Le Messie du mal

This enigmatic, artsy horror film from the early 1970's is a lost low budget B classic waiting to be rediscovered. Also known as "Dead People," "Revenge of the Screaming Dead," and "Second Coming," this is actually a pretty creepy and surrealistic little flick.

Nicely stylized performances, both slowly sliding from self-possessed cool into numb fear in a believable style. There are also effective character turns by Elisha Cook, Jr. Old veteran actor instantly recognizable for his many roles film noir. Elisha Cook, Jr. Has a flair for portraying intense neurotics or spineless double-dealers. His best-known role was that of Wilmer in The Maltese Falcon (1941).

Rock solid performances, strongly developed characters, a genuinely creepy atmosphere. Much better than one would imagine for its low budget. "Messiah of Evil" ultimately has some great visual ideas and a genuine undercurrent of dread . Messiah Of Evil is a macabre little gem and a must for any fan of 1970's horror.

The lovely Marianna Hill ("The Godfather: Part II") stars as Arletty, a young woman who's been corresponding with her artist father Joseph (Royal Dano, "Killer Klowns from Outer Space") long distance. When his letters become increasingly bizarre and ominous, she goes in search of him. She arrives in the remote coastal California town of Point Dune, and hooks up with three strangers who've come to town to document local folklore, including that of a "blood moon".

It does not take long for strange and violent things to begin happening, in this little film that is a marvel of weirdness and atmosphere. "Messiah of Evil" strives for both of those elements, and does a fantastic job. At first, it seems as if the filmmakers won't bother to explain too much, but then some back story is provided around the 71 minute mark. After that, things do become a lot clearer.

The husband and wife filmmaking team of Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz may have unfortunately torpedoed their career in the 1980s with the debacle that was "Howard the Duck", but they really have never gotten quite enough credit for this enjoyable, twisted independent horror film. It manages to get pretty violent without going over the top in terms of gore. It is really the offbeat ambiance of this film that makes it work as well as it does. It can boast two standout, memorable horror sequences: one in a supermarket, and one in a movie theatre.

Hills' performance may be a matter of taste, as she's clearly on the verge of hysteria throughout (and that extends to her frequent narration). Her co-stars do decent work: Michael Greer ("Fortune and Men's Eyes") as the low-key Thom, Joy Bang ("Night of the Cobra Woman") as the childish Toni, Anitra Ford ("Invasion of the Bee Girls") as the fed-up Laura, and Charles Dierkop ('Police Woman') as a service station attendant. The beloved Old Hollywood character actor Elisha Cook, Jr. ("The Maltese Falcon", etc.) has a great cameo as a drunken local with stories to tell. Non-actor Bennie Robinson has a memorable, creepy presence as a rat-munching albino. At first, Dano's contribution consists mostly of voice-over, until his equally memorable on-screen appearance late in the game. That's filmmaker Walter Hill as the desperate man in the opening minute and a half of the film.

Excellent visuals (those murals in the fathers' abode are wonderful) and superb widescreen photography are two more assets in an interesting, off-the-beaten-path horror film that die hard fans of the genre are advised to check out.

Eight out of 10.

Arletty (Marianna Hill) arrives in a small, odd, creepy coastal town in California looking for her father and she quickly learns little is as it seems.

Before Romero's Dawn of the Dead and The Crazies, there was Dead People a.k.a Messiah of evil. Shot in 1971 the film was not released until 1973. Like H.P. Lovecraft's Dagon and The Wicker Man (1973), weird locals are hiding a horrific secret... In Messiah, the people of Point Dune worship the rise of a red moon as they become zombies. The storyline is disjointed, but this adds to the mystic, surreal and dreamlike quality of the film. Admittedly, it feels art house, there is some irregular editing and the score is very much of its time, but there's plenty to like about it.

Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Dead & Buried (1981) and the aforementioned Dawn of the Dead clearly have taken a cue from Willard Huyck's jumbled but effective film. Especially the scene where slinky brunette Anitra Ford is pursued through a supermarket. There is also truly creepy scene again with Ford and an albino trucker, played by Bennie Robinson, who you'd think would have been in a lot more horror movies. If you liked Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971) and Night of the Living Dead there's some horror delight to be found here from the shocking first kill to the insane asylum ending.

Messiah of Evil oozes dread and suspense, it's a chilling 70's horror flick that despite its faults is a lot better than some of today's so called horrors.

'Messiah of Evil' is a relatively unknown B-Movie horror curio from the Seventies. A woman goes to a small seaside town to look for her artist father after he mysteriously stops correspondence with her and finds that something is well and truly afoot in the town. From the off the film establishes a disjointed atmosphere which is accentuated when she teams up with a man and two (stunning) women involved in a bizarre three-way relationship and together they try to fathom just what the dickens is going on in this creepy town. From here they learn that the town has become (for reasons unknown) a flesh-eating zombie cult.

On the surface the movie appears to have little in the way of characterisation or plot, but any gaps in these qualities only serve to highlight the lingering oddness that pervades the film which reminded me strongly of the distanced dream-like quality of Herk Harvey's B-movie classic 'Carnival of Souls' (1962) and, to a lesser extent, Argento's 'Suspiria' (1977)…if the hysteric flailing of Argento's classic had been given a sedative, that is. This effect is achieved through the locale of the town itself, the fine cinematography, the use of voice-overs, and the music all working effectively to build suspense as the eeriness unfolds climaxing in some genuinely surreal and haunting scenes.

However, it must be said that while I found the surreal world created for me easy to step into and inhabit I can easily see how fans of conventional horror would be put off by the creeping pace and absence of anything tangibly horrific. Still, it's the kind of movie that lives happily with its "cult" tag and sits comfortably among the late-night schedules which it knows all-too-well how to haunt.

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Public domain movie. Watch it free here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuUyNwq9T8

Eerie, dream-like zombie picture that anticipates both Romero's consumerism subtext and Boyle's agile undead. Full of quirky touches, it should be much better known than it is. Strange to think that one year later husband-and-wife team Huyck and Katz would co-write American Graffiti