Messiah of Evil
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New 50th Anniversary restoration - presented by Pink Flamingo Cinema
Overview
Arletty (Marianna Hill) travels to the sleepy coastal hamlet of Point Dune searching for her estranged artist father, but finds his house abandoned and a diary addressed to her that warns of a darkness taking over the town. Drifting around, Arletty encounters burnouts and eccentrics and receives another cryptic warning about a “dark stranger”, as sinister figures begin to congregate around the gas stations and supermarkets under a blood moon. Sinister, dreamy and steeped in dread, Messiah of Evil dredges up cosmic horror and limitless bad vibes.
“An undervalued gem of American gothic filmmaking…Messiah of Evil is a triumph of mood and atmosphere”
“This surreal, coastal-set tale of the undead isn’t merely underrated, it’s perhaps the most criminally underseen 70s horror in existence. It’s an unshakeably creepy exercise in moody horror.”
Why You Should See This Film
Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck were a fascinating collaborative husband-wife team that did screenplay work for A New Hope, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and the legendarily deranged Howard the Duck (which Hyuck also directed). Their obvious skill with skin-crawling eldritch horror aside, what they've tapped into here is something that feels truly haunted— a tripped-out 70s California nightmare as influenced by Lovecraft as it is George Romero. Existing for years only as a fuzzed-out bootleg copy, we're delighted to present this gorgeous restoration of Messiah of Evil in the late night creepshow setting it deserves.
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