Equinox (1970): The Student-Made Horror That Predicted The Evil Dead

Equinox (1970) is a 71-minute cult horror picture that started life as a USC graduate-film project in 1967. The original 16mm version was directed by Mark Thomas McGee. Producer Jack H. Harris bought the project and hired director Jack Woods to shoot additional footage that expanded the picture into a theatrical release. The monster-effects work — early stop-motion creature animation by Dennis Muren and David Allen — launched effects careers that would shape the next four decades of Hollywood genre cinema.

The student-film origin

Mark Thomas McGee was a USC film student in 1967 when he started production on Equinox as a graduate project. His co-director Dennis Muren — then 20 years old — handled the visual effects. The crew shot on 16mm reversal film stock with a budget under $6,000. Producer Jack H. Harris saw the picture and recognized its theatrical potential.

The 1970 theatrical expansion

Harris hired Jack Woods to shoot new linking sequences with the original cast plus additional 35mm material. The expanded 71-minute picture went into limited theatrical release in 1970. The narrative follows four college students who travel to a remote cabin in the mountains, find an ancient book of forbidden knowledge, and accidentally summon a series of demonic creatures who hunt them through the wilderness. The parallels to Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1981) are direct and well-documented — Raimi has cited Equinox as a direct influence.

The Dennis Muren breakthrough

Dennis Muren went on to become one of the most decorated special-effects artists in Hollywood history. He won nine Academy Awards for visual effects, including E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), the Star Wars original-trilogy prequels, Jurassic Park (1993), and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). His career started on Equinox. The stop-motion monster animation in the picture — particularly an enormous winged creature that chases the students through forest — was groundbreaking 1967-era effects work done by a 20-year-old student.

The Evil Dead connection

Sam Raimi has discussed Equinox as a direct influence on The Evil Dead. The premise — students at a remote cabin awakening evil through an old book — is essentially the same. Raimi's picture was far better-made and substantially scarier, but the narrative debt is direct. Equinox is the proto-Evil Dead, made eleven years before Raimi's picture, by a 20-year-old film student.

Public-domain availability

Equinox fell into the public domain through complicated rights situations after Harris's distribution company changed hands multiple times. The picture circulates freely in 71-minute theatrical form. Image quality is acceptable but unrestored.