The Sentinel (1977) poster
1977 · supernatural · religious · gateway-to-hell

The Sentinel

Directed by Michael Winner1h 32m1977
ElsewhereIMDb6.313kRT48%Metacritic19TMDB6.1230
  • heavy
  • intense
  • inventive
  • bleak
  • cold
Movie DNA

Heavy, steady, measured supernatural / religious, inventive in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

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As a young girl, Alison Parker attempted suicide after being traumatized by her father's sexual exploits. Now an elite fashion model, she moves to a Brooklyn Heights apartment building where she encounters a number of bizarre, eccentric tenants and attempts to uncover the building's sinister secret.

Our read · The Sentinel (1977) reads as a heavy, steady, inventive supernatural · religious · gateway-to-hell entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Where the cast leads
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The shape of The Sentinel

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What watching it is actually like.

You want seventies Brooklyn occult horror with grotesque tenants and hellish dread.

ends unsettlingit leaves you shakenbuilds to a gut-punch finalegrips by minute 14attention 4/5breezes by
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upsuicide themeanimal harmnuditybody horrorgraphic violencegorejump scares

Skip it tonightSkip if cat cruelty, nudity, or demonic body horror will haunt you.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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