USA, 1973
90m
35mm film, Technicolor
mono, English
Reviewed at The EOFFTV Review
An American horror film directed by Willard Huyck.
Plot Summary
Arletty heads for the small Californian coastal town of Point Dune in search of her estranged artist father. His house on the beach has been abandoned but he left behind a diary warning of a darkness that he feels is overtaking the town, of suffering dreadful nightmares and addresses Arletty directly, warning her not to try to find him. Arletty falls in with visiting young aristocrat Thom and his two female companions, Toni and Laura and Thom is warned by local drunk Charlie about the coming of the “the blood moon” and “the dark stranger.” Laura is killed by a pack of ghouls she finds eating raw meat in the local supermarket, Toni goes to the cinema only to be menaced by a growing crowd of the same flesh-eaters gathering unseen by her in the seats around her and the town prepares for the return of the eponymous messiah, a former minister and survivor of the Donner Party disaster who, a hundred years ago, had arrived in Point Dune to spread a new religion based on evil and cannibalism.
Credits
Crew
Directed by: Willard Huyck
© MCMLXXIII [1973] by A V/M Production
A V/M production
Executive Producer: Alan Riche
Administrative Executive Producer: james P. Graham
Produced by: Gloria Katz
Associate Producer: Alan R. Howard
Screenplay: Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz
Director of Photography: Stephen Katz
Film Editor: Scott Conrad
Electronic Music by: Phillan Bishop
Production Sound: Alex Vanderkar
Wardrobe: Jodie Tillen, Rosanna Norton
Make-Up: Budd Miller
Art Directors: Jack Fiske, Joan Mocine
Cast
Michael Greer
Marianna Hill
Royal Dano
Elisha Cook Jr
Joy Bang
Anitra Ford
Charles Dierkop
Bennie Robinson
Morgan Fisher
Emma Truckman
Dyanne Simon
Herb Margolis
Alex Michaels
Walter Hill
Laurie Charlap-Hyman
B.W.L. Norton
Alternative Titles
Blood Busters – Germany (DVD), West Germany (re-release)
Dead People – USA (re-release)
Deep Swamp – UK (video)
Djävulens frälsare – Sweden (video)
O Escolhido do Mal – Portugal
El mesías del mal – USA (Spanish)
Mesiáš zla – Czech Republic
Mesjasz zła – Poland
Messia del diavolo – Italy
Messiah of Evil: The Second Coming – USA (DVD)
Messiah of the Evil Dead – Belgium, Canada (video), France (advertising), Japan (advertising), Switzerland
Messias des Bösen – Germany (DVD), West Germany
Le Messie du mal – France
Night of the Damned – USA (re-release)
Return of the Living Dead – USA (re-release)
Revenge of the Screaming Dead – USA (re-release)
The Second Coming – working title
Zumbis do Mal – Brazil
Мессия зла – Russi
Links
Extracts included in
Beyond the Gates (2016)
Cent une tueries de zombies (2012)
The Film Lost to Time (2024)
Litost (2017)
Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)
Remembering Messiah of Evil (2009)
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (2021)
References
Periodicals
- Écran Fantastique no.4 (1978) p.98
- Film Review Digest vol.1 no.1 (Fall 1975) pp.55-56
- Sight and Sound vol.20 no.1 (January 2010) p.88 – DVD review (Reviews: Something of the night by Tim Lucas)
- Variety 30 April 1975 p.19
Starburst no.66 (February 1984) p.46
Books
- The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror by Phil Hardy (ed.) p.250
- Horror and Science Fiction Films II by Donald C. Willis pp.253-254
- House of Psychotic Women by Kier-La Janisse pp.239, 259
- The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia by Peter Dendle pp.109-110
