Gargoyles Year: 1972 Director: Bill L. Norton Written by: Elinor Karpf, Steven Karpf Threat: Gargoyles Weapon of Choice: Claws Based upon: none IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
None

Rish's Reviews
The director of More American Graffiti brings you Gargoyles, a TV movie from an apparently really good time for TV movies. A staple, growing up, of cable channels like TBS Superstation, I had never sat through this before, but had always been a bit unnerved by the design of the creatures, especially their eyes.
An anthropologist (Cornell Wilde) and his babe daughter stumble upon a mysterious skeleton in the desert and find it to be that of a "mythical" gargoyle. Not long after, an entire group of live, deadly gargoyles come out of hiding to prevent the world from uncovering their existence.
This flick was surprisingly good, especially since it must have had a very low budget. I liked the concept, the cast, and thought the titular beings were well-executed (even the silly flying effects). The Stan Winston makeup for the creatures was excellent, and though not great by today's standards, is pretty darned impressive nonetheless.
The film did get a tad slow toward the end (indeed, I nodded off long enough to have to rewind the DVD a ways . . . made even more unusual considering you don't rewind DVDs), but the pacing of movies in general in the early Seventies was slow, especially made-for-TV fare like this.
The daughter, played by Jennifer Salt (who my bald friend recognised, and I didn't) was very hot, dressing in a way that got me all excited. Scott Glenn appeared as a motorcycle rider, and though he had to have been young in the role, he still looked as old as the hills. I guess some people are just that way. Bernie Casey played the leader of the gargoyles, who, although evil, was not unsympathetic. I hope to be remembered with those very words.
I'd Recommend It To: Fans of television Horror. I know you're out there.
Posted: January 4, 2005

Total Skulls: 12

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears		Scott Glenn
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?