Prophecy
(1979) 102 Min.
Rated: PG
Country: USA
Director: John Frankenheimer
Starring: Robert Foxworth, Talia Shire, Richard Dysart, Armand Assante, Victoria Racimo
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
It’s man vs. a mutated creature with bonus Native Americans in Prophecy!
Synopsis:
The movie opens on a rescue team attacked by a creature during the night. It leads them off a cliff and attacks them one by one until all are dead.
In the city, Dr. Robert Verne (Foxworth) is tired of not making enough of an impact in inner city tenements. He decides to take a job to act as a go between the local Native American tribes (They call themselves the “Opies”, as in O.P., Original People.) and the lumber company.
He takes his pregnant cello playing wife Maggie (Shire) along. She hasn’t told him of her pregnancy. They meet meet Bethel Isely (Dysart), the paper mill director. He tells them about the missing rescue team and blames the Opies.
As they drive to their cabin the road is blocked by the Opies. Their leader John Hawks (Assante) gets into a bit of a scuffle with Isley’s worker who wields a chainsaw. The Opies allow Isley and their group to pass.
Verne sees a duck get attacked by a fish while out on the lake fishing. Later in their cabin, Maggie tries to warm up Verne to the idea of them having a child but he cools to the idea. They hear a screeching noise outside, open the door and suddenly they are attacked by a raccoon. Verne manages to scoop it up with an oar and toss it into the fireplace.
The next day, Hawks and his wife Ramona (Racimo) try to talk to Verne. They take Verne and Maggie to the home of Hector M’Rai. Hector tells them that there is a creature called Katahdin that exists to fight for them against the lumber company. The group finds a giant tadpole the size of a grown frog. Verne asks about the pond and Hawks and Ramona inform him that it’s fed by the Espee River which the paper mill empties into.
Mr. Isely gives Verne and his wife a tour of the paper mill. He tells them that the only chemicals they use are chlorine which doesn’t leave the plant and a biodegradable chemical to help with the grinding process.
Verne notices a silvery chemical on Maggie’s boot and figures out methylmercury is what is poisoning everything because it’s cheap to use. It’s heavier than water, so it wouldn’t show up in a normal surface water test.
Maggie is worrying about the fact that they probably ate mecury tainted fish last night which would contaminate her baby.
During the night some campers are killed by the creature.
Verne, Maggie, and Ramona take a helicopter to investigate the deaths of those campers. Hawk is being blamed for their deaths. It is raining heavily and they find two mutant bear cubs though one is already dead. They bring both with them as proof of the contamination of the river.
Verne works hard to keep the one cub alive. He asks the Opies to retrieve the sheriff. Meanwhile, Maggie is very upset and tells Verne that she is pregnant and is concerned about having eaten some of the local fish.
They show the mutant bear cub to Mr. Isely and the sheriff. Isely says he didn’t want to know that there was Methylmurcury being put in the water. Suddenly, the bear monster attacks the camp looking for its cub. They manage to hide in the tunnels but the mutant kills some of the people and takes the dead cub with it.
Isely runs off to get to the radio tower to contact help. He sees ants covering the dead cub and then sees the Mutant beast. She chases him down and finally attacks him.
The survivors find the Opie town deserted and decide to drive out of the forest. The mutant monster again attacks them by overturning their truck. The survivors come across a river and swim across it. The beast manages to wade across it slowly.
Maggie, Verne, Hawks and Ramona are the only survivors and they try to barricade themselves in the cabin where Maggie and Verne were staying. Unfortunately the Mutant bear breaks down the walls. Hawks tries to shoot it with arrows, but he is killed. Verne manages to stab it a few times to kill it, then stab it some more just for good measure.
At the end of the film we see a plane soaring over the beautiful forests. Verne and Maggie, worried but alive. And in the final moments of blissful forest flyovers another mutant beast pops its head up and growls menacingly at the audience.
Review:
This movie about nature seeking revenge is well acted but so poorly paced. There are talking scenes aplenty. It reeks of TV movie material, but has a bit of blood and guts that probably wouldn’t have allowed it to be broadcast on television in its day.
Though the creepy mutant cub is a little unsettling, it quickly became annoying with its constant whine. The “Opies” are treated as mystical and expendable. It’s as if the film is saying “Yes, the natives have the right idea, but let’s have a White Male protagonist show ’em how it’s done!”
The movie is at its core a preachy bore with not enough action to keep me engaged and unfortunately so many “menacing scenes” that were far more hilarious than scary.