Messiah of Evil

Arletty drives to the beach town of Point Dume to reconnect with her estranged father, an artist living by the sea. She finds his beachfront house abandoned and empty. In the house she discovers a diary addressed to her that laments darkness consuming the town and urges her never to search for him.

Arletty reads through the diary and learns her father speaks of an abnormal body temperature and fighting a disturbing 'condition.' He hints at looming dangers and begs her never to search for him or reveal his fate. The entry sets a sense of dread over Point Dume.

The diary leads Arletty to a local art gallery, where the owner claims he has no of her father's paintings and does not sell them. He says he doesn't know where her father went and that Point Dume isn't an artist colony. The exchange deepens the mystery around the missing works and the artist's fate.

Arletty encounters Thom, an aristocrat, and his provocatively free-spirited companions, Toni and Laura, when they arrive in town. They stay in the area and become part of the drifting group around Arletty and her family's house. Tension and curiosity hint at the dark undercurrents of Point Dume.

Thom interviews Charlie, a local eccentric, who speaks at length about the blood moon and the 'dark stranger' who will return. He warns that Arletty's father may be 'one of them' and that evil will overtake the town when the moon turns red. Before long, Charlie is killed, confirming the danger.

While the visitors stay at the father's house, Arletty reads through her father's journals revealing his brutal 'condition.' Each night, pale townspeople gather on the beach for bonfires and stare at the Moon, signaling the town's impending transformation known as 'The Waiting.' The mood grows increasingly ominous.

In a horrifying turn of events, Laura disappears into a crowd at the local supermarket as people descend into a frenzy and feast on raw meat. The attack is abrupt and terrifying, showing the town's quiet surface hiding something monstrous. The event marks the first explicit spread of the town's violent ritual.

The following day, Toni goes to a movie and is attacked by the theater audience, who begin bleeding from an eye as they turn predatory. The incident demonstrates how quickly everyday spaces become dangerous under the town's influence. Arletty and Thom realize the threat has fully arrived.

That evening the blood moon rises and the town's residents transform into a gathered mass under the Messiah's influence. The Messiah of Evil, a former minister and Donner Party survivor, emerges to spread a new religion and lead his followers up the coast. The town's religious fervor turns murderous and unstoppable.

Two riot-gear police drive up and open fire on the mob, but chaos erupts when one cop bleeds from the eye and is shot by his partner. The undead cop then kills the partner, and the townsfolk feast on flesh as law and order collapse. The horror becomes a full-scale outbreak.

While Thom is away, Arletty is visited by her father who begs her to flee and tell the world the truth. He attacks her and, in a violent struggle, she stabs him with garden shears and burns him alive. The confrontation marks the beginning of Arletty's own transformation.

Thom returns to find Arletty half-crazed, cold and numb to pain, convinced she may be dead or undead. Beetles and other creatures spill from her mouth, underscoring her transformation. She stabs Thom in the arm and the pair flee toward the beach together.

They reach the coastal water and attempt to reach a small boat, but Thom seems to drown in the surf. Arletty survives and is captured by the townspeople, who ultimately spare her on the condition that she spread word of the movement throughout California and the world. The bargain binds her to become a conduit for the cult's expansion.

The bargain leads to Arletty being locked away in an insane asylum. There, she spends every day painting in the sun, dreading the day when the Messiah and his followers will come to take her away. Her life becomes a quiet, ominous waiting inside a creaking institution.