I went to an abandoned farmstead that had a house, barn and several other buildings. I spent most of the afternoon, wandering from building to building, jotting down notes, checking angles, and blocked out five murders. I then went home and hammered out the bare bones of a script based on those five murders.

It was a simple plot, typical Jason Voorhees stuff, with only around five characters and the killer. It wouldn’t be a complete film just several murderous vignettes. 

I scoured the shop until the obvious choice presented itself: an axe. It also fit well for my lack of effects knowledge as I planned to go Hitchcock with my murders; strange angles with strategic objects blocking the actual bloody impacts.

I had my script, my location and my actors all set. I was ready to film.

This is when things began to unravel.

I finally managed to con someone into a loaner. The day of the shoot arrived but only two of my cast showed up - not including the person who was supposed to be bringing the camera. A few frantic phone calls got me nowhere, so I sent Dave and J.J. home. I packed up the dummy, the ketchup and the axe depressed that my little opus died before it even began.

So what the hell does this have to do with Equinox?

Equinox started as a student film project, too. Four years in the making, future ILM effects guru, Dennis Muren borrowed 8 grand to fund his short film. He took it to producer Jack H. Harris who thought the special effects were first rate. He re-shot a few scenes and released it.

Now I won’t even pretend to have the kahonies to compare my little p.o.s. high school project to this film; but I figure the few problems that I had, if you multiply their magnitude by a thousand, you might have an inkling to the daily crisis these low budget filmmakers had to go through.

Everybody seems to think that they could produce something better and blast these films mercilessly. I used to cast stones on these films, too, until I dropped one right on my foot. I slowly realized that, no matter how good my artistic intentions were, if I were under the same circumstances and budget, my finished product would make the worst Ed Wood film look like Citizen Kane.

So I try to rate these films on a dullness factor rather than a badness factor. It is the badness that makes them fun while dullness makes them unwatchable.

As for Equinox, it is anything but dull and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

The story is fairly original as it predates Evil Dead by almost a decade. It bogs down, in exposition, a few times. And the flashbacks inside of flashbacks tend to convolute the plot. It does succeed in creating a creepy atmosphere in several scenes; but it can’t quite maintain it consistently.

Jack Wood’s direction is about fifty/fifty. Just when it starts to get interesting, with wild angles and moving frames, we get a static shot that goes on forever. He seems a little too obsessed with low angle reaction shots of the actor’s heads reacting to things - or just saying their dialogue.

The special effects are raw but good. And you can clearly see the beginnings of something great. Some of the split screens don’t quite line up, the stop-motion effects show their clay origins and you can spot wires holding falling rocks and the winged demon. Where the film excels, though, is in the non-animated effects like the ogre and the giant ghostly apparition.

Basically, if you can look at Equinox in context, you can see it for what it is. A good start to a brilliant career. So the next time you see a bad film, take a step back and honestly ask yourself if you could do any better.

Let’s also give American Movie Classics a big hand for unearthing this cult pic and showing it on the EFX Showcase. I’m not really sure what’s gotten into AMC but has anyone else noticed how many old AIP films they’ve been showing lately?