{"id":27290,"date":"2023-10-25T22:55:13","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T05:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=27290"},"modified":"2023-10-25T22:55:13","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T05:55:13","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-messiah-of-evil-1973","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=27290","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: MESSIAH OF EVIL (1973)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In celebration of its 50th<\/sup> anniversary, this horror picture is being given a \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray by Radiance Films (there will only be 3000 copies made).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I\u2019ll be frank here. While I\u2019m quite familiar with the early\n70s creeper Messiah of Evil<\/em>, I had no idea that the movie has developed\na fervent cult following over the past decade. Even though the movie has never\nreally been my cup of tea, I will admit that it is hard not to be impressed by\nsome of the chilling moments that occur late in the film. This small title has\nnow developed such a following that Radiance Films are releasing a \u201cLimited\nEdition\u201d Blu-ray with a 4K picture restoration and a spectacular array of\nbonuses. Compared to the old VHS tapes with a cropped, darkened picture, this new\ntransfer is a revelation. For the first time, one can really appreciate this\nunique chiller\u2019s impressive cinematography. It\u2019s an incredible Blu-ray release\nthat will thrill those who already love the movie and likely earn it an even\nlarger audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story is very oblique and, in many respects, unclear. A\nyoung woman named Arletty (Marianna Hill) searches for her estranged father in\nhis sleepy California seaside hometown. She finds bizarre diary writings and\nvoice recordings from her dad that tells her that a darkness is consuming the\narea and not to look for him. Instead of examining all the material in full or\ntaking it to the police, she decides to rush out and investigate his claims. Of\ncourse, the locals are not talking about what happened to her pop. However,\nArletty does meet and befriend a visiting aristocrat named Thom (Thomas Green),\nwho enjoys hearing about local myths. He and his concubines (Joy Bang, Anitra\nFord) decide to assist Arletty and the group eventually discover that a\nsupernatural \u201cdark stranger\u201d is expected to appear and turn the entire town\ninto members of the walking dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s definitely a dreamlike feel to the proceedings,\nwhich helps cover for some of the plot holes. It does have to be watched as\nsome kind of feverish nightmare, as the actions of the leads rarely make\nlogical sense. But, when the attack scenes finally arrive (after the one-hour\nmark), they are quite chilling and memorable. One sequence involves a character\nwandering into a Ralph\u2019s grocery store and witnessing shoppers devouring meats,\nonly to have them come after her. Another memorable bit involves a person\nslowly finding themselves being surrounded by threatening figures while at a\nmovie theater (just don\u2019t ask why they needed to check out a movie given all the\nunsettling events occurring around them).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yes, this is an odd one that doesn\u2019t feature easily\nidentifiable characters, nor does the movie offer a cohesive conclusion, but it\nhas loads of atmosphere and there are plenty of chills during the final third\nthat certainly make it worth a watch. As mentioned, this is the sharpest the\nmovie has ever looked and the cinematography is very strong throughout. It\u2019s an\ninteresting and at times very effective attempt to combine elements of American\nhorror pictures with artsier European arthouse fare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides the fantastic picture, the disc comes with a great many bonuses. There\u2019s an entertaining audio commentary by critics Kim Newman and Stephen Thrower that offers plenty of details about the production history, the cast and crew and their subsequent careers, as well as their own takes on what might be going on in the film. Additionally, there\u2019s a visual essay on the picture in which the critic defines the movie as “American Gothic” and then sets out to define the term and how it applies to the movie itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But perhaps the highlights are a lengthy documentary.\nViewers who don\u2019t already know will learn about the creative team behind the\npicture, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. The pair co-wrote American Graffiti<\/em>\nwith George Lucas and this follow-up was intended to be their own calling card.\nIt seems that they found investors who would allow them to make any picture\nthey wanted, as long as it had horror elements.  They later co-wrote Indiana\nJones and the Temple of Doom<\/em> and then co-wrote Howard the Duck<\/em>\n(which Huyck directed).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The documentary also features many genre critics who have\nbecome admirers\/defenders of the movie. They all offer their take on what\u2019s\nhappening and what the picture means to them, as well as it\u2019s influences\u2026\nfilmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni (Red Desert, Blowup, Zabriskie Point, The\nPassenger<\/em>) gets referred to a lot. Some of the assertions do seem a bit\nmuch. There is plenty of bickering as to whether the townspeople are vampires\nor zombies, which seems largely based upon their own personal definitions of\neach monster (I suppose they can be interpreted as either, but the matter\ndoesn\u2019t really seem worth a big fight about). But then again, it\u2019s definitely\nenjoyable to see how fans can really get behind a movie and interpret meaning\nas well as debate just about every aspect of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Perhaps the most insightful extra is an audio interview\nfeaturing co-writer\/co-director Willard Huyck. He tells wonderful stories about\nhis career and is very straightforward and honest about the movie. As it turns\nout, he had been watching a lot of Antonioni at the time and the movie was\ninfluenced by the filmmaker. But he notes that there were some problems during\nthe production. They ran out of money before completing the movie, so it does\nmake less sense than intended. Producers then took over the picture and recut\nsections without consulting them. Sadly, the movie also didn\u2019t get much of a\ntheatrical release. It took a few years for it to eventually play at a theater,\nbefore appearing on tape. Still, he is thankful that people do like the movie,\neven if it doesn’t quite meet his original vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additionally, this release includes an 80-page booklet with\nessays on the movie and a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned\nart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s enough eerie imagery and oddness present that Messiah\nof Evil<\/em> does make an impression and stand out to some degree among the\nonslaught of titles being released at the time. Even though it isn\u2019t a personal\nfavorite, I enjoyed it much more with this new transfer. The Blu-ray from\nRadiance Films looks phenomenal and once can see how such an impressive looking\nlow-budget movie could build a big following. This disc is worth checking out to\nsee if it speaks to you too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, this horror picture is being given a \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray by Radiance Films (there will only be 3000 copies made). I\u2019ll be frank here. While I\u2019m quite familiar with the early 70s creeper Messiah of Evil, I had no idea that the movie has developed a fervent cult following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":27296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[101,104,2933,2939,3067,4983,6751,8394,9319,13211,13719,13720,13721,14882,16584,22768,24298],"class_list":["post-27290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-101","tag-104","tag-blasts-from-the-past-2","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-2","tag-blu-ray","tag-cult","tag-eerie","tag-gloria-katz","tag-horror","tag-marianna-hill","tag-messiah-of-evil","tag-messiah-of-evil-blu-ray-review","tag-messiah-of-evil-review","tag-nightmare","tag-radiance-films","tag-thomas-green","tag-willard-huyck"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}