everyday is halloween

movies that scared the pee out of me: the sentinel [1977]

i really don't remember seeing this flick.  only the shadows of fear, of being scared shitless, shroud my memories of this movie.  a young model moves into an apartment building that is occupied by a blind priest played by john carradine on the top floor.  turns out this building is the gateway to hell.  carradine is keeping the demons at bay.

but an image of the actor burgess meredith and the stairwell and the demons and the girl is seared into my memory.  i may even be remembering a bit from the trailer played on TV.  i don't know.  demons and the gate of hell gave me the cold sweats.  anything suggesting the devil and hell had me jumping out of my skin when i was a kid.

that image of demons and the girl and burgess meredith and the stairwell haunted my dreams.  the image followed me to my bedroom.  it was around the corners and a little beyond my field of vision.  and yet i know they were somehow present and  waiting for me.  i was haunted.  i was scared out of my wits.

perhaps that fear, vistigial, has kept me from seeking out this movie and watching it again.  i know it got middling reviews.  i don't believe in hell, or heaven.  and yet i remember my fear and how physical it was caused by images from this film.

 i know the boogeyman ain't real, okay.  and still. . .and yet. . .

boo