According to Gargoyles, a TV movie first broadcast on CBS in 1972, the stone gargoyles that grace gothic cathedrals and other structures are artistic interpretations of real beings — soldiers of Satan who appear every 600 years and attempt to take over the world for their evil master. Wouldn’t you know it, the gargoyles are due to appear in New Mexico in 1972, and it’s up to a college professor and his daughter to stop them.
Dr. Mercer Boley (Cornel Wilde) is a successful demonologist. Not in any occult or supernatural sense. Rather, he writes anthropological books on the origins of demonic myths throughout the world. His studies take him to Devil’s Crossing, New Mexico (location work was done in and around the area of Carlsbad Caverns). He’s joined by his daughter, Diana (Jennifer Salt), who enjoys traveling all over the world with him. Their first stop is a lonely roadside attraction run by Uncle Willie (Woodrow Chambliss), who looks like he hasn’t been around a living person in years.
Willie shows them a humanoid skeleton, complete with beak, horns, and wings, that he claims he assembled from a complete set of bones he found in the desert. At first, the Boleys are skeptical, but then the shack with the bones is attacked, ripped apart, and burned by some unseen menace with sharp claws. Willie is killed in a resulting fire, and the Boleys have to flee for their lives. Because they are good citizens, they stick around to report the incident to the authorities, and the movie is off and running.
The authorities are skeptical of events, as well they should be, and end up incarcerating a group of desert dirt bike riders for Willie’s death. One of these is James Reeger, played by Scott Glenn, in one of his earlier roles.
The movie doesn’t maintain any mystery about the attack for long. It was indeed carried out by gargoyles, which viewers get to see in all their glory as they continue to assail the other characters in the movie.
It’s network television from the 1970s, so I can’t attack the gargoyle costumes too much, but they are silly as all hell. The costumes are neoprene wetsuits with rubber scales and beaks, and fur pasted here and there to hide the seams. The lead gargoyle, because of course there is a lead gargoyle, has a more traditional devil-like face, with pointed nose, extended chin, and prominent cheekbones. He also gets wings.
This lead gargoyle was played by blaxploitation actor extraordinaire, and Shitty Movie Sundays favorite Bernie Casey, but one wouldn’t know that at all without seeing the credits. He’s completely covered. Also, according to the internet, so it must be true, the producers didn’t think Casey’s voice fit the look of the gargoyle, so he was dubbed by Vic Perrin in post-production.
The movie has a much better pace than one would expect from a TV movie of the era, as they were usually inexpensive productions. Director Bill Norton never let the movie settle into long scenes of dialogue or exposition. Sure, that stuff is there, and is as somnambulistic as one would expect, but it never takes long for there to be another gargoyle attack, or car chase, or what have you.
Besides those listed above, other cast members of note are Grayson Hall as an alcoholic motel owner who always carries a glass, and William Stevens as the chief of the local police. For the most part the cast did well, with the exception of Glenn. He’s never been much when it comes to emoting throughout his career, but in this movie he could barely be bothered to open his mouth when he delivered his lines.
This being a TV movie, there is no gore or blood to speak of. This is a horror movie that stands on its idea and the execution thereof, and on its pacing. The idea is interesting enough, but those gargoyle costumes are so mirthful they can’t be taken seriously. This is a movie that could easily have descended into something talky where little happens, and it’s to Norton and company’s credit that that did not happen. But, there’s only so high a movie like this can rise in the Watchability Index. Gargoyles takes over the #311 spot from Scared to Death. There are worse ways to spend an hour and fourteen minutes of one’s life.
Of final note, Gargoyles is legendary effects man Stan Winston’s earliest credit, making this obscure TV movie a part of Hollywood history.