Some things I liked some I did not.

Best movie ever!

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This was such a boring, confusing movie!.....very slow moving! ........after 6 minutes I lost interest and couldnt understand a single scene. ......I shut it off and watched Candyman 3 ......now that is an awesome scary movie. Avoid this garbage and watch Friday the 13 series or Candyman.....you will be glad you read my review~

I had bought the Mill Creek Chilling Classics 50 movie pack a few years ago and I had noticed that Messiah of Evil (1973) was included in it but for one reason or another I never wanted to watch it. Fast forward to last years October Challenge and I was running out options to watch - so I half-heartedly decided to watch it. Well, needless to say, I didn't regret it, and even tho the copy wasn't the best in the world - it didn't damper my enjoyment of it, far from it. It was a great find and if I were to compile a Top 10 of my favorite horror films of the top of my head, then this would undoubtedly make the cut.Messiah of Evil is about a young woman who searches for her missing father after he abruptly and unexpectedly stops communication with her. When she arrives at a picturesque seaside home, where her father lived, she finds that the residents of the town are bizarre. She arrived with a hippie couple who are curiously attracted to the strange town. Together, the soon find out that the town is crawling with a flesh-eating cult.There are a few unforgettable scenes that are genuinely scary that leave an expression: like the supermarket scene and, of course, who can forget the movie theatre scene, both outstanding. The director, Willard Huyck, I have to say does a really splendid job in creating this almost dream-like vibe for the film and it doesn't let up. It is psychedelic. The story kinda reminded me of an old H.P. Lovecraft tale. The atmosphere is unrelentingly grim and I can only describe it as intense and an nightmarish dread. It is creepy as hell and it is full of very strange and memorable characters.What I like most about it - is it's ambiguity. We're never terribly sure if the "creatures" are zombies, ghouls, vampires or just cannibals or something else and no loose ends are tied by the end of the film either. It is shamefully still obscure among the numerous bad low-budget drive-in horror flicks of the 70's, it doesn't deserve it. I seen it late at night and I was pretty tired but I will never forget it. Messiah of Evil is one of a few horror movies that I truly found scary and I seen a lot.

Screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz took time off from "American Graffiti" to make MESSIAH OF EVIL, an art film in every sense of the term. Narrated by a woman confined to an insane asylum, the film opens with her warning "They say nightmares are dreams perverted..." as she proceeds via flashback to relate how and why she came to be locked away. Arletty (eternal starlet Marianna Hill, nee Marianna Schwarzkopf, cousin to the general) travels up the California coast to an isolated seaside town in search of her artist father and teams up with a well-dressed hippie (Michael Greer) and his two groupies (exotic Anitra Ford & spacey Joy Bang) to unravel the cryptic diary she finds in her dad's abandoned beach house. The walls are bizarre paintings that blend '70s pop art with Edward Hopper-style imagery and the film soon becomes a nightmarish fever dream indistinguishable from that artwork. The apocalyptic "mystery" involves a malediction dating back to the Donner party and doesn't make much sense but so what -the ladies are lovely and the set piece slaying's sure unsettling in this quasi- surreal, one-of-a-kind film, the closest Hollywood ever came to fantastical Eurotrash in the early 1970s. Elisha Cook, Jr as a town drunk who talks too much and Royal Dano as Arletty's missing dad make the most of their screen time and Joy Bang attends a midnight screening of what would prove to be the prophetic KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE with coming attractions showing Sammy Davis Jr & James Caan in GONE WITH THE WEST, a film not released until 1975. The MESSIAH's become a cult classic that actually lives up to that appellation.

An attractive brunette by the name of "Arletty" (Marianna Hill) gets a strange letter from her father and decides to drive to a mysterious town on the California coast called Point Dune to see him. Stopping at a gas station on the way she meets a frightened service station attendant along with a strange man who also pulls up for gas. The next day she goes into town and meets a man named "Thom" (Michael Greer) and two of his "traveling companions" named "Toni" (Joy Bang) and "Laura" (Anitra Ford) who end up staying with her at her father's home for a few days. Now, rather than spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just add that this is a type of film more on the lines of "Carnival of Souls" than a usual zombie film. One thing that puzzles me is the fact that this film was supposedly released in 1973. However, if a person actually does any research, they will find that the scene in which Toni goes to the movie is out of place for that year. While the movie marquis lists the film being shown as "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" the actual movie being played is "Gone with the West" which was made in 1975. This leads me to believe that "Messiah of Evil" was reissued with additional footage and possibly relisted under the same title or perhaps as "Dead People" in 1975. Whatever the case may be, this film is still worth a watch for those who enjoy bizarre movies of this type.