Consider Equinox… A Journey into the Supernatural as the very watchable demo reel that launched the careers of Dennis Muren, David Allen, and Jim Danforth. Released theatrically in 1970 as The Equionox (padded with additional scenes), the original The Equinox… A Journey into the Supernatural is the superior picture. It manages a moderately darker tone and a natural pace in just over an hour, and doesn’t suffer from the feature’s diluting overdubbed dialog. It also boasts longer cuts of critical effects scenes.
The action starts in a short sequence with the destruction of Dr. Waterman’s cabin. A giant cephalopod crushes the building with four nicely articulated tentacles. The close-up of the watery yellow eye is a nice detail. The cabin is destroyed about as well as can be animated in a model of such small scale, and no one questions that the giant cephalopod, an ocean-dwelling monster, somehow wound up in a forest.
On the subject of miniature sets, a fantastic Kong island diorama makes an appearance as the middle eastern origin of the Necronomicon.
Cyclops’ cousin, the memorable bipedal monster Taurus, lacks the graceful form a more skilled sculptor may have fashioned: His shoulders are square, legs stumpy, and his patchy fur and multicolored skin prevent the eye from focusing on his performance. Taurus is nevertheless intimidating when he corners the kids in a chasm, and ingenious when he uproots a tree and uses it as a tool to reach for the Necronomicon. Taurus perishes in an elaborate death sequence after being poked by a sharp stick.
A red, horned, pitchfork-tailed demon is a more successful stop-motion puppet. Animating a flying creature is an ambitious undertaking, and my favorite example is the panning shot of the in-flight demon snatching Susan. It’s the kind of challenging, optically demanding effects shot that makes this amateur production worth watching, and visually it’s a success.
Dennis Muren refers to the effects in this film as “fossils.” That may be true, but they are no less interesting to watch.