I didn’t get much out of Messiah of Evil. It was, as I feared, deadly slow. It did have a somewhat dreamlike atmosphere and a couple of effective scenes, but there definitely was not enough movie in this movie. I think the most enjoyable aspect was something akin to what I got from Mutant — the bad, late-night, horror-movie feeling. This was the kind of movie that used to come on cheap cable or weird local channels at ungodly hours.
It’s a story about a girl, Arletty, looking for her missing artist father in a town that is slowly becoming all zombie (the alternate title for this is Dead People). It’s not clear what is causing this, but anyone in town is vulnerable. These zombies look pale, can’t feel pain, have a tendency to bleed from the eyes, eat raw meat of pretty much any type (people included, naturally) and are apparently waiting for a “dark stranger” to come and lead them (I guess that is the messiah of evil in the title?). Yeah, he never really affects the story anyway. She’s “assisted” in this quest by a swinging threesome led by a guy named Thom. They basically never figure anything out, but his two girlfriends get killed and Arletty starts becoming a zombie (in one scene, she pukes up a bunch of bugs and lizards, which is pretty cool, if totally nonsensical). Then Arletty and Thom try to escape the zombies by swimming out to sea and Arletty ends up in a crazy house. The end!
Wait, what? Yeah, that was it. Pretty pointless. The best scenes are of Thom’s girlfriends getting murdered, especially the younger one in the theater. The opening is kind of cool, too, although barely connected to the actual movie. This felt like it could have been something, but it just never got there. You can see for yourself if you like, since the film is in the public domain.
Download Dead People from the Internet Archive.
Next up is Zombie Strippers with Jenna Jameson. Are my expectations incredibly low? You bet they are!
