I was keen to see Messiah Of Evil (1973) as it had often been compared to Carnival Of Souls, a low-budget horror movie that I’ve come to love because of the atmosphere it creates. Like in Carnival Of Souls, a close up on a suspicious, evil person in Messiah Of Evil might reveal bad, cheap ‘ghoul’ make-up, but the overall vibe is effectively eerie and transcends the dated, limited special effects. We hear narration of Arletty (Marianna Hill) warning us from an ayslum about a place they’ve visited – Point Dume on the California coast – and an unfocused shot of a woman in a darkened hallway, made a glimmer through the light shining at the end of the corridor. We see the past story unfold as Arletty drives out find her father (Royal Dano), a painter who relocated to Point Dume to join an artist community, and who has not been in contact for several months. Her father’s beach side house is made up of fabulous interiors of eye-catching murals (crowd scenes, the face of Lee Harvey Oswald, etc), which contributes to the mounting feeling of paranoia. The town seems empty and characters wander large spaces unbeknownst that a strange crowd lurks where least expected. When Arletty connects with a visiting trio of bohemian types – a well-suited aristocrat (Michael Greer), a vampish model (Anitra Ford) and a hippie chick (Joy Bang) – they wind up staying at her father’s place. It feels like the set up for a groovy scene, but as people drift off due to sexual dissatisfaction or boredom, a sinister force reveals itself further. There are some brilliant sequences of slowly mounting dread, such as a late night supermarket jaunt that prefigures Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead and an homage to the playground scene in The Birds but in a cinema with too many patrons sitting behind you. Even when everything is fully explained, it’s not really, and much remains mysterious and confusing by the end. It’s a waking dreamscape feeling, an expression of being a stranger in a strange town and behind every corner, there’s a group wanting to envelop you. I was into it, from the haunting early synth score by Phillan Bishop to the alluring images by cinematographer Stephen Katz. Even the great Elisha Cook Jr appears as a trademark harbinger of doom. Directed and written by Williard Huyck and Gloria Katz, who helped George Lucas write American Graffiti, and eventually wrote Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom and helmed the infamous flop Howard The Duck. I didn’t realise that was a young Walter Hill in the pre-title murder sequence. Streamed on Shudder in Australia (but you can also find a number of copies on YouTube). Recommended.
VHS Tracking 