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Arletty (Marianna Hill) travels to the coastal California town of Point Dune to visit her bohemian father, from whom she has received worrisome letters of late. Once there she discovers he has vanished, leaving behind cryptic diary entries. Joined by aristocratic loafer Thom (Michael Greer) and his two "groupies" (Joy Bang and Anitra Ford), Arletty investigates her father's disappearance and is struck by the strange behavior of the townsfolk.
MESSIAH OF EVIL (DEAD PEOPLE) is an inchoate, jumbled narrative, given a boost by some of the more atmospheric scenes in the horror genre: The opening encounter with the albino at the gas station; Anitra Ford stumbling upon some late-night grocery store scavengers; Joy Bang sitting in a movie theatre while the seats around her gradually fill with the undead; the climactic raid on the beach house during which attackers crash down through the skylights; to mention just a few.
On the other hand, aspects of the film such as the morose, faux-literate narration, and the Thom character, are pretentious. Michael Greer is a good actor, but his role isn't well fleshed out. Joy Bang is a hot little number with an infectious petulance, but not much of an actress. Choppy editing and a surfeit of inconsequential scenes are also detriments. Furthermore, we are never given an adequate explanation as to what causes the zombification to spread and why. The entire basis of the film's horror is not fully formed. In that respect (as well as in others) I was reminded of LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH, John Hancock's creepy 1971 classic. Both films are conceptually confused - as a matter of fact, the latter even more so since it's never clear whether the monsters are zombies, vampires, or ghosts...or all three - , both films begin and end with a voice-over account from the heroine, and both involve the intrusion of a mentally fragile woman in a small town full of altered, threatening beings. "Let's Scare Jessica to Death", ignoring the ludicrous title, is easily the better of the two. It has a much more evocative sense of specific location ambience, and is, on the whole, more satisfying and cohesive.
Complaints aside, "Messiah of Evil" is a good find for 1970s Horror aficionados. A remastered, re-edited version would be welcome.
score 8/10
Oliver_Lenhardt 16 November 2002
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0134805/ |
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4-4-2021 11:20:29