lonely drives and dark strangers

MESSIAH OF EVIL (1973; d: Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz)

Sometimes when a movie's narrative is muddled, when the characters don't much matter, your connection or attention becomes tenuous at best. And so you put your feet up and stretch into leisurely repose, and vague ideas are offered and forgotten, and dark mutterings insinuated, and through it all your mind teeters, disengaged and then—what, how—all the sudden this nightmare is most familiar. How did I get here—I mean, what happened?  Is this a dream?

MESSIAH OF EVIL doesn't always make much sense, but on a quiet, lonely night like this one, it'll make due.

For the surreal, nightmarish set pieces alone...

At a dark, desolate gas station with an unnerving stranger...

\

Or on a late, lonely visit to the supermarket...

Or in a movie theater near the border of Hell...

MESSIAH OF EVIL is waiting to lull you into a hazy trance...so it can feed your nightmares.

And so when you find yourself alone, watching late at night...

...and you get the feeling you're not quite alone...

...just keep telling yourself, “It's only a movie.”

But whatever you do, don't scream.

It will only make a bad dream worse.

So, run if you will...

But keep telling yourself to wake up.

Before the nightmare consumes you.

But dreams can't really harm you...

Can they?