Messiah of Evil

R

Released Apr 23, 1973

1h 29m

Horror

List

100%

Tomatometer

8 Reviews

57%

Audience Score

500+ Ratings

While searching for her missing father, a woman (Mariana Hill) comes to a town crawling with flesh-eating zombies.

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Budd Wilkins

Slant Magazine

Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz’s eerily brooding Messiah of Evil remains an undervalued gem of American gothic filmmaking.

Oct 27, 2023

Full Review

Anton Bitel

Little White Lies

co-writers/co-directors Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz confound life and art, reality and dreams, sanity and madness in their surreal vision of conservative America succumbing to – or biting back against – the encroaching counterculture.

Oct 18, 2023

Full Review

Ray Pride

Newcity

Pleasingly lethargic, alternately bloody and hypnogogic California pop-art-inflected supernatural horror film.

Rated: 8/10

Jul 4, 2024

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

This maintains its aura of unease and contains a pair of genuinely creepy sequences.

Rated: 3/4

Nov 8, 2023

Full Review

Jennie Kermode

Eye for Film

After a lot of scene setting, the film delivers, almost out of nowhere, an intense and fully committed mythology which takes night scenes already set against a pitch black sky to a still darker place.

Rated: 3.5/5

May 15, 2023

Full Review

Jason Shawhan

Nashville Scene

One of the enduring classics of hippie horror, Messiah of Evil is a very California apocalypse, foretold in the stars.

Sep 10, 2021

Full Review

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Dom L

Bizarre and fascinating! Recently came upon this cult film after many years of hearing about it, and it did not disappoint. A truly unique tone.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

06/10/24

Full Review

g j

Quintessential 70's horror with a broodingly unsettling atmosphere and an arresting visual style. The plot is fairly incoherent, but plays second to the general mood of the film anyway.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

06/02/24

Full Review

Jon G

I cannot believe I missed this gem so many years ago! So happy to have found it!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/02/24

Full Review

Marvin H

This twisted movie has stayed with me since my childhood viewing. After rewatching resently well " it is better and even creepier than I remember". It starts with the most amazingly awful earworm song (part ballad part hot ass mess) and it just goes all over the place. It fells like a comedown from a bender and it is also what I image a fever dream (or nightmare)to look like on film. So 70's you can taste it. Awesome nightmare.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/22/24

Full Review

Deke P

1974 or 75. Eerie zombie movie. 100% rave reviews from the pro reviewers. Takes place in POINT DUME, they pronounce it DOOM, which I have passed many times without much thought, north point of the bay & Malibu. Saw it on the telly, 2.6.24 late nite.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/24

Full Review

Darren D

"Messiah of Evil" visually haunting with ongoing feeling of uneasiness from it's near silent & emptiness from the surroundings within the story. The atmosphere is a fine line between a slow moving dream & the tense build up of a nightmare you can't wake up from. Pure horror.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/25/23

Full Review

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Willard Huyck

Director

Michael Greer

Thom

Marianna Hill

Arletty

Joy Bang

Toni

Anitra Ford

Laura

Royal Dano

Joseph Long

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Synopsis

While searching for her missing father, a woman (Mariana Hill) comes to a town crawling with flesh-eating zombies.

Director: Willard Huyck
Producer: Gloria Katz
Screenwriter: Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck
Production Co: V/M Productions, International Film Corporation
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 23, 1973, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 1, 2016
Runtime: 1h 29m

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