Product Details

• Actors: Talia Shire, Robert Foxworth, Armand Assante, Richard Dysart, Victoria Racimo
• Directors: John Frankenheimer
• Writers: David Seltzer
• Producers: Robert L. Rosen
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 14, 1988
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300213811
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #272,822 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

John Frankenheimer updates the mutant-monster films of the 1950s with a modern environmental twist in this well-meaning but cliché-ridden late-'70s horror film. Robert Foxworth is so earnest it hurts as a rabble-rousing ghetto doctor who packs up his pregnant wife (Talia Shire) and heads out to the Maine woods to investigate claims of environmental pollution. That's the least of his concerns when a gooey mutant grizzly goes on the rampage and he joins forces with Native American activist Armand Assante (wearing his humorless resolve like war paint) to get out of the woods. Frankenheimer is a good director saddled with a bad, blunt script, and like a pro he delivers the requisite gore and even racks up the tension in a terrific opening chase. But even he can't overcome the clumsiest collection of deformed woodland creatures to claw their way through a monster movie. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Whats that Huffing Sound in the Woods?, February 6, 2004

By 

J. Hardy IV (Snohomish, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Prophecy (DVD)

I first saw Prophecy as a 10 year old in 1979 and it scared the ** out of me and caused nightmares for a few months. Looking back after seeing it again today, the shambling mutant bear doesn't pack quite the same punch effects wise; but this is still a decent horror flick. The Mambo King plays an Indian and Adrian is the weak pregnant wife along for the ride as a inner-city class conscious doctor attempts to study the environment in Maine and gets wrapped up in a tribal dispute with the local paper mill who has been logging near the village and yes, dumping mercury into the water supply for the last 20 years. This of course has an adverse affect on the flora and fauna, not the least of which is the 12 foot bear that is now chomping down on would be hikers. The exploding sleeping bag w/ feathers floating down is still an image that stays with you, as is the bear slowly sinking across the foggy water trudging towards its victims. The woodland setting is beautiful and Dysart makes a nice company man villain. A nice afternoon time killer.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eco-Mayhem As 'Issues Awareness' Moviemaking Meets 'Great Horror Tale' Territory, October 25, 2006

By 

Stephen B. O'Blenis (Nova Scotia, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Prophecy (DVD)

1979's "Prophecy" (not to be confused with the "The Prophecy" series that started in the mid-90s) is an 'envirornmental destruction'-based horror movie that does a fine job of being both an 'issues film' and a great horror stories. It's set against the backdrop of deep forest territory where a logging company and the land's traditional Native American inhabitants are at odds over who really owns the land, and where tensions are fast mounting towards violence. A husband-and-wife team sent in to do an envirornmental assesment - more as an effort on the part of the authorities to stall and give things a chance to cool down than because they want any more studies - serve as the main point-of-view characters. Severely heightening the stress are a couple of unsolved disappearances in the woods over the last couple of months, which the company is openly accusing the natives of being responsible for.

It's readily apparent that something more than a couple of renegade protesters is behind the disappearances, but "Prophecy" doesn't rush right into it, letting its story and characters play out in other directions for a while before bringing in the more frightful elements when the time is right. Some would probably say the portrayal of the tribe is stereotypical; I really don't think it was. If it moves a tad in the direction of generalizations once or twice, it can be overlooked because its intentions are clearly in the right place. It's a sincere depiction of a group being squeezed more and more out of the picture due to economic considerations, and it paints a sympathetic and well played-out picture of the group without going so far as to have every member of the band both a saint and a super-shaman (although there is a lot of traditional folklore and some touches of mystism that I thought worked very well). As a whole, the movie is slanted more towards the native band than big industry - its 'issues' angle is one with a definate point of view and makes no apologies about it, and I think it did a great job.

The monstrous angles come in with great force and a sense of sympathy toward the movie's 'antagonists'. The creature effects are impressive and generally realistic; there are a couple of brief instances where you can 'see the wires', so to speak, but they're over quickly enough that it wasn't a big detraction for me. One thing worth remembering is that this was filmed in the 70s when special effects technology wasn't nearly as developed as it is today, and what was there was very expensive and thus often inaccessible to horror movies of the day because, while they were making a lot of money, studios were often reluctant to put much of it back in (a problem that's re-occured a few times over horror movies's history); as a result a couple of glitches occasionally snuck through. Overall, "Prophecy" was very well made - the visuals were great 95% of the time, good acting, very effective cinematography, solid drama, explosive action, genuinely frightening. Highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mutant bears in the woods of Maine, oh my!, January 23, 2006

By 

Raegan Butcher (Rain City, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Prophecy (DVD)

I saw this several times when it came out in the theater and I recently bought it on DVD. I don't understand how monster movie fans could not like this film. The monster looks pretty cool, even though it is shown too much towards the end. And how can people have reviewed it and complained that it spared too many characters? I can think of several who come to particularly nasty endings! This has always been one of my favorite movies and I think people who claim it is heavy-handed and tries to sell a "message" are over-reacting and trying to display a dismaying "i'm too hip to do anything but mock the 70's" attitude towards the supposedly far-fetched basis for the monstrosities at loose in the woods; on the contrary I always thought PROPHECY posited a rather plausible explanation for the deformities seen in the monsters. I have seen photos of the same kind of genetic damage from Minamata, Japan, caused by the same kind of industrial pollution. And I grew up in the Pacific Northwest in a definite logging industry environment and that has always made this movie resonate with me. So count me as one of the defiant few who not only sees nothing wrong with this movie--across the board--the acting is all first rate--especially Robert Foxworth, who gives a truly committed performance--but thinks it is a classic! To me, this is the ultimate monster movie from the 1970's.