About the film
- Directed by
- Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz
- Released
- April 23, 1975
- Certification
- R
- Country
- United States of America
- Starring
- Marianna Hill, Michael Greer, Joy Bang, Anitra Ford, Royal Dano
More credits
- Language
- English
- Origin
- US
- Studios
- V/M Productions
- Written by
- Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck
- Produced by
- Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz, Alan Riche
- Cinematography
- Stephen M. Katz
- Music
- Phillan Bishop
- Also starring
- Elisha Cook Jr., Charles Dierkop, Bennie Robinson, Morgan Fisher, Emma Truckman
Before American Graffiti made their names, two screenwriters who co-wrote it for George Lucas made something so strange it barely got released at all.
MESSIAH OF EVIL (1973) was written and directed by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, who also gave us Howard the Duck. It follows Arletty Lang, played by Marianna Hill, as she travels to a sleepy coastal town in search of her missing artist father, Joseph Lang, played by Royal Dano. She finds his house filled with disturbing murals and diary pages describing a “blood moon” and a town turning against itself.
The people of the town are not zombies exactly. They eat raw meat in supermarkets, stare too long, and silently fill the empty seats of a movie theater behind a lone viewer. The film creates dread with empty spaces and wrong colors, favoring unease over jump scares.
Elisha Cook Jr. appears as a drunk doomsayer nobody believes. Charles Dierkop plays a gas station attendant caught in the town’s rot.
Shot in 1971, the film was taken out of its makers’ hands, recut, and released with little fanfare. A 1978 reissue as Return of the Living Dead was shut down by George Romero’s lawyers, and it resurfaced later under titles like Dead People and Revenge of the Screaming Dead. Messiah of Evil has since been rediscovered as a landmark of American Lovecraftian horror.
How to see Messiah of Evil (1975)
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Source: JustWatch
Physical media
More editions
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One of my all-time favorite horror movies.
It’s an odd duck but worth watching. It’s like a Lucio Fulci fan film 15 years too early.
Absolutely love this film
It’s got a great creepy H.P. Lovecraft vibe
Definitely worth watching
…and I love Anitra Ford❤️
Anything with Marianna Hill gets a thumbs up, and this is a great and oddly mellow horror flick. It’s a good one to fall asleep to, and I mean that in the kindest way. 
John McCallum Swain it’s a trap
That supermarket scene is legendary.
Jim Gust and the theater audience growing with every new shot.
i watch these for the style and vibe.
Howard was pretty creepy …
This sounds wonderful. Gonna have to track it down!
Great, weird movie that largely flew under the radar until the DVD age.
Tony Lestat I’m quite interested in this. What do you think, guru?
Chrissy Serendipity Very interesting low budget fun! I don’t love it as much as some others do, but it’s well worth a watch hun 😊
Tony Lestat Thank you. The description makes it sound very liminal and quiet, which I love in a movie (Like Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, which I know we both love❤️)
Had to ask you! You’ve never let me down😘
Great weird beautiful movie
I LOVE that this horror movie is getting more and more attention the last 2 years. Don’t know why, because up till then the only people I knew about it, learned it from me. I found it in one of those giant DVD collections of old movies, that costs $15. I just watched an essay about it on Nightmare Movies channel on YouTube (I can’t possibly recommend his channel enough). I hadn’t thought about it, but he was talking about how this would be an early example of Liminal Horror, my favorite newer genre of horror. (Backrooms would be a popular current reference point.) there’s so much empty space in this film, and it just enhances everything, and makes it actually disturbing. I wonder what the full version of this would have been like, because this is technically an incomplete film.
Incredibly adult film unlike anything else in US cinema. By turns terrifying and contemplative, Andrzej Wajda comes to mind.
I saw this at the Wiltern theater when it was released, then it disappeared and I proceeded to tell everyone about it for years. Just watched it again recently and it sure holds up beautifully.
I thought it was boring and a waste.
My father lives in a run-down beach shack that has a million dollar art gallery inside. There, no one can hear you scream!
Never heard of it! Now I want to see it.
Such a wonderfully weird movie! It’s a favorite.
Great one
I bought a dvd recently, but it looks horrible. I’ll definitely get a 4K restoration if that’s an option.
The colors used in this film are spot on.
The Lovecraftian film Dunwich Horror should have been.
Great film.
Patrick J. McRae you?
Looks amazing!
It’s def an October watch.
Saw this at the theater when it was marketed as a sequel to NOTLD. We were about 16 years old and very disappointed.
I’ve watched that movie multiple times and… it’s OK… but I don’t get why people are always hyping it, putting it on lists and whatnot. But I’m not a Fulci fan either so maybe I’m missing the joy.
Ernesto Plasmo perhaps you just have shitty taste
Mood and style over substance make it similar to 70s Italian horror. The soundtrack and creepy 70s art in the fathers art seal the deal.
One of the locations is a block away on Reseda Blvd.
Solid flick
oh, it’s about as creepy as it can get
no one mentions those incredible black and white murals… obviously made just for the film
Incredibly underrated film. The last scene sent chills through me that I’ve not experienced in years.
Radiance Films did a wonderful job of resurrecting it.
Suresh Subramanian Is that cut different from the theatrical version?
Definitely enjoyed this one.
La vi en inglés, nunca pude conseguirla en castellano! Mariana Hill siempre bella
One of the greatest independent horror films of the 1970s. The supermarket and theatre scenes are master-class.
Saw it, good movie.
Currently on my watch list. I might to move it to the front.
Its an American horror film but for me feels almost European. It is Lovecraftian with the feeling of constant doom
Courtney 🔵
I love that movie, because it’s so odd and has several highly memorable sequences. But you can really tell the money ran out and they weren’t able to film everything they wanted–it’s got that feel of a project whose plot holes/logic gaps aren’t intentional, and couldn’t be wholly “fixed” in the editing room.
This movie is bonkers. In a good way.
Creepy af. Messiah of Evil is that vintage gem you dream about finding. All the charm and quirkiness of early 70s horror but with a bite (literally) if The Last Man on Earth inspired Night of the Living Dead, then Messiah of Evil could have inspired Dawn of the Dead only imagine the shopping mall zombies got smart and decided to run a small town where their dinner is lured into the local Food Lion or the promise of a good movie at the high street cinema
It feels like it takes place in Santa Mira
If you’re interested in learning more about Messiah of Evil filmmakers Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, check out my book on them!