Review of Messiah of Evil (1975) by Trent R — 03 Oct 2009

Lovecraftian horror relocated to Cali, from the people who were co-writing American Graffiti at the time. This oddity opens with a cameo fatality by director Walter Hill, seemingly unconnected to the rest of the film - unless as a sort of commentary on what is to come.

Lots of terrible acting, pretentious narration and shameless lifting from the already derivative Carnival of Souls. This does feature some great character work by Elisha Cook, Jr. as the town's deranged wino.

I also enjoyed the way that this effectively made the SoCal locations work in a horror setting. Lots of hard, artificial lighting of shopping centers, car dealers, and a surprisingly creepy beach house art studio full of crap pop art.