In the second part of our little series examining what Satan was up to in the early '70s, Mr Jim Moon meets the very strange Messiah of Evil (1973), and tangles with the Brotherhood of Satan (1971). Plus in a bongo bonus feature, we attend Blood Sabbath (1972) starring cult favourite Dyanne Thorne.
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6 comments:
Excellent analysis Jim. I delayed giving your review a listen until I had gave the film in question a rewatch, and with the state of my dvd cupboard I would have been quicker buying the equipment to download it..
Anyway, the first time I saw it, I thought Night Of The Living Dead, but written by slightly more artsy folk. Upon the rewatch, I would stick by that assessment, but will add I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
The rat eating albino truck driver was one of the highlight (isn't it strange that most albinos in horror are African Americans?) as was 'Weasel' from Salem's Lot, stretching himself as another small town pisshead. The supermarket scene was homaged in a short story I read once a Stephen Jones edited zombie short story omnibus.
With unlikable main characters spouting pseudointellectual dialogue, one was actually glad to see the end of them, but the final desperate wade out to sea was still quite haunting.
Still a lot to admire here though, and you could argue that Fulci's zombie films, with the obvious exception of ZFE owe more to Messiah Of Evil than NOTLD/DOTHD.
My dvd, purchased a few years back after coming across the title in a Greatest Horror Films You've Never Seen is a double feature with "Sisters Of Death" which looks like utter, utter shite. I'm away to watch it the now.
Valued Servant,
ST.CLAIRE
Ah yes I remember the tale with the supermarket - must dig that out again as I didn't make the connection to Messiah of Evil! It would be interesting to know if Fulci had ever seen Messiah of Evil, certainly the movie seems to a very 70s Euro horror feel to it. Now I've never seen Sisters of Death, for a moment I thought it might be Vampyres the is a 1974 British erotic vampire horror film directed by José Ramón Larraz under a nalternate title but sadly not...
I shall admit I have never seen Sisters, it came when I splurged purchased a pile of horror dvds that bizarrely came in double features, often buying a complete stinker to get at the culty goodness of the companion piece. For example I had to buy something completely unwatchable just to obtain Michael Reeves debut "The She Beast" .
Entire oevres of those dark days went missing, lost in the back of the dvd cupboard,rich seams awaiting rediscovery..
The other thing MOE brought up was the scene when the police are shooting at the ghouls from behind a police car. Now, as a child I remember "borrowing" a Nightmare On Elm Street video from from my uncle and watching it with my older brother aged about 7. I assume it was Dream Warriors. The trailers at the start included a film.which featured soldiers (one with a bazooka) firing at zombies from behind a barricade of parked cars. Some zombies then appeared behind the soldiers and attacked them, and I remember seeing the bazooka flail around wildly as they were eaten. I have never managed to find to find out what film that was. A responsible adult prevented us from watching anymore when they discovered out illicit film festival..
Secondly was another zombie film that was available on DVD in about '98 in the late great MVC shop. Had a zombie eearing a gas mask on the cover and was about zombies being used as police in an urban environment (possibly post apocalyptic). It had starring "Tom Towles Of NOTLD Remake And Henry: Portrait.." on the cover too. I'm almost certain it was called 'Dead City' but searching online has found plenty of films with similar titles but different content. Is it possible they went down the old exploitation route of having lurid cover and synopses that have fuck all to do with the film?
My apologies in advance for turning this post into 'Name That Film?' but there are no other places that I am hopeful of an answer..
I qualify the above ramblings by adding that if Messiah Of Evil reminds me of Nightmare City a bit, then its only because of the smarter- than- the -usual zombies as Nightmare City is utter, utter tosh.
ST.CLAIRE
Coincidently, I used to confuse the above mentioned LARRAZ film with Harry Kumel's excellent Daughters of Darkness (1971). After seeing stills from the film in David Pirie's The Vampire Cinema as a young enthusiast I became obsessed with tracking it down. Took me years but it didn't disappoint. Sumptuous.
Speaking of Fulci and his most famous film- today I saw a car with ZFE on the registration plate. It was a nondescript vechicle: i cant even remember the make or model but I suddenly found myself wanting to own it.
Surely the number plate alone would suffice.
I was once given a courtesy car with the registration ending PUF which led to no end of unwanted attention. But that, is a story for another time. And another forum, possibly.
ST.CLAIRE
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