Prophecy

Plot synopsis:
Tracking two lost lumberjacks through the night, a rescue team nearly follows a hound over a cliff. Two men rappel down to retrieve the fallen hound, but they are killed. The third, hearing screams down below, rappels down to investigate, where he finds his team mates dead, only to be killed himself by an unidentified creature.Dr. Robert Verne is fed up with dealing with the squalor of city tenements. He does not feel he is making a difference. He accepts a job from the United States Environmental Protection Agency to write a report on a logging operation near the Androscoggin River in Maine. The loggers are in a dispute with the local American Indian "Opies" (i.e., "O.P.s"), the original people.Dr. Verne's wife Maggie accompanies him on the trip. She is pregnant but is apprehensive to tell her husband as he is set against having children. When they fly in, they meet a man, Travis Nelson and his two children Paul and Kathleen who are embarking on a trek into the wilderness. They also meet Bethel Isely , the director of the paper mill, who is to be their host. He tells them about his missing rescue team and lays the blame at the feet of the Opies. The latter have their own explanation: Katahdin, a vengeful spirit of the forest that has been awakened by the activities of the loggers. Isely describes Katahdin as "larger than a dragon with the eyes of a cat".As Isely drives the couple to their cabin, their path is barred by a party of Opies. They refuse to let Isely's people pass and a fight ensues between the leader of the Opies John Hawks Armand Assante and Kelso (Everett Creach), one of Isely's heavies. The heavy is armed with a chainsaw while Hawks has only a double-bit axe. The scuffle ends with Hawks laid on the ground with the chainsaw nearly at his throat. The Opies relent and let the cars pass. Verne and Maggie are visibly shocked by the incident.While fishing, Verne sees a huge salmon devour a duck. Later, after he and Maggie have eaten his catch, they are attacked in their cabin by a deranged raccoon. Verne kills it and sends a tissue sample to be tested.The next day Hawks and his wife Ramona Victoria Racimo approach Dr. Verne to put over their side of the story. If Verne is concerned about the environment then he should include the people in his assessment. Something is making the people ill: still births, mental illness and birth defects are rife. Hawks takes Verne and Maggie to the home of Hector M'Rai, Ramona's grandfather. Hector claims to have seen Katahdin and describes him as "part of everything in God's creation". Verne sees plant roots growing on the surface that should be underground; Hawk nets a bullfrog-sized tadpole from the water to show Verne; Hector has cigarette burns on his hand but feels no pain. As the evidence mounts the idyllic setting gradually takes on a sinister hue.Verne and Maggie tour the paper mill to look for incriminating evidence but the chemicals used in the processing are demonstrated to never leave the plant. Isely tells them that the water is routinely tested for purity. As they leave, however, Verne notices mercury deposits on Maggie's boots. It is a mutagen that causes birth defects and progressive nerve damage. It has long been used in logging as a fungicide because it is cheap. It will not show up in Isely's water purity tests because it sinks to the bottom. Verne needs more evidence and determines to take blood tests from the Opies.That night, the Nelson family, who have set up a camp in the woods, are suddenly assaulted by Katahdin; a ferocious bear with one of it's sides containing horribly mutated skin. The horrified Paul tries to flee, but the beast swats him into a rock, killing him. The next day as Verne and Maggie are taking blood samples, Isely and Sheriff Bartholomew Pilgrim arrive to arrest Hawks and his men whom they mistakenly believe to be the ones who killed the Nelson family. Hawks, however, escapes. Verne, Maggie and Ramona take a helicopter to the campsite to investigate the killings. Verne and Ramona find huge scratch marks on the trees while Maggie finds two mutated bear cubs trapped in a salmon poacher's net. One of the cubs is still alive and Verne is determined to save it so it can serve as empirical evidence of the contamination. However, the weather has turned and the pilot, Huntoon, refuses to take off in the high wind.They make for Hector's home and Verne sends Hawks to fetch Isely and the sheriff. Verne sets up an emergency room in one of Hector's tepees and helps the cub survive. Maggie is clearly distressed by the ordeal so Verne takes her aside and assures her that it will all be over soon. Shockingly, she reveals to him that she is pregnant and she has eaten contaminated fish like the mother of the cubs.Isely and Sheriff Pilgrim arrive and see the mutant cub. Isely is contrite, knowing that Hawks and his men weren't the killers. Hector arrives, when suddenly Katahdin attacks the camp in search of her cubs and kills everyone in sight. Everyone else seeks shelter in tunnels beneath Hector's home. All goes quiet so Pilgrim decides to check it out. He pokes his head up out of the tunnel and Katahdin kills him.The next day, the survivors make their way out of the forest. The helicopter is not an option as Huntoon was severely mauled in the beast's initial attack. Isely heads up to Mount Emery to try to reach a radio tower and call for help. Isley finds the radio tower but the monster immediately finds him and before Isley is able to call help, Katahdin kills him as well. The others find the Opie village mysteriously isolated and the Opie people gone, but take a truck and try to drive out along the winding forest road. Katahdin turns the truck over and finishes Huntoon off by devouring his head. The others run off through the forest with the beast in pursuit.They arrive at the river and swim across. The cub continues to bite Maggie but Rob pulls it off her and holds it underwater, drowning it. Hector stays behind to make Katahdin flee but fails and he is killed as well. Katahdin seems reluctant to follow them at first, but then enters the water and vanishes. They believe she drowned but then she suddenly emerges. They take shelter in a log cabin, but Katahdin tears down the walls. Maggie is knocked unconscious by debris, but Ramona is crushed. It is later revealed that she survived the incident.Verne finds a Winchester Model 1892 rifle in the cabin and shoots the monster twice with some effect. Hawks shoots arrows into Katahdin's hide until the beast sends him airborne with a mighty swat from her paws, then he lands on the ground, dead and bloodied. Verne picks up an arrow, then Katahdin hoists him up, only to be stabbed repetitively in the face and eyes until she collapses into the lake. Rob notices that the monster still moves slightly and leaps onto the beast and stabs her a few more times until her corpse finally sinks below the water.Verne and Maggie fly over the forest the next day, but not knowing that there is another mutant animal still alive in the forest.

Tags: violence

Review:
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 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.
Of these four films probably the most neglected, and deservedly so, is John Frankenheimer's ecological horror film starring Robert Foxworth, Talia Shire, Armand Assante, Richard Dysart and a carnivorous, drooling fifteen foot mutant bear.Working from a ludicrous script by David Seltzer, author of The Omen (1976 & 2006), the film makes a plaintive plea about the dangers of a contaminating industry on the natural environment and how it could spawn obscene freaks of nature that may one day bite back.
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.
The idealistic Dr. Robert Verner (Robert Foxworth) is invited by his friend Vic to travel to the Maine with his wife Maggie (Talia Shire) working for the Environmental Protection Agency to prepare a report about the dispute between Indians "Opies" (meaning the original people) and the lumberjacks.
"Prophecy" is a movie directed by John Frankenheimer with a lame ecological journey to the Garden of Eden of the original people.
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.
Some contaminants have caused the wildlife to mutate and create animal mutations that have become bloodthirsty, destructive, killing machines - in particular some huge bear-monster thing which we really never get a real close look at long enough to see just how bad the special effects really are.
Prophecy is one of those horror films that wants you to believe that the message it has underscores all the lame special effects and other flaws.
We get to see a raccoon acting wildly, a giant salmon, giant tadpole, a pair of rather ugly looking mutant bear cubs and, best of all, a huge mutated bear that is going on the rampage killing and eating people, including the local sheriff and a family of natives.Prophcey contains some great scenery and was actually filmed in British Columbia despite the story being in Maine.I'm not too familiar with any of the cast, which is lead by Robert Foxworth, Talia Shire and Richard Dysart.Prophecy is worth viewing.
***SPOILERS*** Not feeling any fulfillment in life as a doctor working for the city in the rat infested slums of Washington D.C. Dr. Robert Verne,Robert Foxworth,gets a dream job working for the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, and sent with his wife Maggie,Talia Shire, to the clean air healthy living surroundings in far off picturesque Maine.
What no one realizes is that the paper mill is using high and dangerous amounts of mercury that's polluting the nearby Androscoggin River and turning everything in it,or that drinks from it, as well as its water supply of the region into mutant monsters!It's one of these mutants a 12 foot tall brown bear who's been tearing people apart whenever he runs into them in the forest.
Now this is what a monster movie should be like: an interesting story that doesn't rely on the creature to keep things moving along; realism wherever possible; a decent cast of B-movie types who you can play "who's gonna die next?" with.Much of the success of PROPHECY lies in the presence of director John Frankenheimer, who brings a sheen of professionalism to the proceedings that many other minor monster flick directors can't hope to equal.
This is a film which inhabits the same ecological disaster type territory as LONG WEEKEND and FROGS, and proves to be just as entertaining: the story of a mutated bear-creature rampaging in the woods as a result of industrial pollution is a good one, and PROPHECY never disappoints.Along with the interesting story, this film benefits from a strong leading cast who bring life to what could be otherwise rote characters.
Armand Assante plays perhaps the world's most unlikely Native American and Richard Dysart bags the great role of the company man responsible for the pollution.The monster effects are great – I'll forever take prosthetic and model effects work over CGI – and the horror scenes ultra effective, with the bit with the boy in the sleeping bag an example of 'one seen, never forgotten'.
"Alien" was a fair hit at the box office (with a far better monster) while "Prophecy" didn't do very well, causing director John Frankenheimer to plummet into a depression.I first saw the film as a kid because I was intrigued by the 15-foot grotesque monster.
At the same time, I could not stop watching because I probably cared for the main characters, but more likely because the horrifying bear was so well animated that I thought it could actually exist.Then again, I was only a child and thus, easily impressionable but back in the day, I also watched "The Thing", "IT", "The Abyss" or "Alien" but it was only Prophecy that really haunted me for nights and still somehow comes back now and then as the movie that really caused terror to my young mind.As I write this lines, I remember how my sister Julia and I would challenge each other to resist the instinct of covering our eyes or to look away when the monsters showed up.
Robert Foxworth plays biologist Dr. Robert Verne, who, along with his wife(Talia Shire) flies to the remote wilderness of Maine to investigate claims by the local Native American tribe(led by Armand Assante) that a paper factory is poisoning the environment, resulting in polluted waters and deformed children.
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.
Maybe I am fond of them because I use to see them on TV as a kid or maybe because the cinematography makes me feel like I am watching a Disney nature film but I just love 70's/80's "B" horror movies.
Talia Shire( Maggie Verne) gave a good supporting role, taking care of a monster like baby and just blaming her husband for everything that went wrong!
Alas that was not to be.Frankenheimer ,who shone during the sixties with such works as "birdman Of Alcatraz" ,"seconds" and "Mandchourian candidate "was much less successful in the seventies.Two of the works I mention had already broached the fantastic,with startling results.Besides,"prophecy" begins well enough,with an ecological and sociological plot.They killed lots of Indians by shooting buffalos and thus starving them;here it's much more subtle:they do away with them-and actually they do not intend to,or at least that's what they say-by poisoning their food.Beautiful landscapes ,old legends and the grandpa character were assets.But in the last third,as soon as the monsters appear,it's Punch and Judy all over again .A subplot - Talia Shire's pregnancy- does not seem to matter anymaore at the end of the movie.The movie ends up with the obligatory "unexpected" trick :it's not over when you think...well you get the picture..These last thirty minutes resemble a poor man's Cronenberg movie (parasite murders,1975)and destroy everything..
I saw "Prophecy" when I was seven years old, and like other reviewers, were terrified by the camping scene, where a father and his two kids are mauled by a bear-like creature.
And watch poor Talia Shire when she discovers the mutant baby - she can't seem to decide if she's laughing or reacting in horror.Director Frankenheimer tries his best to make this an artsy-fartsy "significant" movie but any hope he had is undercut by David Seltzer's pretentious script.
What were Talia Shire, Robert Foxworth and Armand Assante thinking when they saw the script, they had to have known this movie was dentined to be added to the hall of shame with the like of showgirls.
The worst thing is at the end of the movie we get to see the full mutant creature, it looks like a bear with a plastic dog head glued on.
Tenement doctor accepts a government job easing tensions in the forests of Maine, where lumber czars are taking land away from the Indian tribe; meanwhile, toxic waste attributed to the business has created its own rampaging monster, which looks like a melting grizzly bear and walks upright like a man.
Good actors Robert Foxworth (looking a bit like Grizzly Adams himself), Talia Shire and Armand Assante are wasted.
effects were great for 1979 (great year)story was solid, acting was good, giant bear of death, freaking the greatest thing in a movie I've seen since "feast"(well since before feast) trivia of my life you couldn't give a crap less about:i was watching this film while my son was being born it was on a all night horror movie-a-thon,my kid was born October 30th, i had it on in the background ...doctors thought that was a little weird ...i thought it was a great movie (4), vocalistGOD IN A MACHINE.
While investigating, Verner discovers that a chemical leak from the mill has been causing mutations in the wildlife, resulting in a massive, monstrous, bear-like creature that roams the land killing at will.In early Hollywood movies, the Red Indian was a whoopin' and a hollerin' savage intent on scalping heroic cowboys, but by the '70s, the white man was feeling a tad guilty about stealing the Indians' land and then depicting them as bloodthirsty brutes, and so tried to atone for their actions by thereon portraying the native American as a peaceful, noble breed, living in harmony with the environment, while showing Caucasians to be untrustworthy rogues.
Director John Frankenheimer's Prophecy is not only guilty of this ridiculous politically correct reversal of stereotypes, but it fails to offer horror fans much to get excited about: the plot is predictable eco-warrior garbage, there is little to no gore, and the monster is utterly laughable.Several scenes do, however, make this one just about worth a watch, albeit for the wrong reasons: brave Native American John Hawk (played by Italian/Irish actor Armand Assante) locked in a chainsaw vs.
It's definitely a horror film with a message, an ecological one, although it's laid on with an awfully heavy hand.Written by David Seltzer of "The Omen" fame, it spins a yarn about classical musician Maggie (Talia Shire), who accompanies her doctor husband Rob (Robert Foxworth) to upstate Maine where's he to do some investigating at the advice of a friend.
What they and others discover is that methylmercury poisoning has turned the local wildlife into big mutant killers - one bear in particular."Prophecy" begins extremely well, with an intense chase sequence at night, and delivers some good moments as it plays out.
Robert Foxworth and his wife, played by Talia Shire move from NYC to Maine to investigate some environmental protection shenanigans involving a river and Indian village being poisoned by something causing stillbirths and making tadpoles and trout grow to quadruple their normal size.Oh yeah, there's also a gigantic thing wandering around that looks like if you took a yeti and turned it inside out.Interesting premise.
Birdman Of Alcatraz''Grand Prix' Black Sunday' Ronin' Second's 'The Gypsy Moth's All of the above are fine film's, sadly 'prophecy is not but it's still an enjoyable splatter come ecological 'message' movie, It stars Robert Foxworth' Complete with 'Monster' afro and hairy beard!, Talia Shire' Richard Dysart' and Armand Assante,Foxworth plays a doctor from the EPA (Enivironement Protection Association) sent from the mean street's of new york to the picturesque Maine, where he along with his wife Shire, investigate strange going's at a lumber mill where apparently it is revealed that they are using chemicals that pollute the local wildlife,where in true B movie style their are Large Tadpoles!
Armand Assante, (in another trade mark ethnic role) plays' an Indian who is not one bit pleased with the treatment of his people, Richard Dysart, play's the slimy mill Boss, Entertaining stuff!The only downside to the bear's appearance is it's all too obvious that it's the old 'Guy in a suit routine' had they kept old Grizzly's appearance down to a minimum (a la Jaws' it should have worked,Another curious thing about this film is it's rating PG?(Pretty Gory!
The plot is great, unlike most films of this type,(SPOILERS AHEAD)the local papermill uses a chemical to soak its logs in, the EPA is brought in to check things out, the Native Americans are wanting the White people to stay off their land and quit demolishing their land, and then there is a deformed mother bear looking for her cubs.
If you are looking for a great "turn the lights out" scary movie that has some solid "darn-near-soil-your-underwear" surprises, this is a pretty good start.The challenge that many contemporary horror flicks have even today is the inability to do the one thing that Prophecy does.
But, I go camping all the time, and after Prophecy, I don't care how cold I get I will never sleep in a mummy bag, I live in logging country and I will never eat the fish from a lake near a paper mill, and I will seriously think about going back to suburbia if I see tadpoles the size of bass.That is the real treasure in Prophecy, a scary movie that does what it is supposed to do, scare you.
If the monster at the end looked like the monster through out the movie this film would be a solid 8.
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.
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).
Nevertheless, they were all movies in which half the film was over before something happened, then you were lucky if you got a good view of the monster (before anyone saw the zipper on the rubber costume, of course).
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 The sleeping bag death was ridiculous yet hilarious The Bad: Couple of weird writing decisions Assante is just terrible Lead was very lifeless as was Shire I was rooting for the monster Things I Learnt From This Movie: Manbearpigs cannot swim but can breath underwater Am I the one only one who expected the giant fishy to eat Manbearpig at the end?Mathmatically half man, half bear and half pig might not be feasible.
Now, I'm not stating that Frankenheimer's "Prophecy" is a brilliant film, but it does do what monster movies are suppose to do.
Yet these are minor gripes about what, in truth, is a pretty effective monster movie.Okay, the first act's a bit slow, but that's because director Frankenheimer has adopted the old-fashioned method of using it to create a realistic set-up and explain the back-story in ways that both look and sound authentic.
The acting isn't good but it really doesn't need to be, you purchased or rented the movie not to see great acting but a big monster bear that goes on to kill a lot of people and eventually gets killed by the hero.
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.