Messiah of Evil
Directed by Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz
A young woman goes searching for her missing artist father. Her journey takes her to a strange Californian seaside town governed by a mysterious undead cult. William Huyck & Gloria Katz's hypnotic, unsettling independent horror is a must-see gem.
A young woman heads to a mysterious seaside town in search of her father, in one of the great cult gems of 70s horror.
Cast: Michael Greer, Marianna Hill, Joy Bang
Member Reviews
I love exactly this kind of movie from this exact time period. Great framing, score, casting. The lizard in the sink was a nice touch.
Didn’t like it at all.
eck! didn't age well.
Creepy and unsettling but drags a bit and has hardly any ploy.
I heard about this movie from Kim Newman's Nightmare Movies and managed to track it down a decade later via one of those sets of 50 public domain movie collections that did the rounds in the early 2000s. I knew to expect a bit of a mess narratively but thought it was much better than it had been painted. From the opening scene in the garden to the end it creates an unsettling and uncanny atmosphere. The Shudder presentation cleans up the video and sound no end. It's weird but it works.