The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, March 9-15
Messiah of Evil (1973)
Directed by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz
Before scripting American Graffiti and Temple of Doom, before laying Howard the Duck on the world, the writer-director husband-and-wife duo Huyck and Katz made a great film drenched in dread and steeped in atmosphere. Arletty (Marianna Hill) takes a trip to the coastal town of Port Dune to visit her artist father (Royal Dano). She doesn’t find him in his home (illustrated with eerie murals courtesy of Jack Fisk and Joan Mocine), but discovers his diary that records his descent into madness. There are more pressing matters, however, because the Port Duners have turned into something resembling sentient zombies with blood dripping from their eyes.
This is a horror film somewhere between the low-budget ingenuity of Carnival of Souls and the mood of a Dario Argento or a Jean Rollin work. Exquisite death scenes take place in the most mundane of settings that are made all the more unsettling by Huyck and Katz’s command of negative space in their ‘scope shots. Tanner Tafelski (March 10, 9:30pm at the Nitehawk; March 26, 7pm at the Museum of the Moving Image’s “See It Big! Jack Fisk”)