtu.be/jsKM0RyluzI

Thanks for letting me know which one to watch. I saw Equinox before cause I didn't have the criterion, but this time I watched the right one.

The Harryhausen style Satan is god-damned amazing. When the old man in the cave scares the girls, I spit out strawberry powerade laughing!

The only thing that makes this film even slightly bearable to watch is Dennis Muren's visual effects that are delightfully cheap. Muren would go on to become one of Hollywood's greatest visual effects artists, working with the likes Steven Speilberg, James Cameron and George Lucas. It is assumed that Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1981) was inspired by it, and there surely are some similarities. But that major difference is that Raimi gets lost in the crazed silliness of the story and uses it as a vehicle for his wildly stylized filmmaking techniques. Jack Woods handles the story without an ounce of life or energy, loading the film with amateur actors playing boring characters. The handful of scenes where the constantly mentioned creatures appear were the only instances where it actually had my attention.

One of the cooler drive-in B-movies I've seen in a long time. The plot shares a lot of similarities to the Evil Dead movies: two young couples go into the woods, they find the Necronomicon, then stop-motion monsters.

This isn't some genius, lost classic that everyone should rush out to see, but it's shot with a lot of style and is totally fun. And it stars the guy that played Herb Tarlek in WKRP in Cincinnati . And it has stop-motion monsters.

[C]

I'd like to watch Muren's original version before I pass full judgement, but even this corrupted cut fascinates as a proto-Evil Dead brimming with Lovecraftian detail and charming special effects; you know, when it isn't being terrible.

elements of edward d. wood, ray harryhausen and scooby doo are mixed together and acted out by humans made of wood

Hm, hatte nach den tlw. guten Noten hier und der 5,1 bei IMDB was besseres erwartet. Abgehackt erzählte Story, schlechte Schauspieler, und die Trickelemente - für die damalige Zeit wahrscheinlich gar nicht schlecht, aber für heutige Verhältnisse einfach unerträglich unspannend inszeniert, es kann einfach nicht mehr so wirken wie damals. Die Story war eigentlich gar nicht so schlecht, aber die Umsetzung dann leider doch zu grottig. Und wer sich den deutschen Titel "Harry und der Zauberring" ausgedacht hat, muss in dem Moment geistig weggetreten gewesen sein. Es gibt zwar einen Ring, aber der hat herzlich wenig mit Zauberei zu tun. Und einen Harry gibt es nicht.

[C]

I'd like to watch Muren's original version before I pass full judgement, but even this corrupted cut fascinates as a proto-Evil Dead brimming with Lovecraftian detail and charming special effects; you know, when it isn't being terrible.

Holy shit this was awful.

I could have dealt with the bad performances and the thin plot, but I could not deal with hunch-shouldered, know-it-all David blah blah blah-ing his way through every scene he's in, sucking away what little life there was in this movie. Seeing this scrawny twit take down monsters 30x his size was too much for me.

That said, the monsters are fantastic. They're not even close to seamless, but they're primitive in a charming way. When they're on screen, they're bursting with personality. When there's no monster on screen, David is busy being a buzzkill.

The only thing that makes this film even slightly bearable to watch is Dennis Muren's visual effects that are delightfully cheap. Muren would go on to become one of Hollywood's greatest visual effects artists, working with the likes Steven Speilberg, James Cameron and George Lucas. It is assumed that Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1981) was inspired by it, and there surely are some similarities. But that major difference is that Raimi gets lost in the crazed silliness of the story and uses it as a vehicle for his wildly stylized filmmaking techniques. Jack Woods handles the story without an ounce of life or energy, loading the film with amateur actors playing boring characters. The handful of scenes where the constantly mentioned creatures appear were the only instances where it actually had my attention.

I guess there's a certain charm in seeing young Herb Tarlek and his overdubbed friends roam the countryside like a bunch of brain-damaged goobers, trying to avoid the usual mix of stop-motion gorillas and green caveman and Jack Woods' lethal eyebrow / Elvis lip combo while the faux-Shatner of the group bores everyone stiff with his need for momentum-thwarting exposition. But for all the film's rakish technical ineptitude and what-the-hey moxie, it's a charm mostly lost on me, especially when the Harryhausen tributes aren't front and center. We'll always have the introduction of the old man in the cave, though. And those lips.

This low budget horror film might look a little silly today, but it certainly influenced many horror films in the 70s and 80s. The acting isn't all that great and the script sometimes feels like a first draft, but once the stop-motion creatures make their appearances, they steal the film and make it something more than just another "4 young adults trapped in the forest" film. Although it is more than 40 years old now, it still somehow seems fresh today.

elements of edward d. wood, ray harryhausen and scooby doo are mixed together and acted out by humans made of wood