How about we tell you today about a wonderful husband and wife team who made a movie that will drive you crazy. Naturally among other movies, this same team also wrote the screenplay for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Hello everyone and welcome back to another exciting journey with Marvelous Videos. Messiah of Evil, an American supernatural horror film, will be the topic of discussion today. Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, a married couple, collaborated on its co-writing, co-production, and co-directing.
They seem to be aiming for the most excruciating kind of art-horror independent filmmaking that the early 1970s had to offer with this terrifying, strange mixture. It has a lovely Lovecraftian feel to it, and the movie really demonstrates that in a few unexpected ways. Oh, and did you know that many of the extras in the film were actually unemployed NASA employees? Clearly, Huyck’s career was launched with his first commercial production as a director. Let us briefly introduce the movie to you now before we continue with the explanation.
The protagonist of the narrative is a woman who happens to visit a small seaside hamlet in California. She is searching for her lost artist father on her expedition. She has now arrived and finds herself in the middle of a strange chain of events. Let us find out what these strange happenings are and what happens in this terrified seaside town without keeping you in the dark for too long.
Terror Reigns When He Returns – Messiah of Evil (1973)
The film begins with the most strange incident. A young woman cuts the throat of a man. Well, if this does not set the mood for a good scare then what will. After the initial credits, we then see Arletty, who is played by the beautiful Marianna Hill. She seems to be driving her way to the beach town called Point Dune in California, where her father currently lives. After spending winters painting in that town, he decided to stay there after Arletty’s mom died. This fictional town of Point Dune is actually named after Point Dume which is an actual place located further south on the beach below Malibu. That is the place where this was filmed.
Since the start there is something eerie and wrong about Point Dune. After arriving at her father’s house, Arletty notices that there are things scattered around all over the house and no one is home. She finds his diary there, which seems to have a lot of his thoughts written down in it.
In it, he talks about how there is darkness surrounding the town and the horrifying dreams he has at night, and begs Arletty not to come looking for him. She then meets with an art gallery owner to find out where her father is. Unfortunately, he does not know anything about Joseph Long. But looks like there were some people who were looking for him not too long ago.
The car that Arletty is seen driving in the film, was actually owned by the associate editor Morgan Fisher. And something even more surprising is that, the character of Arletty is in fact named after the French actress Arletty, who is best known from Les Enfants du Paradis, 1945.
Now, Arletty goes on to meet a visiting Portuguese American aristocrat Thom, who is played by Michael Greer. There are also two women with him, Toni played by Joy Bang and Laura played by Anitra Ford. He is in the middle of interviewing the local town eccentric, Charlie, played by Elisha Cook, Jr. The scene grows more intense because Charlie is talking about the blood moon and the dark stranger. He tells everyone, that when it will be the 100 year anniversary of the first occurrence of the dark stranger, he will return. And that is when the moon will once again turn red and of course, strange evil things will happen all over the town.
Charlie then tells Arletty something super scary about her father. He tells her that she needs to kill him and she cannot bury him. She has to put fire to his body. Now, it looks like Charlie has somehow died and no motel will let Thom, Toni and Laura stay with them. So, they stay with Arletty at his father’s house.
Laura then decides to leave for San Francisco, but just before she can get out of town, she ends up in a super market, where she finds a bunch of people just eating raw meat. That obviously does not look good for her. But before she can run away, these people capture her and literally feast upon her alive. Thom then continues to write about what the town people call The Waiting. Apparently, there is a fire by the beach and more people seem to be surrounding that place, coming from the town and just watching the moon.
Now we have half a reveal of Joseph Long, who is also our narrator and is played by Royal Dano. He is found dead by the beach. Looks like he was building some kind of a sculpture, at least that is what the people are saying and a tide must have fallen over him. Arletty still continues to read her father’s diary, where he is talking about his body temperature being 85 degrees and he thinks that something is controlling his body, something that no longer needs human blood.
Just get ready to be even more surprised now because Arletty finally realises that the hands of the dead man that she saw were not of her fathers. They lied to her. That body was not Joseph Long’s body after all. That same day, Toni went into town to watch a movie. And just like Laura, she is also soon eaten alive by those very same people. Or are they even actual people?
This town sure has an awfully weird aura and vibe to it. When Thom goes to search for Toni, those people are spread around dark alleys in the town and a few of them attack him as well. Two policemen came to town in order to shoot all of these people who are walking quite suspicious but bullets do not seem to be harming them at all. Now, you are going to look at Arletty vomiting up bugs and even mealworms.
Well, well, what happens next is about to shock you as much as any other thing that happened in this movie. We finally get to see Joseph Long, who comes back home to his suffering daughter Arletty. He says that she has to leave this god awful place right now and warn the people of the rest of the world about what happens in Point Dune. But soon after giving in to his urges of attacking his own daughter, Arletty stabs him with garden shears before burning him alive.
After Thom returns home, she stabs him as well in the arm with the shears thinking it was someone else. Now, in order to run away both Arletty and Thom run towards the beach and they are soon surrounded by the swam of people who were standing by that fire. All well and ready to attack them both. But it is a sad end for Thom as he drowns with garden shears before burning him alive. Arletty on the other hand gets caught by the locals.
Now, you would assume that the film will end with the death of Arletty, right? But that is not what the town people had in mind for her. Instead of killing her, they let her live. But there is a condition attached to this freedom. She has to spread the news about the religious movement throughout California and the rest of the world. As a result of this, she is ends up being put into an insane asylum.
Of course, who was going to believe this poor girl with her story. So, the film ends as Arletty just sits in the sun all daylong painting, and waiting for the day when the Messiah and his followers will come for her and take her away.
Well, now that we have seen what was all the fuss about Point Dune, keep watching ahead because it is just about to get more interesting. And stay till the end of the video because there a very strange backstory about one of the stars from the movie. Now, let us take a look at what could this religious movement be about?
Mysterious Cult Of The Walking Dead & Vampires
Now, let us tell you a little rumour story that went around the movie. This rumour talked about how there was possibly a subplot that suggested a relationship between Thom and the Dark Stranger which was apparently deleted from the movie. In it Michael Greer who plays Thom is said to be playing the role of the Dark Stranger— there is a moment when Thom tells Arletty about a dream he had that was similar to the tale of the Dark Stranger, and Greer stated in an interview before production that he would be playing the role of “the devil’s son” in this movie.
But, do not get your hopes up, it was just a rumour and it did not actually happen in the film. What we do know about the mysteriously eerie town of Point Dune is that apparently all of the town people living in it are Vampires, who can supposedly walk in broad daylight. Imagine now, why would any normal human be eating raw meat or actually eating a person right? Well, all of those people who killed both Laura and Toni, or actually ate them, were vampires.
It looks like the Blood Moon story that Charlie was talking about in his interview with Thom was in fact true. The night when our two young ladies were eaten alive and Arletty started having issues in her body, was the time when the moon had turned quite red. And this red moon then kind of turned the many town people into the vampires that they are.
When the blood moon occurred, the Messiah of evil returned. After we meet Joseph Long, he tells the actual story of the Messiah of evil to his daughter Arletty. It would appear so that the Messiah was first found by a hunter. This Messiah is actually a former minister. He also is a survivor of a Donner Party from the late 19th century turned vampire and cannibal.
Donner Party was actually a bunch of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. And you might be surprised to know that some of the migrants actually for real turned towards cannibalism. So, this Messiah had actually come to expand and promote his new religion and lead his followers inland and up the shore. Clearly, this new religion is in fact cannibalism. And the Messiah definitely seems to have a lot of loyal followers who are ready to do just about anything for a bite of that fresh meat from a human’s body.
This would clearly explain why Arletty’s father suddenly disappeared after moving to Point Dune. At least it was not a classic case of a father going out to get milk and just never coming back home. But Joseph Long does lose some points on the father scale for trying to attack his own daughter. Well, looks like that is what you get when your parent becomes a vampire. Not every story is as gorgeous as Twilight.
An interesting indication we find in the movie when someone turns into a vampire is that, a sort of blood tear rolls down the right eye of the person. That is exactly what we saw in Arletty when she was struggling with her body. Blood came out of her right eye. Well, they definitely came up with their own unique touches to the existence of these vampires.
Although in the middle of all the creations that must have gone down on the set of this movie, you will not believe what was the most expensive item of all. It was in fact the suit that Michael Greer wore. Yes, you heard it right!
Speaking of Michael Greer, remember the two cops who appeared in the town when the vampires were about to all attack on Thom, well, there is a rather interesting backstory to it. Michael Greer once was, in reality pulled over by the same cops who you can see in the film, but they were unpaid. They then called director Willard Huyck and demanded that they receive a payment for their parts, otherwise Greer would really be thrown into jail. Well, thank God they were paid.
Why should you watch Messiah of Evil?
The husband and wife duo definitely did a wonderful job with this Lovecraftian touch to the movie. It sure is a feast for all of our horror fans. Nothing in the movie ever left the audience not in suspense. From the very first scene where we see a murder to the bizarre things happening at the gas station where Arletty stopped right before she reached Point Dune, to the time when she actually entered the town.
Messiah of Evil will have you hooked to your seats and no matter how gruesome your screens get, at the same time, you will not want to take your eyes off of it. And that is something we can bet. There was a personal touch to the movie in tiny ways possible, which was made by the couple directors. One most beautiful touch was the murals in Joseph Long’s house. All of that was created by Gloria Katz’ college roommate.
If you are looking for an evening full of eeriness then set your eyes upon Messiah of Evil, because this old fashioned supernatural horror movie is haunting in every aspect. From its narration right down to even its death paintings. Let yourselves get haunted away with this early 1970s cult classic.
Well guys, with that, we have come to the end of another horror classic video. We hope you enjoyed watching it, as much as we enjoyed making it for you. Make sure to drop a like and hit that subscribe button on your way out. Also tells us in the comments down below, what part in the movie did you absolutely not expect to see. Until then everyone, stay safe, take care and see you in the next video. Have a great day ahead!