Prophecy

Cast View all

	Talia Shire	Maggie
	Robert Foxworth	Rob
	Armand Assante	John Hawks
	Richard Dysart	Isely
	Victoria Racimo	Ramona
	George Clutesi	M'Rai
	Tom McFadden	Pilot
	Evans Evans	Cellist
	Burke Byrnes	Father
	Mia Bendixsen	Girl
	Johnny Timko	Boy
	Everett Creach	Kelso
	Charles H. Gray	Sheriff
	Lyvingston Holmes	Black Woman
	Graham Jarvis	Shusette
	Jim Burk	Rescuer
	Bob Terhune	Rescuer
	Lon Katzman	Rescuer
	Steve Shemayne	Indian
	John A. Shemayme	Indian
	Jaye Durkus	Sheriff's Deputy
	Renato Moore	Tenement Boy
	Mel Waters	Tenement Man
	Roosevelt Smith	Tenement Man
	Eric Mansker	Tenement Man

Crew View all

Director	John Frankenheimer
Writer	David Seltzer
Producer	Robert L. Rosen
Musician	Leonard Rosenman
Photography	Harry Stradling Jr.

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Notes

My quick rating - 5.4/10. I remember watching John Frankenheimer’s eco-horror film that takes the dangers of pollution and cranks them up to monstrous proportions when I was about 6 or 7 years old. While the creature effects might look dated by today’s standards, the film still holds up surprisingly well, particularly in its unsettling depictions of mutation. The grotesque results of chemical contamination are convincingly horrifying, lending a sense of realism to the terror. It was ahead of its time in addressing environmental concerns, tackling corporate negligence and its impact on nature long before it became a mainstream topic. The story follows an EPA investigator (Rob Foxworth) and his wife Maggie (Talia Shire) as they team up with a group of Native Americans to uncover the truth behind a series of bizarre deaths in the Maine wilderness. What they find is a nightmarish, rage-fueled mutant monstrosity courtesy of a lumber mill's toxic waste, that relentlessly stalks them through the forest. The scares are fairly straightforward: a giant mutated creature picking off its victims one by one, but the eerie atmosphere and effective tension-building still make it an engaging watch. A definite highlight (and a bit of an unintentional laugh) is the now-infamous sleeping bag kill, which predates the legendary scene from Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood by nearly a decade. One has to wonder if that later film drew inspiration from this moment, as both involve a person getting absolutely wrecked while trapped in a sleeping bag. While Prophecy might not be nightmare fuel for today’s horror fans, I can see how this would have been terrifying as a kid. A massive, deformed, and enraged beast, born from toxic waste and wreaking havoc in the Maine wilderness, is an effective setup for an eco-horror creature feature. It’s a film with solid intentions and some genuinely disturbing imagery, even if the execution now feels a little campy. For fans of classic monster horror with a message, it’s still worth checking out.

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