# Messiah of Evil
**Messiah of Evil** is a 1973 American independent horror film written, produced, and directed by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, in which a young woman searching for her missing artist father arrives in a California coastal town governed by an undead cult of flesh eaters.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/messiah_of_evil) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL) It was the first film by the married screenwriting duo, who are better known for their work on [George Lucas](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-lucas)'s *American Graffiti* and *Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom*, and it was also released under the title **Dead People**.[3](https://gatewayfilmcenter.org/movies/messiah-of-evil-1974-4k/) • [4](https://www.radiancefilms.co.uk/products/messiah-of-evil?_pos=2&_sid=f116f1bc5&_ss=r)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Directors / writers | Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, their first joint film; Katz was for decades credited only as co-director, a credit later rectified[5](https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/films/messiah-evil-willard-huyck-and-gloria-katz) |
| Cast | Marianna Hill (Arletty), Michael Greer (Thom), Joy Bang (Toni), Anitra Ford (Laura), Royal Dano (Joseph Lang), Elisha Cook Jr. (Charlie)[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL) |
| Setting | Point Dune (also rendered Point Dume), a fog-shrouded California seaside town where the moon turns red and townspeople descend into cannibalism[6](https://www.americangenrefilm.com/theatrical-film-catalog/messiah-of-evil/) • [1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/messiah_of_evil) |
| Production | Working title *The Second Coming*; principal photography scheduled for 1 September 1971 in Northern California; estimated budget under $1 million[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL) |
| Release dates | Sources disagree: Rotten Tomatoes lists a limited theatrical release on April 23, 1973; the AFI Catalog gives a Los Angeles opening of 23 April 1975; BFI dates the film 1972[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/messiah_of_evil) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL) • [7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/0d79b7b3-16af-5b6a-9b22-1ea8abb9e887/messiah-of-evil) |
| Running time | Reported variously as 89, 90, and 94 minutes across BFI, AGFA, and AFI records[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/0d79b7b3-16af-5b6a-9b22-1ea8abb9e887/messiah-of-evil) • [6](https://www.americangenrefilm.com/theatrical-film-catalog/messiah-of-evil/) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL) |
| Reception | 100% Tomatometer from 12 critics and 57% Popcornmeter from more than 1,000 audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/messiah_of_evil) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Arletty Lang ([Marianna Hill](https://www.edgepedia.org/marianna-hill)) receives unsettling letters from her father Joseph ([Royal Dano](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-dano)), a painter who fears someone is coming after him, and drives to the coastal town of Point Dune to find him.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL) • [6](https://www.americangenrefilm.com/theatrical-film-catalog/messiah-of-evil/) His beach house is abandoned, its walls painted with life-size human figures, and his diary records his descent into nightmares.[8](https://www.netflixmovies.com/messiah-of-evil-1973) Locals warn her of blood moons and the return of a "dark stranger" after a hundred-year absence, and the homeless man Charlie ([Elisha Cook Jr.](https://www.edgepedia.org/elisha-cook-jr)) explains that for over a hundred years the townspeople have fallen into cannibalism when the moon turns red; he urges Arletty to burn her father's body rather than bury it.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL) • [1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/messiah_of_evil) Three strangers lodging in the town, Thom, Laura, and Toni, become entangled in the same nightmare as the town's well-dressed undead close in.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL) The AFI synopsis frames the whole story as a recollection told by Arletty from a mental institution.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL)
## Production
A *Hollywood Reporter* item of 30 June 1971, referring to the film by its working title *The Second Coming*, announced the formation of Podno Productions, a subsidiary of the Houston, Texas, venture capital corporation Baldwin, Lloyd, Kurtz, and Hankamer, with executive producer Alan Riche, Jim Hart, and Steve Graham at its head; principal photography was scheduled to begin 1 September 1971 in [Northern California](https://www.edgepedia.org/northern-california) on an estimated budget under $1 million.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL) The production company was [Second Coming](https://www.edgepedia.org/second-coming), Ltd., as a V/M Production, with Stephen Katz as cinematographer, Phillan Bishop writing the electronic score, and Jack Fiske and Joan Mocine as art directors.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL) The film was shot in Techniscope widescreen (2.35:1) around Los Angeles, and MoMA notes that its locations preserve forgotten city monuments including a Ralph's supermarket, the Culver Center shopping mall, and the Fox Venice movie theater.[6](https://www.americangenrefilm.com/theatrical-film-catalog/messiah-of-evil/) • [9](https://press.moma.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/MoMA_TSAP24_Screening-Schedule.pdf)
**A troubled completion.** According to a *Film Comment* account, the film was shot in 1971 and emerged two years later after a wrangle with the laboratory over unpaid bills; Huyck admitted that the only vaguely coherent denouement was the result of exhausted production resources, and the film then waited another two years for a somewhat wider release.[10](https://www.filmcomment.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2010s2010VOLUME-46-NUMBER-03-MAY-JUNE-2010.pdf) The AFI Silver note describes the story as "frankly confusing" and extensively reworked in the editing.[11](https://letterboxd.com/afisilver/film/messiah-of-evil/)
## Release and the Romero lawsuit
The film's release history is tangled. Rotten Tomatoes lists a limited theatrical release on April 23, 1973, while the AFI Catalog records a Los Angeles opening on 23 April 1975, and BFI dates the film to 1972; running times are likewise reported as 89, 90, and 94 minutes.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/messiah_of_evil) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL) • [7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/0d79b7b3-16af-5b6a-9b22-1ea8abb9e887/messiah-of-evil) It was also released as *Dead People*, with foreign titles including *Messia del diavolo* (Italy) and *Messias des Bösen* (Germany).[12](https://grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/Messiah_of_Evil)
In 1978 a Chicago distributor released the film as *Return of the Living Dead* to make it sound like part of the Living Dead franchise.[8](https://www.netflixmovies.com/messiah-of-evil-1973) According to a 12 October 1979 *Daily Variety* report, a U.S. District Court in Chicago ordered Checker Releasing Co. to cease distributing the reissue under that title after a temporary restraining order filed by writer-director [George A. Romero](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-a-romero) and his company, Dawn Productions, who claimed unfair competition and copyright infringement of *Night of the Living Dead* (1968).[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL) The court also barred Checker from using the phrase "When there is no room in hell, the dead will walk the earth," found that the reissue's lettering and artwork "borrowed freely" from Romero's film, required the new title *Revenge of the Screaming Dead* with an explanatory box in advertising, and denied Checker's appeal to the U.S. Seventh Circuit.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL)
## The filmmakers and later recognition
Willard Huyck (born 1945) and Gloria Katz (1942–2018) were USC film school graduates and a married filmmaking team steeped in American counterculture and European New Wave cinema.[11](https://letterboxd.com/afisilver/film/messiah-of-evil/) • [5](https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/films/messiah-evil-willard-huyck-and-gloria-katz) *Messiah of Evil* was released a year before *American Graffiti* (1973), whose screenplay, written with George Lucas, earned them an Academy Award nomination and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay; they later wrote *Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom* (1984) for [Steven Spielberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/steven-spielberg) and made *[Howard the Duck](https://www.edgepedia.org/howard-the-duck-film)* (1986).[13](https://filmfreedonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/roderick-heath-film-writing-2022.pdf) • [3](https://gatewayfilmcenter.org/movies/messiah-of-evil-1974-4k/) For decades Katz was listed in the credits merely as co-director alongside Huyck, an imbalance rectified in recent years.[5](https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/films/messiah-evil-willard-huyck-and-gloria-katz)
The film gave early screen credits to production designer [Jack Fisk](https://www.edgepedia.org/jack-fisk) and editor Billy Weber, a frequent [Terrence Malick](https://www.edgepedia.org/terrence-malick) collaborator, and featured the future writer-director [Walter Hill](https://www.edgepedia.org/walter-hill) in his lone appearance as an actor to date.[11](https://letterboxd.com/afisilver/film/messiah-of-evil/) It also appears as a visual punch line in Woody Allen's *Annie Hall*, where a theater marquee running the film confirms Alvy Singer's suspicions about a sinister Los Angeles beneath the shiny surface.[11](https://letterboxd.com/afisilver/film/messiah-of-evil/)
## Critical standing and restoration
After a delayed and unsuccessful release, the film was largely forgotten, described by one retrospective critic as reviled and cast into obscurity as "a gratuitous excursion into trash by some safely Oscar-nominated talents."[13](https://filmfreedonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/roderick-heath-film-writing-2022.pdf) Later reassessment has been far warmer: Budd Wilkins of *Slant Magazine* called it "an undervalued gem of American gothic filmmaking," and one British critic has called it "a key film in the annals of pre-Stephen King American horror."[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/messiah_of_evil) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 100% Tomatometer from 12 reviews against a 57% Popcornmeter from more than 1,000 audience ratings, a gap that reflects its divide between critics who prize its atmosphere and viewers who find its oblique plot trying.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/messiah_of_evil) Critics have compared its mood to Herk Harvey's *Carnival of Souls* and [Mario Bava](https://www.edgepedia.org/mario-bava)'s *[Kill, Baby... Kill!](https://www.edgepedia.org/kill-baby-kill)*, and noted giallo-inspired widescreen color compositions.[6](https://www.americangenrefilm.com/theatrical-film-catalog/messiah-of-evil/) • [9](https://press.moma.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/MoMA_TSAP24_Screening-Schedule.pdf)
**Restoration.** Radiance Films released a new 2023 restoration from a 4K scan of the best surviving elements, held by the Academy Film Archive, on Blu-ray on 23 October 2023, with a commentary by critics Kim Newman and Stephen Thrower and a documentary feature on the film's place in 1970s American independent horror.[4](https://www.radiancefilms.co.uk/products/messiah-of-evil?_pos=2&_sid=f116f1bc5&_ss=r) The British Board of Film Classification passed the restored version, timed at 89m 45s, on 25 July 2023 with a 15 certificate for strong injury detail, horror, and violence.[14](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/messiah-of-evil-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmde0otu5) MoMA screened a new 35mm print struck from the 4K restoration at its To Save and Project preservation festival in early 2024.[9](https://press.moma.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/MoMA_TSAP24_Screening-Schedule.pdf)
## References
1. [Messiah of Evil, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/messiah_of_evil)
2. [Messiah of Evil, AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55595-MESSIAH-OF-EVIL)
3. [Messiah of Evil (1974) 50th Anniversary Restoration, Gateway Film Center](https://gatewayfilmcenter.org/movies/messiah-of-evil-1974-4k/)
4. [Messiah of Evil, Radiance Films](https://www.radiancefilms.co.uk/products/messiah-of-evil?_pos=2&_sid=f116f1bc5&_ss=r)
5. ["Messiah of Evil", by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, La Casa Encendida](https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/films/messiah-evil-willard-huyck-and-gloria-katz)
6. [Messiah of Evil, American Genre Film Archive](https://www.americangenrefilm.com/theatrical-film-catalog/messiah-of-evil/)
7. [Messiah of Evil (1972), British Film Institute](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/0d79b7b3-16af-5b6a-9b22-1ea8abb9e887/messiah-of-evil)
8. [Messiah of Evil (1973), NetflixMovies.com](https://www.netflixmovies.com/messiah-of-evil-1973)
9. [To Save and Project: The 20th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation, screening schedule (PDF)](https://press.moma.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/MoMA_TSAP24_Screening-Schedule.pdf)
10. [Encore by Travis Crawford, Film Comment, Vol. 46 No. 3 (May–June 2010) (PDF)](https://www.filmcomment.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2010s2010VOLUME-46-NUMBER-03-MAY-JUNE-2010.pdf)
11. [AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center review of Messiah of Evil, Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/afisilver/film/messiah-of-evil/)
12. [Messiah of Evil, The Grindhouse Cinema Database](https://grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/Messiah_of_Evil)
13. [Messiah of Evil (1972), Roderick Heath film writing (PDF)](https://filmfreedonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/roderick-heath-film-writing-2022.pdf)
14. [Messiah of Evil, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/messiah-of-evil-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmde0otu5)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Zombie films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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