Here's a curiously different kind of zombie movie. Messiah of Evil is an American-made early-seventies film with art-house styling, pacing, and pretentiousness. It's more of a horror film than it is a zombie film. Sure zombies figure as a main threat, but the film is more like the horror films of old, because it relies more on mood as its main fright-inducing mechanism. Messiah of Evil could be hard to take for some—and not because of the subject matter (implied pseudo devil-worshiping and cannibalism) or the gore, which is minimal-to-none (most of the killing occurs off screen). It's the film's arty pretentiousness, the plodding pace, and the unwieldy story that could have some viewers squirming in their seats. Fans of European films of the seventies will find Messiah to be an easy fit, but the modern horror film viewer will most likely need more patience. Still, Messiah of Evil is a good film and required viewing for serious fans of the genre.
The story follows a woman, Arletty, who travels to a small coastal town to find her father, Charles. Charles has been sending Arletty disturbingly distraught letters in which he confesses that something terrible is happening to him, something out of his control, a transformation. He warns her to stay away.
She arrives to find her father's house uninhabited but discovers his diaries. In them Charles details the transformation that he is going through. Concerned she decides to stay. The next morning she goes to search for him in town. This leads her to a mysterious European man, Tom, and his two sexy female traveling companions. Tom is an enthusiast/researcher of legends and tales. He is conducting private research on the town to uncover the details of an event called, the Blood Moon. Upon our introduction to Tom, we find him interviewing the town drunk (played by Elijah Cook Jr.), who describes a story of a strange happening in the town's past. Later, we learn of the legend of a mysterious black-clad stranger from the past whose return is imminent and coincides with the appearance of the Blood Moon. This stranger's impending arrival and the nearing of the Blood Moon has a powerful influence on the townspeople, who go through the slow systematic transformation of becoming zombies. The symptoms are the same ones Charlie writes about in his diaries. As the Blood Moon nears, Arletty finds herself going through the same transformation. Chaos ensues as the zombie townspeople close in on Tom and Arletty and await the arrival of the dark stranger.
She arrives to find her father's house uninhabited but discovers his diaries. In them Charles details the transformation that he is going through. Concerned she decides to stay. The next morning she goes to search for him in town. This leads her to a mysterious European man, Tom, and his two sexy female traveling companions. Tom is an enthusiast/researcher of legends and tales. He is conducting private research on the town to uncover the details of an event called, the Blood Moon. Upon our introduction to Tom, we find him interviewing the town drunk (played by Elijah Cook Jr.), who describes a story of a strange happening in the town's past. Later, we learn of the legend of a mysterious black-clad stranger from the past whose return is imminent and coincides with the appearance of the Blood Moon. This stranger's impending arrival and the nearing of the Blood Moon has a powerful influence on the townspeople, who go through the slow systematic transformation of becoming zombies. The symptoms are the same ones Charlie writes about in his diaries. As the Blood Moon nears, Arletty finds herself going through the same transformation. Chaos ensues as the zombie townspeople close in on Tom and Arletty and await the arrival of the dark stranger.
Messiah of Evil is a horror flick in the vein of the Val Lewton and Hammer productions with a heavy pretense toward the European art films of the sixties and seventies. The filmmakers admit to being inspired more by the work of the great Italian director, Michaelangelo Antonioni than by George Romero (see DVD special features interview of release ##). Antonioni was known for his ponderously long stylized takes and his careful selection and use of backgrounds that were as much a part of his films as the actors. He used this technique to expose the feelings and psychological states of his characters.
The filmmakers were obviously students of the great master's work, because they rely heavily on this technique to immediately bring Messiah to a long moody simmer. Combine this with the striking cinematography, which makes heavy use of the graphic components of the sets, and Messiah becomes a visual tone piece. Of course, all this heaviness slows the pace down, but it also gives the film a uniquely stylized look. However, instead of taking advantage of this somber mood and pace to frighten us with shock and sudden scares, the filmmakers choose to maintain it and frighten us with awkwardly strange scenes and sequences that build slowly to an eerie climax. It's very effective, culminating in some wonderful scenes and some genuine frights, but Messiah is a film that requires patience. It's not a modern-day horror film. Its lineage is more from a film such as, I Walked With a Zombie. So, you have to settle into the pace and the atmosphere, give the it a chance, and allow it to work its magic. It's a film that can fall flat in the framework of the modern zombie film. For example, if you're looking to set up a multiple film viewing night, then pairing Messiah with a film like '28 Days Later' would be a bad idea—'Let Sleeping Corpses Lie' would be a better partner for Messiah of Evil.
Messiah has its flaws to be sure. The story is complicated and over-wrought, requiring the more-often-than-not kiss of death voice-over narrative technique to tell us things rather than show us things. The voice-over, the dialog, and the music can be hard to take at times, and the film's ending has a rushed botched feel. But the flaws add a kind of surrealistic charm to the film. And in the end, Messiah redeems itself. It all just seems to work.
The supermarket and the movie theater scenes are high points of the film--as are the cameo appearances of Elijah Cook Jr. and Royal Dano. The scenes that take place in the father's house make wonderful use of hauntingly painted backgrounds with forced perspectives to give a foreboding and claustrophobic air that seems to trap the characters. The zombies in Messiah are cognizant, normal moving, and normal in appearance. They are cannibalistic and make a shrill sound when they attack. The blood and gore is minimal.
If you're a patient fan of zombie and horror movies, then Messiah of Evil will work for you. It's a film that defines the horror end of the zombie genre, owing more to the classic zombie films of the past where the fright comes from a sustained mood of eeriness and a general sense of unease. Messiah is a worthy addition to any collection. It's currently one of my Top 20 Zombie Films.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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