Sandra Dee, out of all people, portrays the endangered protagonist, a college student seduced by the hypnotic(..key word)charms of warlock Dean Stockwell who wishes to to open the gateway for unleashing "the old ones" from another dimension and needs the Necronomicon, in possession of Professor Ed Begley who tours campuses lecturing on the book's content and origins. He wishes to use Dee as a sacrifice to the demon gods on the cliff-side ruins of an ancient alter. Sam Jaffe hams it up as the loony grandfather of Stockwell and Lloyd Bochner is the village doctor Begley confides in to stop Stockwell from what he plans to do regarding the gods which await re-entry into our world and to Dee, sexually! I found the film, at times quite atmospheric and moody(..mainly the first 45 minutes), but the ending is sh!T. Loved the score by Les Baxter, although it seems, at times, to resemble the background music of a Scooby Doo episode. My favorite shot has a camera looking out from a burial plot after the death of a specific character as Stockwell attempts to perform a ritualistic ceremony. The film's night sequences at the end as a band of angry villagers, following behind Begley and Bochner, are attacked by a creature( that looses itself from a locked room in Jaffe and Stockwell's home), within the woods drove me nuts..you can't see a damn thing unless the director lets loose those color schemes which operate loudly as the monster's "sight" when it confronts possible victims. And, the face off between Begley and Stockwell as Gidget lays on the sacrificial alter in orgiastic(..under an induced hypnotic state, although one might use that as a description of Dee's performance)bliss is laughable. I loved the opening animated credits sequence. Considering this is an AIP production, I was disappointed. At times moody and interesting, other times painstakingly dull.