User Reviews

One of those - How did they screw this up so badly? films. A doctor and his wife leave the big city and take refuge in the Maine wilderness, only to find just as much, if not more, conflict. The corporate lumbermen harass the local Indian tribe, who resent their treatment of the land. The local lumberyard is pumping toxic mercury into the environment leading to an outbreak of birth deformities, but are more interested in covering it up than cleaning it up. And somewhere in the woods is an enraged gigantic beast that is attacking campers and the local populace.

There is a lot of juicy tidbits here, yet director John Frankenheimer (responsible for the amazing The Manchurian Candidate) somehow lets the film get completely away from him. The film is really just a straight horror thriller with topical political overtones, but it rarely engages on any level. The conflict between the corporate interests and the Indians remains static at best. The film's groundwork for the revelation of the giant monster consists of a giant trout that swims to the surface of a lake and gobbles a duck and a large piece of rubber that someone proclaims a "tadpole", all of which are borderline laughable. The subplot of the local deformities in human babies is underplayed.

Yet for all of this the film should really work on a visceral level as a horror film. There is something inherently frightening about the dark forest at night, with strange sounds emanating from all around. This is something that the film never really takes advantage of. The latter third of the film is basically a lengthy pursuit of a diversity of eclectic characters trying to escape the onslaught of the rampaging monster, and this works much better than what has proceeded it, but it still does not work as potently as it should. Some of the earlier attack scenes are too few and far between - including a bungled opening sequence that is no where near as effective as the film seems to believe and a borderline laughable assault on a camping family memorable for the hilarious burst sleeping bag and feathers moment. The film pushes the then PG-rated boundaries with some surprising violence in the latter portion, but we are not especially invested in any of these characters at peril and when the creature finally emerges it looks nothing like that depicted on the poster. Rather it alternates between looking like a guy in a rubber suit, a slimy bear, a stuffed slimy bear and a huge knockwurst. In short, nothing to remotely frighten one despite the severity of the attacks. The fact that the film is able to generate some decent suspense in this third is largely because of some level of professionalism in Frankenheimer's direction and the promise still inherent in the material (which is largely undeveloped).

The dreadful acting also does not help this film. Talia Shire spends much of the film looking bored and spends the final moments appearing as though on the verge of slipping into a Valium-induced coma. The film throws her character some drama with a plot revelation, but instead of emoting she restrains herself to the point of lifelessness. Armand Assante probably contributes the best performance as a local Native American activist whom the powers-that-be initially try to pin the attacks on.

The worst performance comes courtesy of Robert Foxworth as Shire's husband, and he deserves his own paragraph. It is a straight-forward straight-arrow good guy role that just requires someone solid and appealing. Instead, Foxworth contributes a performance that would be too broad for a Greek amphitheater. In scenes where he is to appear sympathetic, he positively drips with self-righteousness. In scenes where he is disturbed about the trials around him, he sputters, blusters and waves his arms all over the place. When Shire tells him a late plot twist, he stares with such intensity at her that it is a wonder she is not burned to a cinder. He has absolutely no chemistry with Shire and every time a character asks for his opinion as a doctor, he strides as though heading center stage and begins to pontificate as though launching into a soliloquy from Shakespeare. His final confrontation with the creature should be played in acting classes as a perfect definition of how NOT to act on screen. It is a dreadfully laughable performance that degenerates into a mockery of hammy-ness that completely overwhelms the role, the people around him and the film itself.

On an aside, this is definitely a story that would be ripe for a remake. With better special effects, a more polished screenplay, tighter direction and (arguably most important of all) a better leading man, this could transform itself into a amazingly scary thrill ride.

You can easily say that this is not your average bear. Nor killer bear. Think "Grizzly"… only angrily mutated. Film-maker John Frankenheimer's ecological crossed monstrous creature feature outing is one smartly explored commentary, but at the same time outrageously daft experience in low-end b-grade exploitation. After a curiously ominous opening to sucker you in, it then focuses on the melodramas and political aspects of the story / script. Somewhat talkatively preachy with the environmental issues (a chemical disruption in the evolution stages of the animals in rural Maine) and slow-going as a land dispute erupts between the lumber company and the native Indians, but this is to make sure that the latter end would have much more of an impact. In which case it surprisingly does, although that's when the make-up FX shows up with our frenzied creation and what was presented can only be labelled as cheaply hokey. Before then we would only get the heavy breathing. After that promising intro, it takes almost a good hour before our hideous bear goes on the rampage again and this next attack while quick is risibly captured. From then onwards it's a battle of survival in the elements and there are a lot of aggressive bursts where a lot people go flying across the screen. I guess it doesn't like it when you're looking at it. Hard not to though. Director Frankenheimer slickly crafts it out with some beautifully shot landscapes, but also well placed splatter inflicted shocks and an atmospheric night-time lake encounter. The further along it goes, the sillier it does get. Leonard Rosenman's music score is forcefully cued. The performances are tolerable with the likes of Talia Shire (who's always looks a stunned dear in headlights), Robert Foxworth, Armand Assante and Richard Dysart. A nastily so-so little cult fare that ends on those predictably common final shots.

"I don't think anybody's listening"

'Prophecy' is a film about Man once again intervening with nature, although indirectly and I believe unintentionally in this case. We've seen this premise several times before, but I must be honest I found the film captivating.

The setting in the forest made for good cinematography. I was so impressed that I almost forgot to make notes! Robert Foxworthy stars as Rob - a very likable, caring character. Talia Shire stars as his wife, Maggie, who keeps a big secret from her husband: she's pregnant, and he isn't ready for kids due to a busy lifestyle.

At times I found the score too orchestral, but then again, this was the norm back in the day. The practical effects were rather good, but the giant bear wasn't too great. At times it looked like a man in a suit, and other times it looked like an obvious mechanical creation that moved on a track. Nevertheless, the deformed bear was indeed a frightening sight.

Realizing the river is contaminated from a nearby mill, Rob starts investigating. When they learn animals grow larger and give birth to mutant creatures when they eat fish from the contaminated river, the suspense is elevated since we know Maggie is pregnant, and had fish from the river. (However, this fact has no payoff by the end, as the film leaves us hanging with this knowledge).

The film has an exciting, nail-biting finale. 'Prophecy' is a thrilling adventure horror with characters I cared about and good performances. I liked it.

In so many ways, "Prophecy" is such a typical product of the severely uneven 70's horror industry. On one hand the plot is ambitious, convoluted and it sternly spreads a handful of valuable environmental messages (oh yeah, this is pure and genuine eco-horror), but on the other hand the elaboration is so extremely cheesy, campy and poor that you can't possibly take the whole thing serious. The story is largely set in – as one of the characters cleverly points out – Paul Bunyan's birth region Maine, where the employees of a big paper factory quarrel with the last remaining members of an old-fashioned Indian community over who rightfully owns the forestry lands surrounding the factory. The eminent biologist Dr. Robert Verne is sent there, along with his wife, to investigate whether or not the factory harms the environment, as the locals regularly encounter bizarre & unnatural phenomena like gigantic fish and an unusually large number of deformed babies. The doctor and his Indian friends gradually discover that mercury poisoning from the factory is indeed responsible for the corruption of nature's balance. Moreover, decades of pollution also even spawned a giant & fierce mutated monster that (strangely enough) nobody has spotted until then! Given the plausible explanation of the pollution's origin (mercury poisoning), this could have been the concept of a legitimately unsettling and alarming eco-horror creature feature, but something obviously went awry during the elaboration. The first 45 minutes are professionally tense and classy, with fuzzy & unclear images of an 'animal' attack during the opening credits and a smoothly built up atmosphere of hatred between the primitive Indians and the barbaric woodchoppers. But then the script takes a couple of absurd twists (Talia Shire nurturing a mutant bear's baby?) and the intellectual concept gradually becomes replaced with mundane and unspectacular monster-chasing-men-through-the-woods sequences. The special effects sadly evoke more laughs and sentiments of pity instead of scares (ever seen an inside-out grizzly bear? Well, here's your chance) and most of the main monster's bloody rampage happens off-screen and the screenplay (spoiler!) doesn't even has the courage to kill off one of the leading characters, which is very UN-seventies I may add. John Frankenheimer was always one of the most underrated filmmakers in Hollywood, but horror clearly wasn't his field of expertise. Worth a peek in case you're a fan of typical 70's fare, but definitely no priority viewing.

I love the look of films from this time period. This is another take on poisoning the environment that leads to nature fighting back (ex. Empire of the Ants, Squirm, Ants, Kingdom of the Spiders, Day of the Animals, etc.).

The movie starts off good enough, but unlike Jaws when it was horrifying when you first saw the shark, this movie has the opposite effect when the grizzly bear is revealed. The bear is too fakish to scare. It looks like it has no skin and should have died of an infection a long time ago. But since the bear looks terrible, it makes the end of the movie disappointing and not terrifying like Jaws was.

Other problems: For an Indian tribe ingesting mercury all this time, not one Indian showed any deformity of any kind in the village (effects dept. ran out of money?).

Why did Foxworth need the 2 cubs to prove the poisoning? Couldn't he used the giant tadpole or catch one of the giant salmon to prove it? It sure would have been more safe than dealing with Mama bear.

The movie showed other animals became aggressive like the raccoon (how did Foxworth know it wasn't rabid?) Why weren't there other attacks by other animals on people? Would've made the movie better.

How was Talia Shire happy in the end when her cello got destroyed? And when she played the cello, why didn't one of the insane animals attack her? The paper mill owner never reached the tower to radio for help, so how did the plane know to come the next day to pick up the survivors? What talent agent believed Armand Assante would pass for an Indian? With mercury in the ground at the mill, how did none of the workers get sick or have deformed kids? If I saw a salmon the size of Jaws out in the lake, I would quickly get back to shore and report right away! Not keep fishing like the Dr.

How did the bear know to destroy the car so no one could drive away? All those guns at the camp in the end and not one able to shoot the bear? But yet the Dr, the most unskilled shooter gets 2 shots off into the bear. Also, the bear dies from being stabbed numerous times in the face by an arrow? Really? That bear would've of crushed him in a second.

With that bear mutilating its victims, how do the authorities believe its the Indians r doing the killing? Wasn't it plain, even back then, when someone gets killed by an animal? Funniest part: Dr going on and on and on and on and on about the effects of mercury to a fetus. Classic! In conclusion, with today's advancement in effects and with an R rating, this could easily be remade into a much better, scarier, and effective movie.

John Frankenheimer was once a highly regarded film director in the 1960s and 70s with themes such politics , identity and existentialism being running themes . If there was one film that sank his career then it would be PROPHECY , a horror film I vivedly remember as being heavily trailed on television at the time and a film that made me wish I was old enough to watch X certificates at the cinema . Over the years PROPHECY gained a reputation as being one of the worst films to be made by an A list director but I tend not to listen to critics too much and decided to make up my own mind . When I finally it I decided there's maybe a good reason why critics get paid to watch movies . When you see a film like PROPHECY you start thinking that no matter how much the critics get paid then it's not nearly enough

At first glance someone like Frankenheimer seems an odd choice to direct a mere horror movie but within the first ten minutes you realise this isn't a horror movie - it's a manifesto for the bleeding heart dogooder party . Within the space of three scenes we've had a lumberjack massacre , freedom of right for abortion and rich people are racist money grabbers crammed in to a film . It's not subtext , it's sententious screaming that's supposed to make you run in to the street and apologise to anyone who has a different skin colour or has less money than you have . Considering the two protagonists spewing the guilt trip party manifesto are a medical doctor and his cello playing wife one might accuse the film of hypocrisy . Maybe the film's original was in fact Hypocrisy and not PROPHECY ?

The ineptness of the film making continues as does the double standards. Now that we've established that rich people are ba dwe have a scene where a dog is harnessed to a helicopter . " What's happening there ? " asks Dr Dogooder who is informed a bunch of lumberjacks have disappeared and the dog is the only survivor . Is it explained why it's dangling from the copter ? No but I suppose it's supposed to illustrate that people don't treat animals as well as they should , which foershadows the rest of the film meaning PETA won't firebomb any cinemas it's getting shown in . Then we get to meet the noble Native American who are of course played by Americans of Italian descent who get set upon by nasty white lumberjacks

If by any chance you've either switched off by this point or more likely fallen in to a coma we find out that the logging process has caused a bear to turn in to what Leonard Maltin has described as " A giant salami" . So at this point you might want to become a vegetarian . Or at the very least not bother watching any films with an ecological subtext

That said PROPHECY contains one of the greatest scenes in the history of cinema . This happens when an all American family are camping in the woods , or more accurately a film studio resembling woodland when they're attacked by the giant salami . Unable to escape from his sleeping bag - how difficult is it to unzip a sleeping bag I wonder ? - a young teenage boy hops anbout the studio when he's slapped by the salami , flys across the studio floor where he hits a polystyrene rock and explodes in to a cloud of feathers . If nothing else this gets the film a couple of more points than it genuinely deserves

One of the most famous bad movies, PROPHESY concerns the mutated wildlife of a Maine forest(due to mercury poisoning based on solution used to soak cut timber before processing in a paper mill)and those who are under their attack, specifically a doctor/ecologist, Robert Verne(Robert Foxworth), his pregnant wife, cello musician Maggie(Talia Shire), and two Native American activists who are protesting their trees being cut down by the paper mill, John Hawks(Armande Assante)and his wife Ramona(Victoria Racimo). Richard Dysart is a company man for the paper mill, Isley, who tries to persuade Verne that his mill deserves Maine timber..you see, Verne's professional opinion could decide whether or not Maine timber can or can not be cut. The mercury entering the water near the Maine reservation, poisoning both animal/fish life and the Native Americans is an ecological crisis of the highest order as all involved will soon discover as a mutated monstrous bear goes on the rampage tossing victims' bodies through the air like rag dolls. The grotesque creatures are pretty laughable, but this great cast of actors/actresses play the material straight all the way, which I guess adds to the film's camp reputation. It doesn't necessarily wallow in gore, but it's still astonishing that the director of BIRDMAN FROM ALCATRAZ actually made PROPHESY. Foxworth and Shire rise above the material and Dysart is excellent as always. I imagine those involved in this creature feature had strong intentions about mankind's disrupting the environment, but such a message is buried under the hideous make-up effects for these mutated animals. While I am not gonna sit here and call this a good film, I do think it's very entertaining and to reiterate, the cast really does add value to what could've been irredeemable schlock.