Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Really Surprised!

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Released in 1973, "Messiah of Evil" is an American film. The title is misleading; the movie was originally called "Dead People," which is more fitting.THE PLOT: A woman (Marianna Hill) goes to the California coastal town of Point Dune to visit her artist father. She can't find him, but runs into a guy (Michael Greer) and his two female companions (Anitra Ford & Joy Bang). They all soon discover that there are mysterious and peculiar things going on in town: The people are somnambulistic and mysteriously stand at the shore every twilight looking out to sea. Things eventually take a deadly turn.The film has a haunting ambiance, effectively combining elements of "Carnival of Souls" (1962) and "Night of the Living Dead" (1968). It's on par with "Carnival" but not great like "Night," a classic horror masterpiece.As noted above, Marianna Hill is the doe-eyed protagonist. You may not remember her, but she's one of the most beautiful women to ever appear on the Original Series of Star Trek, specifically the episode "Dagger of the the Mind" as Dr. Helen Noel. The film is a must for fans of Ms. Hill (like me) since she is prominently featured.The title "Messiah of Evil" is too generic and gives the impression that the story prominently features a weirdo dark Christ-figure, but this is hardly the case. The dark messiah is ambiguous and barely featured. A more fitting title would be "Village of the Dead" or something to this effect.BOTTOM LINE: Many hail this as a moody horror masterpiece from the early 70s. It has a few highlights and is mandatory viewing for 60s-70s mystery/horror aficionados and admirers of the lovely Marianna Hill. Unfortunately, it's actually kind of boring and the whole "dark messiah" side of the story is seriously insubstantial.The film runs 90 minutes and was shot in Malibu, Burbank, Anaheim, Melrose, Venice and Echo Park, California.GRADE: C+ or B-

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.

In the history of film, there was perhaps no actress with a worse stage name than Joy Bang. Now had she been a porn star, the name would have been a boon, but in films like "Dead People" and "Play It Again, Sam", this moniker was less than helpful in forwarding Ms. Bang's career! Perhaps she should have thought of some other pseudonym...ANY other pseudonym! The film begins with Mariana Hill playing a young lady who arrives in a creepy town. She is looking for her father--a famous artist. No one seems to know where he is--and all this is accompanied by VERY creepy music and acting. While for a long time NOTHING really spooky occurs, the film makers manage to still make a film that makes you on edge.The lady soon meets up with a SUPER-bizarre group of weirdos--a rather bohemian man (Michael Greer) and his two ditsy and even weirder female companions (one of which is Ms. Bang--playing the more annoying of the two playmates). Inexplicably, she invites the trio to stay the night at her home--though they just exude strangeness and I can't see any sane person asking them to spend the night! Again, nothing bad has occurred--but there is an undercurrent of foreboding. I was quite surprised when I soon saw that these four were among the most NORMAL folks in this entire hellish town. Why and what was happening in this town is just something you need to see for yourself.The film is just inundated with one sick and twisted vignette after another. The albino man is particularly strange, though I also have no desire to EVER go to a Ralph's grocery store after seeing this film'...and the movie theater will never be the same after seeing "Dead People"! You just have to see what I mean in this incredibly odd and very, very atmospheric tale. Like another horror film of the same period, "Suspiria", the film is permeated with a sense of dread though what exactly this is all about is quite vague until near the end. And, like this other film (as well as "Carnival of Souls" and "Night of the Living Dead"), they do a lot in setting a mood with an incredibly small budget.The bottom line is that this film is immensely scary, stylish and unsettling. Despite its very humble pedigree, the film is very, very effective and is a wonderful example of inexpensive cult horror.