Messiah of Evil 73' aka Dead People dir. Willard Huyck

I have acquired a recent personal sentiment for this film. I was watching the re-mastered version alone in a San Antonio hotel and midway I decided to go for a walk (about 1 am) and sat on an all-night diner and finished watching it on my phone. The bleak abandonment, the searching in a foreign town late at night, shadowy  faces peering around corners added an atmosphere that I haven’t felt while viewing a film since the first time I had seen Let’s Scare Jessica to Death.

A young beautiful Arletty (Marianna Hill) travels to a dark and dreary town called Point Dune, to visit her abstract artist father. She finds letters in his heavily decorated gallery type, abandoned beach house addressed to her about the “Blood Moon” and the terrible things that have recently happened to him and the strange things at night, most importantly his foreboding to not look for him.

The next morning, she searches for more answers at a local art gallery and meets Thom (Michael Greer) a well-dressed art snob and his two gal pals who are also curious about the “Blood Moon” as well. The nightmarish and surreal events that take place after their meeting at the beach house can be likened to a bizarro, Pre Lynchian-Fellini-esque night of horror, that also fades away when the sun rises. At night some of the towns folk turn into a form of cannibalistic vampires that can only be destroyed by fire, tearing one blood droplet from the left eye, wandering the dark streets, in supermarket’s and movie theaters added numbers to their ghoulish horde, led by a dark stranger, a 100 yr old a descendant from the "Donner Party"  Some ghouls leap through high windows, resist gun shots to the throat and one pours a gallon of blue paint on his face to add to the artistic back drop of the film.

A perfect score electronic score adds to the hypnotic and at times psychedelic vibe, similar in tone to “Let’s Scare Jessica to Death” makes this unsung gem an ultimate creepfest. Highly recommended.

9/10

Raw Meat aka Deathline 73'

Gary Sherman (Dead and Buried) churned out this gory, slower paced Brit-Mystery Horror at the early part of the 70's, about the legendary subway killer.

Two college hipsters find an unconscious British politician on a set of subway stairs. They argue wether to get involved and telling the authorities, upon returning to the knocked out/possibly drunk politician they find he is gone. Enter Inspector Calhoun (Donald Pleasance aka Dr. Loomis), half comedian half rule breaking detective, the couple's complaint creates more questions concerning other "missing" cases related to the underground subway tunnels. Brief (and I mean brief) cameo by the always pleasant Christopher as an opposing agent to Dr. Calhoun adds little to the detective part of the story, but if you are a Lee fan, he is still cool as shit.



The films pacing is undiliberatley slow and slightly off putting from mildly warm scenes between Pleasance and others within his office to the overly gritty subway cannibal family and their grimy way of life. Sharon Gurney, the love interest of the films protagonist played by David Ladd, is easy on the eyes in contrast to the grotesque and convincing make-up of the main, constant drooling, Cannibal (Hugh Armstrong) and his relentless rephrashing of "Mind the Doors!"





One particular stand out long, long, long camera shot reveals the interior of the Cannibal's dwelling and the tunnels connecting to the busy subway, adding needed tension and showing Gary Sherman's early eye for suspenseful layout's.

I would only recommend this for Pleasance/Lee or Sherman completists. The film is at best, a mediocre gross-out detective story. Similar plots can be found in the much superior Frightmare by Pete Walker.

Pete Walker's Frightmare

 

After watching hundreds of horror films you become desensitized to well, just about everything, the only good that could come out of horror desensitization is when you see a good horror film, that actually IS good you say, "well dammit, I should tell someone about this one." Frightmare was a treat. Any film about cannibalism should either not take it self seriously or freak the hell out of you but Frightmare was directed, with a bit more finesse and written and acted so well that not only was it taking the subject matter very seriously but it had a simmering tension that came to a conclusive ferocious boil at the end. I have become a recent fan of British horror director Pete Walker, with The Confessional, House of the Whipcord and the wonderfully disturbing Schizo and I love all of his films. 8 out of 10.

 
Pete Walker is a criminally underrated master of horror or better yet, horror-dramas. His films usually are lengthy, a bit wordy and are shot with a by the numbers standard but the way he tells his stories with editing and how the actors flesh out the complex scripts mixed with great scores make each and every one of his films something to be sought after. Frightmare is a great start to his catalog but another gem to be held on par is his psycho-thriller masterpiece Schizo.