User Reviews

This enigmatic, artsy horror film from the early 1970's is a lost low budget B classic waiting to be rediscovered. Also known as "Dead People," "Revenge of the Screaming Dead," and "Second Coming," this is actually a pretty creepy and surrealistic little flick.

Nicely stylized performances, both slowly sliding from self-possessed cool into numb fear in a believable style. There are also effective character turns by Elisha Cook, Jr. Old veteran actor instantly recognizable for his many roles film noir. Elisha Cook, Jr. Has a flair for portraying intense neurotics or spineless double-dealers. His best-known role was that of Wilmer in The Maltese Falcon (1941).

Rock solid performances, strongly developed characters, a genuinely creepy atmosphere. Much better than one would imagine for its low budget. "Messiah of Evil" ultimately has some great visual ideas and a genuine undercurrent of dread . Messiah Of Evil is a macabre little gem and a must for any fan of 1970's horror.

Eerie, dream-like zombie picture that anticipates both Romero's consumerism subtext and Boyle's agile undead. Full of quirky touches, it should be much better known than it is. Strange to think that one year later husband-and-wife team Huyck and Katz would co-write American Graffiti

If you're not in the market for a moody, atmospheric horror film, Messiah of Evil might not be for you. The script is nothing to write home about and a lot of it can be rather confounding, but it more than makes up for it with some of the spookiest set pieces I've ever seen on screen.

Two sequences stand out in particular. 1.) a woman enters a grocery store late at night to find a horde of zombie-like creatures eating all the raw meat in the freezer section and 2.) another woman goes to see a late night movie and finds herself swarmed by the living dead in a sleek homage to a moment from Hitchcock's The Birds.

Messiah of Evil is a well crafted, creepy, and very memorable experience akin to a nightmare from your childhood. You won't be able to remember all the little details, but you'll remember how it made you feel.

Arletty (Marianna Hill) arrives in a small, odd, creepy coastal town in California looking for her father and she quickly learns little is as it seems.

Before Romero's Dawn of the Dead and The Crazies, there was Dead People a.k.a Messiah of evil. Shot in 1971 the film was not released until 1973. Like H.P. Lovecraft's Dagon and The Wicker Man (1973), weird locals are hiding a horrific secret... In Messiah, the people of Point Dune worship the rise of a red moon as they become zombies. The storyline is disjointed, but this adds to the mystic, surreal and dreamlike quality of the film. Admittedly, it feels art house, there is some irregular editing and the score is very much of its time, but there's plenty to like about it.

Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Dead & Buried (1981) and the aforementioned Dawn of the Dead clearly have taken a cue from Willard Huyck's jumbled but effective film. Especially the scene where slinky brunette Anitra Ford is pursued through a supermarket. There is also truly creepy scene again with Ford and an albino trucker, played by Bennie Robinson, who you'd think would have been in a lot more horror movies. If you liked Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971) and Night of the Living Dead there's some horror delight to be found here from the shocking first kill to the insane asylum ending.

Messiah of Evil oozes dread and suspense, it's a chilling 70's horror flick that despite its faults is a lot better than some of today's so called horrors.

After losing contact with her artist father, Arletty (Marianna Hill) travels to the coastal town Point Dune. She does not find him and stumbles upon Thom (Michael Greer), a weird wealthy man that is travelling with two lovers, Toni (Joy Bang) and Laura (Anitra Ford), to meet her father. She reads his diary and soon she realizes that there is something strange with the residents of the Californian town.

"Messiah of Evil" is an atmospheric horror film with a messy screenplay and disappointing conclusion. There are several great scenes and creepy deaths with wonderful cinematography. However the character Thom never works and his arrival to the house of Arletty's father is ridiculous. The living sharing Point Dune with the dead is also absurd. Last but not the least, there is no satisfactory explanation for the transformation of the dwellers into zombies. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Zumbís do Mal" ("Zombies of Evil")

'Messiah of Evil' is a relatively unknown B-Movie horror curio from the Seventies. A woman goes to a small seaside town to look for her artist father after he mysteriously stops correspondence with her and finds that something is well and truly afoot in the town. From the off the film establishes a disjointed atmosphere which is accentuated when she teams up with a man and two (stunning) women involved in a bizarre three-way relationship and together they try to fathom just what the dickens is going on in this creepy town. From here they learn that the town has become (for reasons unknown) a flesh-eating zombie cult.

On the surface the movie appears to have little in the way of characterisation or plot, but any gaps in these qualities only serve to highlight the lingering oddness that pervades the film which reminded me strongly of the distanced dream-like quality of Herk Harvey's B-movie classic 'Carnival of Souls' (1962) and, to a lesser extent, Argento's 'Suspiria' (1977)…if the hysteric flailing of Argento's classic had been given a sedative, that is. This effect is achieved through the locale of the town itself, the fine cinematography, the use of voice-overs, and the music all working effectively to build suspense as the eeriness unfolds climaxing in some genuinely surreal and haunting scenes.

However, it must be said that while I found the surreal world created for me easy to step into and inhabit I can easily see how fans of conventional horror would be put off by the creeping pace and absence of anything tangibly horrific. Still, it's the kind of movie that lives happily with its "cult" tag and sits comfortably among the late-night schedules which it knows all-too-well how to haunt.

**************************

Public domain movie. Watch it free here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuUyNwq9T8

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with the guy who wrote the review on the top screen. Not vehemently but slightly. This is a really good and unique film for the genre. In contrast to most of the living dead movies ever made this is a classic.

You;re right, though, the scene at the supermarket and the theatre scene are standouts. I think it is well shot, or at least unintentionally atmospheric and I like it because I get a feel of that time and place in independent film-making.

Could have been better but more than technical perfection I look for uniqueness in a movie and this one is unique. Since video stores no longer actually have videos it's great that movie like this are making their way to compilation packages at media superstores. If you see this one in a combo package go ahead and but it I think you'll like it.

www.zombielogicpress.com

Virtually unknown horror pic from the 70s about a woman looking for her missing artist father and finding some kind of zombie cult wiping out a Californian seaside town. The story's flaws are legion as huge holes fill much of it, yet the story about a man coming from/to the canyon a 100 years ago that had been a member of that infamous party forced to consume...well, it was interesting in nothing else. In the beginning of the film some care and effort had been given to help distinguish who was a member of this flesh-eating cult that work together, play together, and rip flesh together. You won't see any gore at all gore-hounds - so this one may not be for you. In point of fact, there is little actually seen in the film other than people at a table gnawing meat(from what looks like it came right out of a supermarket)and like scenes. What this film DOES have going for it are some very clever scenes amidst an obviously constrained budget. There are no names here except Elisha Cook Jr. in a pretty good cameo as a crazed drunk and Royal Dano as the film's narrator and a central character. Other than that we have the daughter played by beautiful Marianna Hill and a man with two girls as his companions holing up in Hill's house when asked to leave town. The man likes mysteries and the girls want to leave. Both are pretty; Anitra Ford, star of such films like Invasion of the Bee Girls, is sultry and decent and her leggy, young co-star is, well let's say its one of the more interesting stage names, Joy Bang. In fact Joy is in the best scene in the film that takes place in a movie theater. The theater is empty at first and each successive scene has more and more of these "beings" moving into the background of the theater and then on all sides of her while a God awful scene from a trailer for a western starring Sammy Davis Jr. plays on the big screen. This scene was darkly humorous and chilling. There were other scenes too, but before I get too carried away with what I did like - this film has some flaws. The aforementioned script has lots of unexplained or poorly explained things throughout: how does the man come from the sea? what is the significance of the guy that eats rats? why was the art dealer blind?(an unusual touch) Where had...? OK, I have lots more but the point has been made. The film's budget is very low. Nothing is shown on screen that might have exhausted the smallest of budgets except for a lot of paint being thrown around a room and one stunt man wearing an outfit that was set to flames. The town used for location shots suits the creepiness of the plot and adds to the film's atmosphere. The acting is not real bad nor is it real good. The four central characters were all chosen not for their abilities but rather for their physical features. They could have been a lot worse in front of the camera in their defense. The ending is way over-blown too. Flaws notwithstanding, I liked this film overall and was impressed with much in it(just loved that movie theater scene) and heartily recommend it to the viewer of low-budget quality horror films.

Unsettling... surreal... otherworldly... those are just a few words one can use to describe this picture. Engrossing... unforgettable... a few more. This movie is worth a thousand words only because no one word will suffice.

Messiah of Evil is the story of a woman who goes looking for her father after he mysteriously stops correspondence with her. When she arrives at his seaside home, she finds that the whole town has gone quite batty. She is joined by a far out new-age couple who were curiously attracted to the strange town. Together, the trio find out that the town has become one big, evil, flesh and blood craving, moon worshiping zombie cult.

This movie is filled to the brim with creepy atmosphere, chilling scenes, very strange and memorable characters, and plenty of genuine w.t.f. moments. Watching this film it, at times, felt like it was shot in another dimension. A world of its own creation.

Don't hesitate to seek out this hidden piece of 70s surrealism and fright. Just sit back and let it catch you off guard.

My impression of this film is that it could have been remembered as a horror classic with a little bit better execution. Storywise, there's almost enough there to be great, and some of the scenes end up being fairly effective, but there are too many wasted opportunities. A woman arrives in a strange town looking for her father. He's an artist, whose expansive home is filled with striking paintings. The town is eerie, and the people she meets are clearly off. So there is some pretty good atmosphere that is developed. However, clunky direction and lazy techniques, such as narration (which is delievered by MULTIPLE characters), take away from what could have been effective scares. There are scenes, such as the one in the theatre, that build very well, but there are also poor choices, such as taking jarring detours to follow around side characters that we haven't even gotten to know. There were even some moments that could have been fairly shocking, but by the time the movie got to them, the effect was already ruined. Not to mention the weak ending. Can not recommend, unless you just want to observe how not to make a memorable horror movie.

A girl arrives in a strange town on the California coast to see her father and learns that he's vanished. When she meets up with a swinging drifter the two soon discover that the weird locals are hiding a horrific secret, they're also quite hungry...

Dead People (also known by the title Messiah of Evil) is an obscure gem among the numerous low-budget drive-in horror flicks of the 70's. It's a gritty film that brims with creative energy and remains intriguingly off-beat throughout. This isn't your standard horror tale at all. There's a great atmospheric dread that runs through the film, along with an amazingly nightmarish moodiness. The compelling plot sports a number of truly chilling scenes and escalates to an intense, if somewhat surreal, finale that's perfectly haunting. It also uses very little violence or gore to reach its effective creepiness.

Director Willard Huyck does a splendid job creating a dream-like vibe for this film and does well with crafting some suspenseful scenes. The cast is good as well. Star Marianna Hill is confident in her portrayal of mystified Arletty and Michael Greer brings something genuine to the character of wondering Thom. Veteran actors Elisha Cook Jr. and Royal Dano are both excellent and truly spooky in their brief but memorable roles in the film.

Is it a perfect film? Not quite, there's some rough editing and a wistful love song theme that seems out of place here, but these issues are dwarfed by the strong points. There's plenty to admire about this chilling, unique horror film. It's definitely worth tracking down for horror fans that enjoy their films a bit on the existential side.

*** 1/2 out of ****

A young woman carries out a relentless search after losing contact with her artist father resulting in fateful consequences . As a beautiful woman named Arletty (Marianna Hill) travels to the west coast , she goes searching for her missing artist father . Her journey takes her to a strange Californian seaside town . At the beginning she doesn't find him , but Arletty meets Thom (Michael Greer) , a man who's travelling with two lovers, Toni (Joy Bang) and Laura (Anitra Ford). From this moment on , Arletty has unfortunate encounters , nightmares and daydreams . And other weird episodes during which the frightened Arletty seems to be mercilessly chased along the way . In order to live they will take you one by one and no one will hear you scream ! . Meet Albert. Albert likes good music, motor trips by moonlight, and...eating human flesh !. Albert is one of the Dead People. What is happening with the zombie apperance ?. Enter at your own risk! . Enter... if you dare . She Escaped Death. Now It Wants Her Back! She Was A Stranger Among The Living. Is there death after life? . A story so unusual it will burn itself into your mind . A weird tale of the unnatural . A picture that will haunt you. Terror you won't want to remember . In a film you won't be able to forget. Terror reigns when he returns.

A really atmospheric and psychological horror film in little budget and enjoyable compositions , it is set at a Californian coastal town that is supposedly invaded by some odd beings , Zombies-alike , and in which our starring must contend the personal demons as well as odd , stalking enemies . There are several scary scenes , chills , thrills , suspense and astonishing ending . A simple and plain plot about a gorgeous girl who's subsequently frightened by ghostly apparitions and becomes drawn to a mysterious abandoned little town with a few townsfolks prowling here and there . The film bears a certain resemblace to the classic ¨Carnival of Souls¨(1962) also with a disconcerting protagonist surrounded by fantastic appearances . Spooky and ghastly frames when our starring is relentlessly chased and attacked by weird figures whose repeated apperances seem mysteriously connected with his disappeared father . Cult-followed suspenseful movie has young Marianna Hill escaping from threatening people and including a tense as well as surprising finale . Including a good support cast such as : Elisha Cook Jr., Anitra Ford , Royal Dano , Charles Dierkop , and even brief appearance by prestigious director Walter Hill as the stabbing victim in prologue and Gloria Katz co-writer cameo as the woman in the box office at the theatre .

It contains a striking cinematography by Stephen Katz in brilliant color and with too much night scenes , adding a sinister atmosphere . Likewise, adequate and rare electronic music by Bishop . This is a confusing but acceptable low-rent production from the writers of ¨American Graffiti¨ : Willard Huyck , Gloria Katz. Filmmaker/writer/producer Willard Huyck was married to Gloria Katz who also served as writer, producer and uncredited filmmaker . As Willard Huyck is a writer/producer and occasionally director with no much success , such as : Best Defense , Willard the Duck , French Postcard . While Gloria Katz was a notorious writer including the following ones : Radioland Murders , American River , Howard the Duck , Indiana Jones and the temple of Doom , French Postcards , More American Graffiti , Lucky Lady , among others . Rating : 6/10 . The movie will appeal to cult movie fans .

The strongest feature of Messiah of Evil is the tone, the atmosphere of the composition, a certain 70s horror movie vibe, on top we get a couple of strong scenes. But in my opinion Messiah of Evil is for some reason not known to a broader audience and for sure it is not an unknown masterpiece nor is it a surreal trip - for this the movie is simply to tame and slow (remember, only a year later something called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was published), and could be rather a horror movie of the 60s. It reminds me a little of those Hammer movie of the 60s, obviously without the gothic chic but with the look of the 70s. Verdict: solid, with some interesting sequences, and recommended, if you sometimes like to watch some movie just for the sake of the vibe, the tone they convey.

"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.

Bizarre - almost random - zombie horror story.

The film's low budget visible in camera effects at times. Nonetheless, decent film if you enjoy the zombie horror genre.

If this town has been zombified for awhile then why are fruits and veggies in the supermarket fresh? And why was the meat fresh? - should have been all rotten if the town really was zombified for a long while. I'm just glad the zombies decided on a fresh kill to get their meat. Yea the only scene worth watching.

Boring, awful film. It's not the low budget factor because I love many low budget films but this film is just lame - LAME! It's awful in every way I can think of.

If you want to see a GOOD zombie movie watch White Zombie (1932) or Night of the Living Dead (1968) and the rest of that series - those films are so much better than this Messiah of Evil crap.

This film is forgotten for a reason so they say but it does have a strong following for a forgotten film - lots of people seem to like this movie and I still don't know why.

I give this one a 2 out of 10 just for the grocery store scene.

2/10

DEAD PEOPLE (or MESSIAH OF EVIL) is one of those rare horror films that comes along only a few instances in one's lifetime. I had heard about it years ago but never sought it, mostly because of the really bad reviews it got (Michael Weldon says it's crap in his Psychotronic book) but after deciding to check it out and paying only 4 bucks for the DVD, I have to say that all those naysayers were wrong. Really wrong.

I was totally knocked-out by this forgotten film. Everything about it is mesmerizing. The thing I was impressed the most about DEAD PEOPLE is the mood. I've rarely seen a horror this darkly moody, not since SUSPIRIA. Horror fans looking for gore or fast paced action or even the standard way horror films are usually made (high body count, an unstoppable killer, etc) will be disappointed by DEAD PEOPLE. It's none of those things.

DEAD PEOPLE is directed like a nightmare and everything about it is disorienting. There's almost no familiar point of reference in the movie. Everything about it is deliberately done as to make the viewers feel like they cannot relate to what's going on, which is probably why this film looks like a failure to many. But for me, the effect is fantastic. This "disorientating" technique is very common now, with celebrated filmmakers, such as David Lynch, who have made entire careers utilizing this style of film-making.

Take the threesome for instance, played by Michael Greer, Joy Bang and the luscious Anitra Ford. When was the last time you saw a threesome in a horror film? This threesome could have easily been used to titillate fans of horror or exploitation films but it is shown matter-of-factly and yet, to most people, a threesome is still not something they're comfortable with. The "matter-of-fact" way the threesome is portrayed might indicate to many that their characters are poorly written when it's the opposite. The fact that the movie never delves into the most salacious aspects of a threesome tells me more about what the filmmakers believed was important to the story than anything else.

But these incidental, disorienting aspects of the story do not even begin to explain the non-clichéd horror aspects of DEAD PEOPLE, which can only be described as beautiful. Something horrific is going on in town. People are turning into "dead people", not because they were bitten by a vampire or a zombie, but because of some unseen force. The creeping terror that occurs in DP is not that different than what happens in something like THE BIRDS or INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, sans cold war paranoia. Thanks to the spooky voice overs, one from the daughter and one from the father, we learn that the unseen force affect people through the mind or soul (the father, who's an artist, is aware of this unseen force and it affects his art. Brilliant!) Comparing DEAD PEOPLE to other films is sorta a disservice because this is a totally original film. Unlike so many horror movies, the horror elements in DEAD PEOPLE are not used by the filmmakers to "punish" the characters but to create a nightmarish world, which oddly enough, because of the subtle way the creeping terror unfolds, makes the movie look more real than real.

The acting from everyone rangs from OK to pretty good, with Michael Greer being a revelation. He has a very commanding presence. It's a shame his film career never amounted to much. And Anitra Ford is ridiculously hot. I've rarely seen such a sensuous woman in movies. Again, it's a shame her career went nowhere. The music is low key but effective. The cinematography is excellent. The amazing use of depth of field enhances the nightmarish goings on. The only thing that's bad is the song at the end. It just doesn't fit the rest of the movie.

For a film that's supposed to be bad, there are several stand-out scenes in it. About 6 or 7. That's a lot! Most have already mentioned those stand-out scenes here (at the supermarket and cinema) but there are others: at the beginning, at the gas station. When the daughter finds her father's notes. Joy Bang looking at the paintings when getting ready to sleep. The scene when the cops start shooting at people. And the dead people crashing though skylight. The sound effects are a little weak during that scene but the whole moment is still powerful.

I hope one day this film will be completely restored and maybe be re-released on the big screen, which would rock. If your a fan of horror and love atmospheric, moody, nightmarish horror films make sure to check out DEAD PEOPLE. It's simply mesmerizing!

If you overlook the first 40-minutes of the dragging foot of crippled dialogue, narration and senseless jabbering, you may find an entertaining lost episode of Scooby Doo. Correction. Scooby Doo has a more convincing creepy atmosphere. This is a dull, bus ride of underplayed overly dramatic characters. It has the dream-like quality of a bad movie nightmare. One where you're having pee dreams and can't wake up. By the time you finally escape the nightmare, you have wet your bed. Messiah of Evil, a.k.a. Dead People obviously tried to capitalize on the success of Night of the Living Dead, but forgot the most important element...terror. Its attempts at terrifying moments just seem to lie there like the Dead as a Doornail Not-so Living Dead. It has the pacing of a sloth.

The lovely Marianna Hill ("The Godfather: Part II") stars as Arletty, a young woman who's been corresponding with her artist father Joseph (Royal Dano, "Killer Klowns from Outer Space") long distance. When his letters become increasingly bizarre and ominous, she goes in search of him. She arrives in the remote coastal California town of Point Dune, and hooks up with three strangers who've come to town to document local folklore, including that of a "blood moon".

It does not take long for strange and violent things to begin happening, in this little film that is a marvel of weirdness and atmosphere. "Messiah of Evil" strives for both of those elements, and does a fantastic job. At first, it seems as if the filmmakers won't bother to explain too much, but then some back story is provided around the 71 minute mark. After that, things do become a lot clearer.

The husband and wife filmmaking team of Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz may have unfortunately torpedoed their career in the 1980s with the debacle that was "Howard the Duck", but they really have never gotten quite enough credit for this enjoyable, twisted independent horror film. It manages to get pretty violent without going over the top in terms of gore. It is really the offbeat ambiance of this film that makes it work as well as it does. It can boast two standout, memorable horror sequences: one in a supermarket, and one in a movie theatre.

Hills' performance may be a matter of taste, as she's clearly on the verge of hysteria throughout (and that extends to her frequent narration). Her co-stars do decent work: Michael Greer ("Fortune and Men's Eyes") as the low-key Thom, Joy Bang ("Night of the Cobra Woman") as the childish Toni, Anitra Ford ("Invasion of the Bee Girls") as the fed-up Laura, and Charles Dierkop ('Police Woman') as a service station attendant. The beloved Old Hollywood character actor Elisha Cook, Jr. ("The Maltese Falcon", etc.) has a great cameo as a drunken local with stories to tell. Non-actor Bennie Robinson has a memorable, creepy presence as a rat-munching albino. At first, Dano's contribution consists mostly of voice-over, until his equally memorable on-screen appearance late in the game. That's filmmaker Walter Hill as the desperate man in the opening minute and a half of the film.

Excellent visuals (those murals in the fathers' abode are wonderful) and superb widescreen photography are two more assets in an interesting, off-the-beaten-path horror film that die hard fans of the genre are advised to check out.

Eight out of 10.