Equinox (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Equinox

Directed by	Dennis Muren Jack Woods
Produced by	Jack H. Harris Dennis Muren
Written by	Mark Thomas McGee Jack Woods
Starring	Edward Connell Barbara Hewitt Frank Bonner Robin Christopher
Music by	John Caper, Jr.
Cinematography	Mike Hoover
Editing by	John Joyce
Distributed by	Tonylyn Productions
Release date(s)	October 1970
Running time	80 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Equinox is a 1970 American horror film. Originally made in 1967 under the title The Equinox...A Journey into the Supernatural it was directed by Dennis Muren, and stars Edward Connell as Dave, Barbara Hewitt as Susan Turner and Frank Bonner as Jim Hudson. The plot revolves around four teenagers who head into the woods to look for the lost scientist Dr. Arthur Watermann. A forest ranger watches over the teenagers, who in reality is Asmodeus. When the teenagers stumble upon an ancient book, Asmodeus sends a variety of monsters to retrieve the book from them at all costs.

The Equinox...A Journey into the Supernatural was picked up for distribution by producer Jack H. Harris, who shot new footage for the film with Jack Woods and released it in 1970 as Equinox.

1 Production
2 Legacy
- 2.1 DVD release
3 External links

[edit] Production

While studying business at Pasadena City College, Dennis Muren spent $6500 to make Equinox, which at that time was a short science fiction film. Tonylyn Productions, a small film company, liked the film enough to distribute it. Tonylyn hired film editor Jack Woods to direct additional footage in order to make Equinox into a feature-length movie. When the feature-length Equinox was released in October 1970, Muren was credited as a producer in spite of having directed much of the film and creating the special effects himself. The movie made enough money for Muren to recoup his $6500 investment.

[edit] Legacy

Equinox is assumed to have inspired Evil Dead,^[who?] yet this has not been confirmed. It was seen by members of the crew of Evil Dead before production:

"I had seen Equinox at least twice in drive-ins before making Evil Dead. I don't recall having discussed it with [Evil Dead director] Sam Raimi, but the similarities are remarkable. I think they come from the low-budget nature of both films. That is, a few characters, an isolated, inexpensive location, and ambitious special effects. All in all, Equinox did inspire me to continue my goal of making movies. 'If they can do it...'"
—Tom Sullivan, special effects and make-up artist for the Evil Dead movies, as quoted from the booklet included with the Criterion DVD set, "Backyard Monsters: Equinox and the Triumph of Love" by Brock Deshane.