Messiah of Evil (1973)

☆ ☆ ½

Messiah of Evil (1973) – W. Huyck & G. Katz

Strange from the get-go, when a non-sequitur murder leads directly into the opening credits (complete with out-of-place torch song), which bring us to an isolated gas station in early seventies California.  There, our heroine Arletty (Marianna Hill) witnesses a strange Albino in a pick-up truck as she fills up en route to the dead end beach town of Point Dune where she hopes to find her artist father. When she finds his studio empty and only addled and frightening diary entries from him, she sets out to find out what happened.  The local art gallery points her in the direction of a wandering man (Michael Greer) in seventies suit and his two “travelling companions” (Joy Bang and Anitra Ford) who are investigating a mysterious tale told by an old vagabond (Elisha Cook, Jr.) about a time when the moon turns blood red and a mysterious stranger returns to the town.  After that, I lost my place.  Eerie bonfires on the beach draw our heroes’ attention but they separate and discover that the townspeople are slowly turning into zombies (rummaging through the meat section of the supermarket).  A couple of grisly but low budget killings later, the moon does turn red and the mysterious stranger does return.  There is much that is inventive here, especially the art direction and cinematography -- and the directors claimed to be influenced by Antonioni – but I’ll admit that things seemed pretty disjointed throughout.