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What spectacular and iconic horror paperback cover art of the 1970s! I haven't read Jeffrey Konvitz's bestselling novel The Sentinel (Ballantine, Jan 1976), but I did see its star-studded film adaptation, which featured one of the most vapid of leading ladies as well as
actual deformed humans to recreate this stepback art! Heavens.
The paperback revels in then-classic horror imagery: creepy old priest,
Charlie Manson-looking demonic hippie - I can totally see how this would appeal to someone scanning the drugstore racks - and then you open up the cover and you're
accosted by a hellish vista of even more demonic hippies! That decade wore its fears and phobias pretty much on its sleeves.
I have very fond memories of reading this one back in the day - snagging it from the local used paperback shop and devouring it's musty pages. I remember it really got to me then - the is she crazy/is this happening - the creepy Brownstone, the lesbians and their weird encounters, the old man and his cat Jezebel and then ultimately her fate. I saw the movie version not to long ago and wasn't that impressed by it, I seem to remember that the book was soo much better - I have no idea if it would stand up to the test of time or not.
ReplyDeleteVery creepy book. Pretty sucky movie. Re-watched the movie two years ago and apart from the performances of Sylvia Miles as that campy and decadent lesbian and Burgess Meredith as the pussycat loving neighbor I pretty much hated the thing. I think I'll not re-read the novel for fear of ruining my memory of the book.
ReplyDeleteAll depends on which version of the movie you watched. There is a recut version for TV and the actual theatrical release. I favor the TV version as it replaces the papal conspiracies with a whole separate order committed to guard the gates of hell.
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