Prophecy

I know of and truly admire the genius of John Frankenheimer, who gave us The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, Seconds, The Train, and more recently, Ronin. He also gave this ridiculous eco-monster movie enough discipline and artistic snap to raise it above the level of mutant frogs, bunnies, and snakes, all croaking, hopping, and slithering around the late 70s.

I don't dwell on plot in my reviews; I like to talk about what makes the movie worth expending your precious minutes or not, so here is what one geek loves about this silly, fun flick: Even with the overly intense performances, the Marcus Welby music, the clichéd-to-the-point-of-exasperation mean, old corporate polluters, the fact that Talia Shire's face seems to be melting off her head (cheap shot, I know), and the monster--think of Shaq in latex, p.o.'d, with fangs and Mad-Eye Moody peepers--you have a scary, fun, and interesting movie.

Hey, Stephen King liked it, although he was right in pointing out how silly it was to put the Indians in teepees in Maine.

I wonder if Robert Foxworth, Shire, and Armand Assante get fan mail for this 8th grader of a movie. Frankenheimer, God bless him, made this movie work, and passed away a few years ago (no causal relationship, of course). He was so serious and deep, a really, really skilled artist, but I also wonder how he would have responded to fan mail for Prophecy.

I hope all involved had or have senses of humor and when confronted with a request for an autograph on the VHS box, respond with, "Hey, thanks for your support, you geek!"

Maybe it's because the setting of the movie- New England- is where I spent many an idyllic vacation with my family, but to see this creepy-looking mutant bear running around in the forest is really terrifying. John Frankenheimer directs a nighmarish film that should not be seen alone.

I saw "Prophecy" on a double bill with the original "Friday the 13th," another bloody romp in the forest. The Jason film was second on the bill, and would've been unimpressive on its own, but was rendered especially impotent to this viewer after having all the bejeezus scared out of me by "Prophecy."

Highly recommended!

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

Kind of an under-rated creature feature that is mostly forgotten and was poorly reviewed at the time of release. Coming after 'Jaws' and in the midst of the "pollution causes monsters" subgenre. In this one a doctor (Robert Foxworth) takes his wife (Talia Shire) to the Maine wilderness to collect samples to settle a dispute between a paper mill and the local Indian tribe. They stumble onto a series of mutated creatures and a web of deception designed to hide the true horror that stalks the woods.

This is a big budget B-movie that is expertly made. Director John Frankenheimer, always a professional, handles the material perfectly. The actors act their asses off and Leonard Rosenman's score is so intense that it is instrumental in creating much of the tension. There is some really smart writing and great scenes: a sequence where a family is killed in the forest is unexpected and shocking; an exposition scene involving a tape recorder is clever in its efficiency; some nice setups involving the wife being pregnant that are paid off nicely. Just watch all the cinematic tricks on display as a group of characters are hiding underground after a brutal attack. Not something you would get in a lesser film.

A main source of criticism seems to be the monster itself. Created by The Burman's Studio who did the effects for such classics as 'Planet of the Apes' and 'Star Kid.' The monster is a bit goofy but is mostly shot to hide that fact and is pretty effective. The parts where it's clearly a guy in a suit are silly to be fair, even though the creature is played by Kevin Peter Hall who would go on to be a different Predator a few years later. The monster in 'Prophecy' is fun and certainly not the worst ever committed to film. Another problem is the casting of non-Native American actors to play members of the Indian tribe. I mean Armand Assante, really?

So as Halloween approaches, I'll try to throw out some largely unseen horror films to add to the scares. 'Prophecy' is a good example of a slick monster movie, very well done by talented people in front of and behind the camera. It's not great but is more entertaining than it has any right to be. 7/10.

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