Prophecy

PROPHECY is the kind of movie that makes you go, "Aw, man!" Not because it just plain sucks, but because the movie never once lives up to its potential. It repeatedly pulls its punches and draws back just as it's getting good.

The poster is probably the best thing about it, showing a creepy little mutant fetus floating in a womb. A movie about that thing? As an eight year old kid, I was the first on line! And, as an added bonus, it was PG, so I knew I could get in. Not to mention the fact that this was when Hollywood still had some balls, and a PG movie could still contain some hefty doses of gore and T&A.

I remember finding individual scenes to be pretty scary. A family is slaughtered while camping in one scene. A guy in an overturned jeep gets his head ripped off. And the giant mutant bear is, at times, genuinely freaky.

But even I, as a little kid, could tell that the movie was uneven and poorly paced. When the monster isn't attacking, it's yawn city, with Robert Foxworth pontificating endlessly to the point where, even though I agreed with every word he said, I wanted to bash his face in. And Talia Shire's eye-bugging and whining got pretty tiresome after a while as well.

You rarely, if ever, get a good look at the monster. That technique worked in ALIEN, but, whereas ALIEN kept the monster hidden through stylish photography and sly editing, PROPHECY is just poorly shot, badly lit, and sloppily put together.

Ridley Scott wanted to keep the alien partially hidden, so all you saw was teeth and claws and could put the thing together in your mind. I think John Frankenheimer just couldn't figure out how to hide the seams in the dime-store monster costume he had to work with, so just lit everything so dimly you could barely see anything. The monster is pretty grotesque and occasionally looks fearsome, but usually looks like nothing more than a big gray blob.

The baby monster bear that Shire cradles through the second half of the movie is much more freakish looking. PROPHECY is watchble enough if it shows up on cable one rainy day when there's nothing else to do. Just remember to watch it through an eight year old's eyes.

Reviewers of the film are quick to undercut its actual effectiveness as a film without realizing that many parts of the film succeed, including the tension of the characters against the beast, the horror of the beasts' attacks, the helplessness of man within nature, etc. Reviewers would be accurate to attack the cheesy effects, hokey dialogue at times and overall loss on energy in the film toward the climax, but there's much more going on here.

Prophecy is, at best, a) a departure for John Frankenheimer, b) a 70's horror movie with a social conscience and, c) not withstanding amateurish special effects, predictable dialogue and long-view shots of Talia Shire looking petrified beyond speech, an actually entertaining, somewhat surprisingly satisfying film. The novel created an intelligent, often compelling case for early environmentalism and the frightening consequences of doing nothing in light of the dangerous contamination of the Earth. Prophecy as a film suffers from a deplorable special effects deficiancy (case in point: at one point in the film, the monster is clearly "walking" on the dock with the courtesy of a mechanical dolly and hydraulic levers...uggh) as said before, but looking beyond this, the film's plotline does build tension, though it loses steam in the end, concluding with a rather lamely tacked-on "surprise" ending that is more befitting of the TV networks in the 70's. Frankenheimer captures a "land-locked" Jaws-like eating machine on film with a vengeance, and the subsequent carnage is, while unfortunate, in light of the circumstances that created the beast, understandable. The focal point of the movie, the beast itself, operates as a deranged ecological locomotive ( actually sounding like one onfilm at times ) hell-bent on taxing mankind for its misfortune.

Remarkably ( and most likely accidentally) the film achieved a perfect "of the moment" time slice capture of the late 70's era, replete with the worries, political movements, ambiguities and uncertainties of the time all woven within the backstory of the Indian's struggle against the papermill, global overpopulation, bigotry and commercialization at the expense of nature.

Beautiful scenery ( courtesy of British Columbia, circa 1978/1979), believable performances, particularly from Richard Dysart and Armand Assanti, combined with circumstances and sequences never actually realized on film before combine to make a pretty meaty B movie. Case in point, the opening sequence with the dogs and the cliff, the tunnels of the Indian village and their subsequent use later in the film. I saw this film when I was 11, and the memory of the camping family and their fate in the film has YET to leave me. Don't think I've ever camped again without recalling that scene...

I recommend the film without taking it as seriously as it seems to take itself, though the message of environmentalism is one worth listening to. The plot device of methyl mercury poisoning in Minimata, Japan is based on true life actual events, and is considerably more frightening than the sum of this movie, but is worth researching sometime.

• Monstergarp

I saw this picture on Betamax in '81 or '82 and it really got under my skin. Frankenheimer's monster movie is partly responsible for me getting into the business (along with Jaws, Alien, Raiders, Blade Runner, not that I'm really inviting such comparisons). I actually had occasion to have a smoke and chat briefly with Robert Foxworth about the making of the picture when I was grip on a made-for-TV suspense pic in Atlanta. He was approachable, friendly and enjoyed talking about that show. He said that they had lost a stunt driver, and narrowly escaped losing a cast member or two when their first construction truck/picture car (the 4wd monster truck our ensemble try to escape in) took a dive off a cliff. They had to scramble to find another one and finish the picture. RF also said that Frankenheimer was an accomplished chef and had occasionally treated the DP and Cast to gourmet meals.

Prophecy is now on DVD, presented the way it was originally shot. I think I bought my copy for less than $15. All of the criticisms of this film are true, and it does not belong in the first Frankenheimer potential box set with "The Train," "Manchurian Candidate," and "Seven Days in May." But with this marginal script and genre, bound together with a tired, preachy and inaccurate environmental message, Frankenheimer managed to put together a monster picture that has surprisingly stout legs. Remember, Paramount released this monster muppet against "Alien," arguably the best film of its kind ever made. The monster grizzly is enraged, frightening and unpredictable. It is key to the film's suspense. If the Emmerich/Devlin team gave 'Zilla the same qualities, suddenly that film is worth watching for more than the effects. Prophecy had virtually no effects by today's standards. They had to make up for this with shooting and editing; a.k.a. conventional, hand-crafted filmmaking. I may indeed be prejudiced, but I still like this movie with all of its problems.

Prophecy is one of those films I'd never heard of, went entirely under my radar. I can confidently say it has aged remarkably well and it's astonishing that it was made in the 1970's.

Starring Talia "Adriiiieeennne" Shire & Armand "One facial expression" Assante this tells the story of a doctor and his girlfriend who venture to the forests of Maine to bring peace between loggers and native Americans.

Trouble is something's out there killing folk and the loggers believe its the native Americans! Well it's not in fact it's a great big creature that I'm sure must have been Trey Parker & Matt Stones influence for South Parks very own Manbearpig. The likeness is truly uncanny.

Essentially a mystery film with a creature feature addition this is actually a perfectly watchable film and looks great. Practical effects, memorable story though a bit of a lackluster finale.

If you like your beastie films you can do worse and Al Gore is super serial about this one.

The Good:

Looks great

Manbearpig

An excellent though ridiculous death scene

The Bad:

Couple of weird writing decisions

Assante is just terrible

Lead was very lifeless as was Shire

I was rooting for the monster

This film had the potential to be a rare echo-horror that actually tackled the subject of men tempering with nature. It was apparently inspired by a real environmental disaster in Japan and since it was directed by John Frankenheimmer, I was genuinely intrigued to check out this film that I had been dismissing for so long mainly because of the infamous exploding sleeping bag scene.

It starts out nicely with a violent sequence that proceeds to set up the main characters and plot; Native Americans are demonstrating against loggers working on a paper mill and taking away their land. The protagonist is a doctor who is called to the affair as an adviser and soon finds out that the plant is poisoning the water, the fish and the people who live of the land. To make matters worse there's something in the woods feeding on loggers and campers.

Now, I know this is a creature feature and the monster deserves a fair amount of screen time. It is kept in wraps throughout the film, making up for some genuinely suspenseful scenes. At first it's a mere side effect of the much bigger tragedy that the land and people are suffering. But by the end it takes over the movie, turning it into a gore fest and depriving it of its original atmosphere. All the subplots are dropped, characters vanished and the movie abruptly ends.

All in all, as far as echo-horror goes this is one of the most decent and fans of b movies will certainly be entertained. More stuff to look out for is the gorgeous Victoria Racimo, a young Armand Assante, those adorable mutated bear cubs and of course, the exploding sleeping bag scene.