Welcome to BROADSCARES, our spooky winter season running Oct 2024 – Jan 2025! Join is for three or more participating films/events and see a film for free! Discover more by clicking here.
After receiving a series of unsettling letters from her reclusive artist father, Arletty (Mariana Hill – High Plains Drifter), drives to the remote Californian seaside town of Pointe Dune to find out what exactly is happening to him. She quickly wishes she stayed home, as she finds terrible pall of evil hangs over the whole town.
Messiah Of Evil is a criminally neglected one-off from husband and wife writer-directors Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck who had successful Oscar-nominated careers as screenwriters of American Graffiti (also released in 1973) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom among others – not to mention script polishers on the original Star Wars: A New Hope. But Messiah of Evil is a very different beast to their more mainstream screenwriting fare. It derives its unique atmosphere from being as much influenced by the arthouse cinema of Antonioni (Red Desert) as the oneirec chills of say Carnival of Souls, creating something as beautiful and unique as it is scary.
A visual masterpiece finally restored to its original ravishing cinemascope beauty after years of neglect, Messiah Of Evil is a dreamlike trip into paranoia and eventual nightmarish chaos. Enter Pointe Dune at your own risk… just don’t expect to ever leave.
One final aside… not only is it set in a small seaside town reminiscent of an American Broadstairs, but a key scene takes place inside a cinema not unlike the Palace… it’s one of the great (and scary as hell) cinema scenes. Just remember to keep telling yourself it’s only a film. It’s only a film. Brrrr…
With an introduction at our Sunday evening screening.
Showing with the short film:
DELIVERANCE (PG)
Dir Kaljeven Singh Lally (UK 2024, 10mins)
A Sikh delivery driver is asked for help by a customer, a Priest.
Free Films! Pick up a Broadscares card when collecting your ticket at our box-office! Get a stamp each time you see a Broadscares film or special event – get 3 stamps and see your next Broadscares film for free! Please note: Free film offer is for films only, not special events. Broadscares cards may not be shared.
