cult film freak: CORNEL WILDE, SCOTT GLENN AND JENNIFER SALT IN 'GARGOYLES'

Title: GARGOYLES Year: 1973 Rating: ****

Cornel Wilde plays a writer obsessed with debunking Gothic mythologies, and answers a call to hear an old man in the middle of the desert who owns a rural liquor store/freak show hybrid, and has a Gargoyle skeleton to possibly prove it...

Jennifer Salt tags along as Wilde's progressive photographer daughter, and eventually winds up kidnapped by the titular creatures that... seeking their skeletal bones that Wilde took with him... prance around in a surreal/dreamlike fashion; ultimately led by Bernie Casey outfitted in green monster garb that, created by Stan Winston, looks effective and creepy, especially for a TV-movie...

Jennifer Salt & Cornel Wilde in GARGOYLES

One of the spookier moments occurs in noisy darkness as the creatures initially attack the barn. After which a group of hippie dirt-bike riders led by Scott Glenn (who'd later appear in the same director B.W. Norton's MORE AMERICAN GRAFFITI) are falsely accused by local redneck cops of ruining the place they're merely ripping through the ruins of...

Leading to a mountain locale where the creatures have their nests and eggs ready for a revolution, looking like something from a green-glowing STAR TREK planet only this is an Earthy vehicle from the gritty 1970's: a terrific decade for exploitation horror either way.