The only frightening thing about The Sentinel is its director's mind.

The Sentinel is a grubby, grotesque excursion into religioso psychodrama, notable for uniformly poor performances by a large cast of familiar names and direction that is hysterical and heavy-handed.

The scene stealer, though, is Burgess Meredith as Alison's neighbor, Charles Chazen.

A lot of really interesting ideas are executed rather sloppily, albeit entertainingly, among an all-star cast.