Messiah of Evil

Summary

“Instead… I think of death… always death!”

Radiance Films over the last year has done an exceptional job of curating an interesting slate of films that consistently surprised their audience with the range of genre offerings they put forward. One of the most pleasant surprises of their slate of titles this year was a brand new release of the well loved Seventies cult horror film classic Messiah of Evil. This release proved to be one of their fastest selling titles due to the beautiful deluxe packaging for the release and the promise of a brand new 4K scan as the source for the film. Messiah of Evil has been fortunate to have been released on Blu-ray a couple times before – once by Code Red and then again by Ronin Flix – but this promised to be a big visual improvement over all prior releases.

Messiah of Evil was written by the husband and wife duo of Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. They directed the film together before they went on to write the screenplays for American Graffiti and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Those prominent credits are probably partially responsible for the cult following that the film has gained over the years. As a side note, they also wrote and directed Howard the Duck, which has its own cult following at this point. As a big fan of Radiance’s releases thus far, I was extremely excited to check out the film last night. 

(Spoiler Alert: If you read too far into this synopsis, there are some spoilers. I recommend viewing the film without knowing too much going in.)

As the film begins, a man runs down a sidewalk. He is obviously exhausted. A teenage girl wearing a sundress slides open a door to her backyard. He walks into her backyard and sits down. She comes up to him and slits his throat. After the cold opening, a woman named Arletty, who may be narrating the film from an institution, explains that she was going to the seaside town of Point Dune to reach her estranged father who had cut off communication with her. At a gas station on the way to town Arletty meets a gas station attendant who fires a gun into the forest. The attendant explains that there are animals out in the woods he is keeping at bay, before giving her directions towards Point Dune and filling up her tank. An albino man in a red truck arrives at one of the stalls and asks for two dollars in gas. While pumping the gas, the attendant sees numerous bodies in the back of the albino’s truck. The attendant tells Arletty to head out when she offers to pay. He doesn’t let on about the bodies and she drives away. That night, while he is alone in the shop, he is killed. Arletty arrives at the beach house of her father Joseph Lang and, finding no one there, she breaks into the house. Her father is an artist and has painted numerous  blue and grey specters onto the walls of his home. Looking around Arletty finds no sign of him. The place is somewhat in disarray. She finds a journal in which her father explains that he is suffering from visions of shadowy figures and pale women with sunken eyes staring towards the black water of the ocean. The next day Arletty walks the beach before going into town. The townsfolk are quite strange. She meets some art dealers in town who say they did not know her father but that some people had come by earlier looking for him. This tip leads Arletty to a local motel where she meets brunette Laura (Anitra Ford,) lanky and shaggy haired Thom (Michael Greer,) and spunky blonde Toni (Joy Bang.) Thom is a Portuguese-American aristocrat. It is obvious that the three friends are involved in a polyamorous love triangle. Inside their motel room, they are interviewing a bum named Charlie (Elisha Cook Jr.) as he discusses the blood moon which had caused the town to lose religion. He also discusses numerous other strange things that he has seen in the town. Charlie warns that the moon will turn red again soon and a dark stranger will return which will unleash havoc in the town. Arletty leaves the hotel and sleeps at her father’s house. She wakes to find that the three folks from the hotel room are in the house uninvited. Thom informs her that they had run into trouble at the hotel because the homeless man’s body had been found after they had interviewed him. He explains that dogs must have killed Charlie because the body was found half eaten. After leaving the hotel, the threesome of Laura, Thom, and Toni were unable to find another hotel room. Arletty allows these strange visitors to stay with her. They talk of ancient civilizations over dinner. When Thom walks on the beach that night, he sees a large group of townsfolk down the beach sitting next to bonfires. Laura leaves the house when Thom tries to put a move on Arletty. She takes a strange ride with the albino man in the red truck. In the back of his truck are numerous silent townsfolk gazing up towards the moon. The albino offers Laura a black mouse to eat. She refuses and asks to be let out of the truck. She walks the streets of the town until she stumbles upon a hotel. The hotel has no attendant, so she leaves there. Arriving at a grocery store, she walks inside. She is surprised to see a group of pale figures eating raw meat from the meat section. They see her also and descend upon her. The next day, Arletty’s father is found dead on the beach… or is it? As the film progresses, the heroine and her two strange bedfellows try to survive the strange cult that has taken over Point Dune while figuring out what exactly is occurring around them.

Messiah of Evil is a really fantastic piece of American Gothic cinema. This is a film that is all about mood and setting. The actual plot mechanics of the picture are not particularly clever when written down on paper, but the way in which the plot is realized is extremely clever. The way in which the plot comes across onscreen in my estimation is actually pretty brilliant. At its basest level the film could be considered a “zombie” picture that shares a lot with George Romero’s films. In fact, this film was named alternatively as Return of the Living Dead, Night of the Damned, and Return of the Living Dead. Legal action was taken against the film to stop its usage of that title. That said, this film is so much more than a George Romero rip off. The film borrows from Lovecraft in terms of setting and mythology, without ever explicitly naming Innsmouth, Dunwich, or the Cthulhu myth. I personally love films like this such as Dagon, In the Mouth of Madness, or Dead and Buried which create oppressive communities where the townsfolk are all under the spell of some form of violent madness. Like those films, Messiah of Evil is a product of its time and place, and that place was along the Pacific Coast of California in the Seventies. The places that represent the most danger for characters are the most sanguine of American places – grocery stores, movie theaters, gas stations – places of commerce and consumption that typically beam of safety from their fluorescent lighting and communal feeling. The film makes each one of those places dangerous by finding unique ways of trapping characters within their walls before they are literally consumed. Keep in mind that the zombies of this film which congregate in public places were onscreen four years before George Romero would focus on shopping malls with Dawn of the Dead.

The cast of the film all turn in solid performances for the most part. Michael Greer is memorable as the polyamorous Thom. Marianna Hill is enjoyable as Arletty. Anitra Ford steals the screen whenever she appears in the film and benefits from one of the best sequences in the picture. Similarly, Joy Bang holds her own onscreen as the more childish and spunky Toni. I enjoyed seeing character actor Elisha Cook Jr. in a small role in the film. He most notably appeared in William Castle’s  classic House on Haunted Hill, and is instantly recognizable. Royal Dano, another character actor known mostly for his work in Western films and television shows, also appears as Arletty’s father.

The film benefits from some truly inspired production design given its shoestring budget. One of the production designers was Jack Fisk who would go on to work with the wonderful director David Lynch. It is easy to tell that the film would have its own unique visual approach once Arletty arrives at her father’s seaside home. The paintings on the walls in the father’s house look amazing – once again mixing commercialism (an escalator) with ghouls (blue and grey specters.) They are at once unsettling and strange while also showing a lot of artistic craftsmanship and an understanding of mise-en-scene. While off putting, the pictures very well could be painted by an eccentric artistic type within his own home. Cinematographer Stephen M. Katz brings out the very best of the settings of the film. Whether he is highlighting the fluorescent glow of the grocery store at night, or casting strong blue light on the characters within the home, the Technicolor imagery is always vivid and visually interesting. Directors Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz had a good idea of how the film should feel based on their own script and they translated it onscreen to make a truly unique American nightmare come to life. 

The Radiance release of Messiah of Evil earns our highest recommendation. It is one of my favorite discoveries on Blu-ray this year.

Video

Radiance Films presents Messiah of Evil in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio in 1080p from a brand new 4K transfer created in 2023 for this release. The transfer for the most part looks fantastic – I think many will find this presentation to be a revelation after numerous prior releases that never quite got it right. The film uses a lot of color and is very well lensed – especially considering its limited resources. It’s visually extremely appealing even though the occasional sequence in the film may look slightly anemic. My guess would be that the occasional anemic sequence has to do with the red dye bleeding over in the negative, but that is honestly just a guess. Radiance has brought the very best out of the film’s materials and deserve praise for their diligence in giving this film such an attractive makeover. There is a fine grain over the proceedings that looks filmic and good. I did not notice any compression issues whatsoever. Radiance did excellent work on this transfer, and I imagine that it was no easy task.

Audio

Radiance Films have provided a restored LPCM 2.0 Mono track. Similar to the film transfer, the sound has been restored very well. The music of the film is eerie and enjoyable. It is interesting to think that the soundtrack of the picture was not a choice made by the filmmakers themselves, but instead was placed on the film by the film’s producers (who took over the final cut.) While the opening song is quite a bizarre choice, the strange music of the film works well to unnerve the viewer. Everything sounded pretty good to me.

Supplements:

• Audio commentary by critics and horror experts Kim Newman and Stephen Thrower – Newman and Thrower are always enjoyable to hear discussing films. These two film authorities consistently are engaging while discussing the film at length.
• Archival interview with co-writer-director Willard Huyck by Mike White from the Projection Booth Podcast – this thirty minute interview is pulled from an episode of the podcast.
• What the Blood Moon Brings: Messiah of Evil, A New American Nightmare – This brand new documentary co-directed by Dima Ballin and Kat Ellinger features interviews with film scholars Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Maitland McDonagh, Guy Adams, Mikel Koven and David Huckvale. This is a very well made piece with some solid thoughts on the film by the numerous gathered talking heads. Radiance continues to show why they are one of the most exciting new labels in the business. Kat Ellinger is one of the more enjoyable film authorities in regards to horror, and it is no surprise that she would compile such a solid piece.
• Visual essay on American Gothic and Female Hysteria by critic Kat Ellinger – as I mentioned above, Kat Ellinger is extremely impressive in regards to her film knowledge. I would consider her one of the foremost authorities on Gothic filmmaking in particular, so this piece was of interest to me.
• The limited edition of this film has a slipcase with a beautifully made booklet featuring writing by Bill Ackerman. The regular edition will feature a shortened booklet and will not have a slipcase. It really looks sharp on a shelf. Side note: Ackerman can also be heard on a Projection Booth podcast that focuses particularly on Messiah of Evil.

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 5/5

Overall – 5/5

Messiah of Evil is one of my favorite catalog releases from this year. Radiance Films obviously has a lot of love for the film because they have put a lot of effort into this release. Between creating numerous exclusive features for the film with the assistance of Kat Ellinger and crafting a commentary between Kim Newman and Stephen Thrower, Radiance also created a beautiful bound book with writing on the film by Bill Ackerman to fit into a great looking slipcase. This is a really great looking release. The new 4K transfer of the film looks great and should make long term fans of the film extremely pleased. Fans have already shown their support for the film by purchasing every limited edition copy of the film prior to its release date, which is encouraging. A standard release will be forthcoming from Radiance which will lose the slipcase and feature a shortened booklet. The film itself has been a wonderful discovery for me. Messiah of Evil is a visually compelling American nightmare that has elements of the Gothic, elements of H.P. Lovecraft’s style, and borrows liberally from George Romero’s zombies from Night of the Living Dead. I completely understand why Messiah of Evil has developed such a loyal following. If you like Seventies horror, this release deserves a spot on your shelf. This release earns our highest recommendation. Definitely pick this one up!