I love the feeling of this movie. I hate happy endings in horror flicks.
Other films I like:
Lemora
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (original)
Sinister
The Ring (original)
Lots more.
Can anyone suggest more?
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I love Suspiria and Carnival of Souls. I'll try the others. Thanks!
shareThe Pyx.
shareLove The Pyx - definitely has the same feel and Karen Black!
http://crewdtees.com/
Images (1972), The Iron Rose, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, The Reflecting Skin, Onibaba, Morgiana, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Vampyr, The House That Screamed (aka Finishing School), Kill Baby Kill, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Footprints on the Moon (aka Le Orme)... just a few to look out for.
shareHour of the Wolf--another good one!
share'Inferno' by Dario Argento has a similarly surreal quality to it. It's often overlooked in favour of its more famous sister 'Suspiria', but I actually prefer Inferno as the narrative is even more bizarre and dream-like. Like in 'Messiah...' a lot of it doesn't seem to make much sense and some scenes come out of nowhere, like an unconnected quick shot of a woman hanging herself which is just inserted into the film at random.
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (aka, The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue) is kind of similar too. It has that same early '70s vibe, a hippie biker hero, a confused female lead coming off heroin (!), a mysteriously haunted painting, and it's all set in a small town in the North of England (not actually in Manchester itself, oddly). There's a lot more gore, but it has a very similar atmosphere to Messiah. You can definitely see how both films had a real influence on the post-Romero glut of grimy 'European' zombie flicks - which were usually less imaginative and just went in for grotesque splatter.
I would also recommend 'Dellamorte Dellamore'. Although it's played more for laughs, there's a lot of weird stuff going on in that film - plus Rupert Everett giving an unusually good performance.
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He left a note. He left a simple little note that said "I've gone out the window."
One film that's always felt a little similar to Messiah of Evil to me is Silent Night Bloody Night. They both have a weird vibe to them.
Let's Scare Jessica To Death is also in the same area.
And The Severed Arm is another.
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Great question ! I myself haven't watched MOE (very excited to), but I was just compiling a list of "70's Dreamy Dread-Like Films" yesterday !
Don't Look in the Basement
Silent Night, Bloody Night
Let's Scare Jessica to Death
Axe
Head (aka "Premonition")
Cannibal Girls
Voices
Blood Bath
Terror on the Menu
Deranged
Bloodsucking Freaks
Enjoy !
Keep suggesting more!
shareI compiled a list of films that I felt oozed dread, and just in general creeped me out in my years of watching these films. Disturbing subject matter, Lovecraftian themes, supernatural ghost stories, unhappy endings... it's subjective, of course, but few movies make an impression beyond being sheer entertainment.
I apologize for leaving off a lot of the 70s films, but the scariest of those (like 78's Halloween or 79's Alien) are basically classics and must-watches for any horror fan anyway. The more obscure ones appear to have been mentioned already - like Deranged. I tried to pick more obscure movies that a horror fan would have to seek out.
The Stepford Wives (1975)
Burnt Offerings (1976)
The Beyond (1981)
Unhinged (1982)
Angst (1983)
Curtains (1983)
Sole Survivor (1984)
The Mothman Prophencies (2002) - at least to start out with
Wolf Creek (2005)
The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)
Death of a Ghost Hunter (2007)
End of the Line (2007)
Baby Blues (2008)
Credo (2008) aka The Devil's Curse
The Hunted (2013)
Willow Creek (2013)
Last Shift (2014)
The Void (2016)
I'm glad to see Absentia has been mentioned. Loved that movie, as well.