Dead People are CREEPY!

Coventry

"Messiah of Evil" (or "Dead People", which is a much more appropriate a.k.a title) is a solid 70's horror gem, surprisingly atmospheric and quite gory despite the obviously low budget production values. It's basically a zombie-movie, but surely NOT the type that George A. Romero popularized half a decade earlier with his milestone "Night of the Living Dead". The undead souls in this film are merely background characters whilst the main storyline revolves on a young woman searching for her father since he went missing in a little seaside town called Point Dune. He was a painter and regularly sent letters to his daughters with an increasingly bizarre content. When Arletty (what's in a name?) arrives in the village, she quickly discovers that the locals aren't very helpful in her search. Quite the contrary, they all seem to be part of a dead cult that patiently awaits the return of an evil messiah who cursed the entire town nearly 100 years before. Needless to say that the plot is very incoherent and full of holes (otherwise, it would have been a much more known film) and the pace is often painfully slow, especially during the first half. It's also a bit confusing, since there are TWO voice-overs constantly interfering each other. Opposed to all these slightly negative aspects, there are several extended and genuinely macabre sequences that'll truly raise the hair on your neck with fear! One scene in particular is downright brilliant and features a doomed girl as she's sitting in Point Dune's movie theater. She's practically alone at first, but when the film plays the undead townsfolk continuously walks into the theater one by one, preventing the poor girl to ever walk out of there alive. The acting performances are acceptable, some of the exteriors filming locations are pretty impressive and the last fifteen minutes are delightfully gruesome! "Dead People" is recommended to purchasers of rare, offbeat horror cinema.

score 7/10

Coventry 28 August 2006

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1460261/