Messiah of Evil (1973) on Netflix
Arletty Lang drives to the coastal town of Point Dume to find her father Joseph, a painter who stopped writing. His beach house is empty and his diary records nightmares.
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- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb6.3/108,324 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Arletty Lang travels to Point Dume, a small town on the coast, to find her father Joseph, a painter she is estranged from. She finds his beach house empty, its walls painted with life-size human figures, and reads the diary in which he wrote about nightmares and strange events in the town. An art dealer sends her to a local motel, where three strangers, Thom, Laura and Toni, are questioning Charlie, a homeless man, about a night a hundred years earlier when the moon turned red and the townspeople fell into cannibalism. Charlie then urges Arletty to burn her father rather than bury him. The next morning Thom, Laura and Toni arrive at Joseph's house with nowhere else to stay, and Arletty lets them remain. By night, groups of residents build fires on the sand and watch the moon.
Cast
- Morgan Fisheras Townsperson
- Emma Truckmanas Townsperson
- Dyanne Asimowas Townsperson
- Herb Margolisas Townsperson
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Messiah of Evil (1973)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In 1978 a Chicago distributor released the film as Return of the Living Dead to make it sound like part of the Living Dead franchise; George A. Romero and Richard P. Rubinstein's Laurel Group sued, and the Motion Picture Association of America ruled against the misleading title.
- The filmmakers gave conflicting accounts of the shoot: Willard Huyck said principal photography finished as planned, while Gloria Katz said two scenes, including the climax, were left unfinished.
- Because the budget was low, several roles went to filmmaker friends of Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck: director Walter Hill plays the victim in the opening sequence, and editor Billy Weber also appears as a supermarket zombie.
