Messiah of Evil

A young woman named Arletty travels to the California coastal town of Point Dune to visit her father Joseph, a painter. She finds his house empty and apparently long abandoned, and instead of her father she discovers pages from his diary describing disturbing events among the locals. The townspeople are unwelcoming, and only a small group of outsiders offers her any help. As night falls, the town's streets grow busier and far more dangerous, and Arletty comes to suspect that a century-old legend connected to a blood moon lies behind what is happening.

Messiah of Evil was released in 1975 and runs 90 minutes. It was directed by Willard Huyck and written and produced by Huyck and Gloria Katz, the second of the two features Huyck directed, following this film with Howard the Duck in 1986. Marianna Hill plays Arletty Lang, with Michael Greer, Joy Bang, Anitra Ford, Royal Dano and Elisha Cook Jr. in supporting roles.

The film sits at 6.3 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 7,800 votes, and also 6.3 out of 10 on TMDB from about 175 votes. The small gap between the two vote counts indicates a modest but steady following among horror viewers rather than broad mainstream attention, and the matching averages suggest a consistent assessment across both audiences.