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A woman arrives in a sleepy seaside town after receiving unsettling letters from her father, only to discover the town is under the influence of a strange cult that weeps tears of blood and hunger for human flesh. From Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, the writers of American Grafitti, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Howard the Duck, this dreamy and atmospheric film transposes the post-Night of the Living Dead zombie movie to a surreal small-town American setting, presented through gorgeous Techniscope visuals that echo the stylish European horror of Mario Bava and Hammer. A true cult film, Messiah of Evil, which was also released as Dead People, has overcome distribution challenges to enjoy growing awareness and high acclaim after decades of word-of-mouth enthusiasm among horror cinema fans and critics around the world.

Media

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Bonus Materials

• New 2023 restoration from a 4K scan of the best-surviving elements of the film from the Academy Film Archive
• Audio commentary by critics and horror experts Kim Newman and Stephen Thrower
• Archival interview with co-writer-director Willard Huyck by Mike White from the Projection Booth Podcast
• What the Blood Moon Brings: Messiah of Evil, A New American Nightmare - A documentary feature which explores Messiah of Evil in the context of American independent cinema of the 70s, as well as examining the film's allegiance to several subgenres of horro
• Visual essay on American Gothic and Female Hysteria by critic Kat Ellinger (2023)

Press Quotes

impending dread than this one... a high point in creativity for the independent American horror film movement of the 1970s'

     —Ian Jane, DVD Talk

'One of the decade's most visually audacious and inventive supernatural tales... certainly a film you'll never forget and well worth discovering, preferably late at night with a big bowl of popcorn.'

     —Nathaniel Thompson, Mondo Digital

'This surreal, coastal-set tale of the undead isn't merely underrated, it's perhaps the most criminally underseen 70s horror in existence. It's an unshakably creepy exercise in moody horror.'

     —Michael Gursky, Dread Central