Wayback Wednesday: Just Before Dawn (1981)

Just Before Dawn was one of those films I saw as a kid, making the rounds of the Horror VHS section of the video rental store, that admittedly didn't make a huge impression on me the first time around, but which I later started to have a real affection for, after having seen most of the well-regarded slasher classics out there.

I think that maybe its slow, methodically-paced approach threw me off a bit at the time I first saw it, or even more likely, I dismissed it as a thinly-veiled rip-off of Wes Craven's seminal The Hills Have Eyes, which was a film I did love. However, director Jeff Lieberman, perhaps best known for the Creature Feature Squirm, insists that he hadn't seen that film, nor the classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre at the time, which was another film this one was oft-compared to, time and again.   

Instead, Lieberman cited the pseudo-horror thriller Deliverance as a main influence (thankfully, no one has to "squeal like a pig" in this one), pointing out that he practically rewrote the original script he was given from scratch, which was based on a story by Jonas Middleton (aka Joseph) called The Tennessee Mountain Murders and redubbed The Last Ritual by screenwriter Mark Arywitz. This original version was even closer to those aforementioned sources, with the Logan family more actively involved in capturing and killing folks that wandered into their territory, and lots of overt religious undertones. 

Indeed, that version of the film featured more characters- and therefore, more deaths- and even ended with Final Girl Constance going through the titular ritual, which involved her handling snakes, a la Pentecostal practices, before wedding one of the backwoods twins! I can see where Lieberman might have scoffed at that turn of events, so it was probably wise that he stripped the film down to its basics instead. 

However, in doing so, he made the film into what amounts to a slasher film, in spite of his insistence to the contrary- Lieberman professes to loathe such films, although he later went on to helm yet another film that qualifies, Satan's Little Helper, albeit one with such a twisted sense of humor, it practically qualifies as a spoof of the subgenre. I'm hardly the only one who thinks that, mind you: Just Before Dawn was released as part of 88 Films' "Slasher Classics" line in 2017 on Blu-Ray in the UK. (See pic above.)  

In spite of the categorization, Lieberman considers the film his favorite of the films he directed, and given the overall quality of said films, which also includes the trippy cult classic Blue Sunshine (featuring then-future softcore mastermind Zalman King, of 9 1/2 Weeks and Red Shoe Diaries fame in the lead) and the amusing sci-fi horror flick Remote Control (with a pre-Entourage Kevin Dillon and pre-Chucky Jennifer Tilly), one wishes he had made more of them over the years.

He only has five feature films, two TV films, a documentary and a short to his name since the early 70's, along with a few other scripts, including The Neverending Story III (with a young Jack Black, no less!), which I wasn't even aware of existed until I researched him. (I just loved the first two as a kid.)

Make no mistake, though, Just Before Dawn is a slasher movie, through and through, despite what Lieberman says, with most of the tropes present and accounted for. Some are represented in spectacular fashion- notably the Final Girl's defeat of one of the baddies, which is something to see, and alone near worth the price of admission, it's so bonkers and out of nowhere. It definitely beats snake handling and becoming the wife of one of the killers, that's for sure. 

The plot is simplicity itself: a group of campers- one of which has inherited some land recently that he used to visit when he was younger- decide to check out said land and see what condition it's in, while engaging in the usual high-jinks of getting drunk, fooling around and the other types of things that frequently get you killed in a slasher movie. 

The group is made up of Warren (Gregg Henry), the one who knows his way around; his girlfriend Constance (Deborah Benson), who's wary of the whole camping thing; Warren's friend Jonathan (Chris Lemmon), his girlfriend Megan (Jamie Rose) and Jon's brother, Daniel (Ralph Seymour), who fancies himself a bit of a nature photographer. 

The group head deeper into the forest, in spite of the protests of both the local Forest Ranger, Roy McLean (George Kennedy) and a frenzied hunter, Ty (Mike Kellin), who has just seen his friend, Vachel (Charles Bartlett) killed by a hulking, giggling madman, one of two twins (both played by John Hunsaker) given to killing folks just for the thrill of it that have the misfortune to wander into their neck of the woods, often taking "souvenirs" in the process, i.e. a hat, a jacket, etc. 

Ty is basically the "Crazy Ralph" of the movie, while McLean is the local authority that doesn't quite believe in "demons," as Ty dubs the men who killed his friend, but is smart enough to know that tourists who don't know what they're doing have a way of getting themselves killed. Indeed, upon meeting the camping group, he asks them where exactly they're going, so that he knows where to "look for their bodies when they don't come back." Now that's reassuring!

He's not wrong, though, as, when Ty shows up after being told to basically take a hike by the main camping group- bad karma will always come back to bite you in the ass in a horror movie- he informs McLean of his "demons" and McLean buys just enough of it to go hunting for the group on horseback. Meanwhile, as per usual in a horror flick, said group are indeed being picked off one by one by the terror twins. Ultimately, it's down to Constance to take down the last twin standing, and boy, does she ever, in a decidedly insane fashion that I'm not sure is even physically possible.

Just Before Dawn is indeed a full-on slasher flick, aided and abetted to excellent end by the gorgeous location shooting, lush cinematography (by Dean and Joel King, the latter of which also worked on DePalma's Carrie, The Beastmaster, and, of all things, Prince's Graffiti Bridge), and the hauntingly creepy score, by Brad Fiedel, who we discussed recently, in my review of Night School, so go there for more on him, if you like. Also love the recurring "whistle" motif, which is this film's version of the Twisted Nerve theme. 

Another thing that sets this one apart from the pack is the quality of the cast, top-lined by old pro George Kennedy. Kennedy was a first-rate character actor, perhaps best-known to the 70's generation for his role in a slew of disaster flicks, like the Airport series and Earthquake. He also won an Oscar for his role in the classic Cool Hand Luke. 

However, for those of us who grew up in the 80's, he's best-known for his genre roles, particularly Death Ship, Wacko, Creepshow 2, Demonwarp, Alien Terminator, Uninvited (the one with the killer cat, not the remake of A Tale of Two Sisters), The Terror Within, Brain Dead (the underrated one with Bills Pullman and Paxton, not the Peter Jackson one), as well as his role in the Naked Gun trilogy. He was also in the horror classics Strait-Jacket, Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte and The Boston Strangler.

Another familiar face to genre fans is leading man Gregg Henry. Henry was a particular favorite of famed director Brian DePalma, who has used him in six films, notably an excellent turn in the classic Body Double and a solid one in the underrated Raising Cain. He and Kennedy had worked together before as well, in Henry's feature film debut, Mean Dog Blues. 

Other notable credits include: Scarface, The Patriot, Fair Game, Casualties of War, Star Trek: Insurrection, Payback, Femme Fatale, The Hunt for the BTK Killer (he played Dennis Rader), Slither, The Black Dahlia, Super, Guardians of the Galaxy, Jason Bourne, The Belko Experiment and roles on TV's The Killing, The Following, American Horror Story, Scandal and Black Lightning. 

Chris Lemmon, who played Jonathan, also had worked with Kennedy before, in Airport '77, which marked his motion picture debut as well. Other credits include Seems Like Old Times, The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood, Swing Shift, Cannonball Run II, Going Undercover, Weekend Warriors, That's Life! (with his father, the legendary Jack Lemmon), Dad (in which he played his father's character in his younger years), the Hulk Hogan film series Thunder in Paradise (he was in the TV spin-off, too) and the Wes Craven-produced Wishmaster. 

Leading lady Deborah Benson had a decent run of movies in the 70's that included Our Winning Season, North Dallas Forty and 1941 before mostly turning to TV after that, notably guesting stints on Dallas, Knots Landing, Designing Women, In Living Color, Get a Life, Renegade, Hung and Friends with Benefits. Sadly, her only other genre credits are the spoofs Ghost Fever (with Sherman Hemsley, aka "George Jefferson") and the amusingly-titled Mutant on the Bounty.

Lovely co-star Jamie Rose, who played the sexy Megan, fared considerably better, especially on TV. She was a regular on the nighttime soap Falcon Crest for three years, had recurring roles on St. Elsewhere, My Two Dads and Chicago Hope, and cropped up in guest spots on Columbo, Murder She Wrote, Amazing Stories, JAG, Ally McBeal, Walker Texas Ranger, Weird Science, Silk Stalkings, ER, Cold Case, House, Jane the Virgin and Grey's Anatomy. 

She also landed the occasional big-screen role, notably in Tightrope (with Clint Eastwood), the immortal Chopper Chicks in Zombietown (with a young Billy Bob Thornton, Playroom, Crackdown, Holiday in the Sun (the one with the Olsen Twins), Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike and two of the Route 30 series. I might also add that, if the pictures I saw were any indication, she's still a looker, even at around 60. 

Ralph Seymour, who played Daniel, had a sporadic but interesting career that lasted until the early 2000's. He bounced around Hollywood in everything from mainstream pictures like Back Roads (with Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones), Fletch, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Empire of the Sun, Rain Man and Murder by Numbers (his final credit to date), to beloved cult flicks like Surf II, Meatballs II, Ghoulies, Killer Party and The Relic.  

Also worth a mention is Mike Kellin, who played Ty, the hunter that got away at the beginning of the film, who has over 100 credits to his name. As with a few others on this list, he also co-starred with Kennedy, in his case in the excellent The Boston Strangler, inspired by the real-life serial killer. Genre fans will also recognize him from the likes of God Told Me To, Midnight Express, Echoes (aka Living Nightmare) and the slasher classic Sleepaway Camp, which ended up being his final credit. Not a bad one to go out on, though!

Katie Powell, who played the decidedly normal-looking Merry Cat Logan, sadly had a short-lived career that only included a few TV guest spots, and an appearance in the Melanie Griffith vehicle Milk Money, her only other feature film credit, as well as a bit in the TV movie Deadly Medicine.

The film was shot on location at Silver Falls State Park in Silverton, Oregon. Oregon is where the film was set as well. Because it was a working park, there were often people milling around the set at all times, which occasionally caused some issues, notably when word got round that star Jamie Rose was doing a nude scene, upon which director Lieberman wryly noted that a substantial amount of people showed up than ever before to watch. Hmm. I wonder why? 

Despite its authentically rustic look, the abandoned church was built especially for the film and made to look weathered. if you look closely at the gravestones in the adjacent cemetery, you can spot the name Logan on some of them- this is, of course, the last name of the inbred family that spawned the murderous twins that serve as the main antagonists. As such, it is implied that the family has been in these parts for some time, though how Warren and his family managed to avoid them when they were there previously is never explained.

Chances are, this is because director Lieberman, who quickly rewrote the script before signing on, simply forgot this plot point and never rectified it moving forward when he made his own changes, likely adding the bit about Warren having been there before with his family to the existing material about the Logans himself. 

The film was shot in 1980 and was somewhat disrupted by the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens in Washington, which could be heard- and felt- from miles away. At one point, the lights went out during shooting, and no one could figure out why. After sitting in darkness for several minutes, one of the producers jokingly yelled out: "Let there be light!" and the lights came back on, without explanation, causing much nervous laughter on the set. 

There are several versions of the film available, which can run anywhere from 90 minutes to 102, in the film's most uncut form. Despite this, much of the deleted footage is actually just exposition and the like, as the director toned down most of the violence himself, not wanting to make a gore-fest.

The original film was released on DVD in a 2-disc set by Media Blasters, in 2005, complete with a commentary and documentary, among other goodies, upon which many re-evaluated the film and it celebrated a much-better reputation among horror fans, myself included.

The "extended" International cut was released by Code Red on both DVD and Blu-Ray in 2013, which also features the uncut original 90 minute version, minus the approximately twelve minutes of non-essential deleted footage, which is of lesser quality than the rest of the film, making the International cut a bit of a slog, visually. You can get a hold of both versions fairly easily, which is a rarity for such a relatively obscure film.

Finally, yet another version was released by Ronin just last month. This one features new cast interviews and a more cleaned-up version of the "extended" cut. Despite all these different versions, the original Media Blasters version remains a collector's favorite, as it features bonuses that aren't on either of the other two versions. Both it and the Code Red versions are out of print, but you can easily get them on the likes of Amazon or eBay, albeit sometimes for an exorbitant price. 

Just Before Dawn isn't perfect, and it's no Hills Have Eyes, much less a Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But if you've already seen all the "big-name" slashers, it's a great find and deserves a second look, or a first one, for that matter, for those who are unfamiliar with it in the first place. 

I like the way it subverts certain tropes, notably the way the Warren character starts out all rough-and-tough and mansplaining everything to his wide-eyed compadres, only to be reduced to a blubbering mess by the end, while his GF Connie goes all native on the killer, down to putting on "warpaint," aka make-up, for the first time in the film, after scoffing at Megan's use of it earlier.

Note also the clever foreshadowing of things within the film, such as the appearance of twins early on, which Warren makes a snarky comment about, and the fact that Park Ranger McCall specializes in plant hybrids, which is its own form of inbreeding. And then, of course, you have the more obvious foreshadowing, when the group hit the deer with their RV- shades of Get Out- although, it's possible the deer was actually thrown by one of the brothers to get them to stop so one of them could climb aboard. 

Toss in the whistle worn by one of the group, which becomes a recurring musical motif used by composer Brad Fiedel, and used to excellently creepy effect throughout the film- Fiedel also recorded himself making droning noises and ran it through an electronic filter to make the unique score- and you have a slasher that is admittedly a cut above the rest, no matter how director Lieberman may feel about the subgenre. What it lacks in gore, though, it more than makes up for in suspense, IMHO. 

So, by all means, check this one out, ASAP. With the new version out on DVD and Blu-Ray, it's a great time to discover the film for the first time, or revisit it, especially if you dismissed it the first time around, like I did. Among the sub-subgenre of backwoods slashers, it's right up there with the best, I think, and one of the best slashers, period, of the Golden Age.

Check it out! 👹

Monster Monday: Prophecy (1979)

Author's Note: Apologies for not doing an article last Friday- I was feeling a bit under the weather. I've already watched three movies over the weekend, though, so I'm ahead of the curve this week and should be good to go moving forward.

Also, as I think I've mentioned before, I will be doing a review of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino's entire oeuvre next month, in the run up to the release of his his ninth, and, if QT is to be believed, his penultimate film ever, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

That will likely take up the entire month, so those of you looking forward to my next franchise review- or those who aren't fans of QT- are advised to come back in August for that and plenty more. The QT fest will begin in earnest on July 1st, preceded by a brief intro on Sunday, June 30th. Hope you all enjoy it! 😉

And now for our main feature...

I thought of this movie for the first time in many a moon when I was watching the recent movie Annihilation (see review here), which features a sequence in which the main cast is terrorized by a giant mutant bear with decidedly creepy special skills. While I enjoyed that film quite a bit, it also reminded me of a movie I loved as a kid, 1979's Prophecy, which also featured a freaky giant mutant bear, which I assume must have been the inspiration for the one in that film.

When I got into horror movies as a kid, it was only a matter of time before I discovered the magazine Fangoria. Taking up the mantle from Famous Monsters, which tended to focus more on classic movie monsters- though it tried to get with the times a little too late in the game to save itself, dying out in the early 80's (it has since been resurrected, though I'm not sure if it's still around anymore)- Fangoria was akin to the Bible for horror fans in the 80's and 90's, and was notorious for its graphic covers, which have caused many a double take among cashiers over the years. 

I started reading it in the 80's and soon after, became a loyal subscriber for many years, until I couldn't afford it anymore. However, I also sent off for back issues, eventually collecting the lion's share of issues, though that 1st one remained elusive. I did get a hold of the second one, though, which featured a still of Prophecy's infamous mutant bear on the cover. The minute I saw it, I knew I absolutely had to see the movie.

Fortunately, my timing was pretty good, as the film happened to be on cable soon after, specifically on either HBO or Cinemax. While I'm sure that a lot of the political content- and there is a LOT of it- went right over my head, I just loved the film, and that mutant bear scared the bejesus out of me back in the day. But would it hold up to scrutiny by today's standards? Yes and no. 

First of all, like I said, there is a lot of political content, which I certainly didn't appreciate back then, but definitely did now that I'm an adult. After the gripping, atmospheric, tense opening sequence, there's talk of abortion, followed in swift order by a glimpse of Native Americans protesting the takeover of their land by corporations (the more things change, the more they remain the same) and a still-sobering look at life in the ghetto, as we see a poor black family living in squalor, whose newborn baby has been bitten by a rat!

All of this is, of course, a foreshadowing of things to come, and if it's a bit heavy-handed at times, laying it on a bit thick all at once, it's still pretty effective, even by today's standards. The film is written by none other than David Seltzer, who was then hot off the enormous success of The Omen. Prophecy was his first major film following that hit, so expectations were high, especially with Seltzer having turned down the opportunity to script the follow-up to his previous film, Damien: Omen II, in favor of this one.

Seltzer also wrote a novelization for the film, which some- myself included- thought was even more effective than the resulting film itself, thanks to more thorough characterization, and the fact that, unlike what was seen on the screen, one could visualize what was going on in the story themselves, and, as any avid reader knows, what we come up with in our minds is often far more terrifying than anything that filmmakers can come up with. Prophecy was certainly no exception, which is where much of the film's problems come in.

On the one hand, the general story is still quite effective. Basically, a doctor known for working with minorities and doing medical services for those with low incomes is drafted to help another oppressed people- the Native Americans of Maine, who are locked in a land dispute with a local logging agency. As the doctor is told, if he can win the case for the locals over the corporation, he will be able to do some real good for an entire population. 

The doctor, Robert Verne (Robert Foxworth) accepts the offer, and travels to Maine, where it is painfully clear how at odds the two factions are with one another. Indeed, practically as soon as he arrives at the location in question, a stand-off ensues, with a member of the logging faction coming at the leader of the Native American one, John Hawkes (Armand Assante), with a chainsaw (!) to try to force him to move his people out of the way so that the doctor and his wife, Maggie (Talia Shire) can pass through.

It seems that several members of a search and rescue team that were themselves in search of several missing lumberjacks, as seen in the opening scene, have gone missing and the logging crew blames their disappearance on the Native Americans, convinced they killed them as revenge for being on their land. Of course, we know that it was something else- emphasis on the thing part. 

Once the stand-off is resolved, Dr. Verne and his wife settle in, later taking in a tour of the logging facility, led by Bethel Isley (Richard A. Dysart), who insists they have nothing to hide, including the use of chemicals in the process of turning wood to paper and the like, which he says are completely on the up and up and don't come anywhere near the local water supply. (Yeah, right.)

Dr. Verne suspects otherwise, in part due to the massive size of the fish in the area, which nonetheless he ends up catching and eating with his wife at one point. Hey, he's a doctor, not a scientist. When he notices a silvery substance on his wife's shoes, he takes samples of it and the water and sends it off to the lab at the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the company that hired him to investigate. 

Later on, he meets with Hawkes, who takes him on a tour of his own, showing him how his people have been suffering, with several "Oppies" (aka "Original Peoples") haven taken ill and the women having had several miscarriages. He also shows them how the local wildlife has been affected, with a tadpole the size of a small dog among the odd sightings. Back at their cabin, Verne and his wife are attacked by a seemingly rabid raccoon that night, which turns out to have been also affected by ingesting something from the lake.

The Natives also think that the logging company have awakened something they call the Katahdin, a vengeful creature that wreaks havoc when nature is disrespected. One of them claims to have seen this creature. Verne suspects it is another mutation, and theorizes that it is caused by the substance he saw on his wife's shoes. Sure enough, the lab results come back and it's a type of mercury known to cause birth defects, which comes as a shock to his wife in particular, who, unbeknownst to him, is pregnant, and, as we saw earlier, ate some of the fish from the lake. 

Verne tests the Native population, which he suspects have fallen ill because they, too, have eaten the local wildlife, but his efforts are interrupted by the arrival of an angry Isley and the local law enforcement, who are there because a family that was camping in the area were found dead, and they think the "Oppies" are responsible. Verne tries to explain his theory of what's really going on when the Katahdin attacks the village, taking out several people and forcing the rest underground to some tunnels the Natives use to hide from enemies. 

The remaining group eventually get out of there and split up to call for help, with more dying along the way. In the end, the survivors are forced into a dilapidated old shack, where they face off against the Katahdin once and for all, fighting for their lives- and the life of Verne's unborn child, which he has since found out about, in the midst of all the action. 

Though initially upset- Verne was dubious about bringing a child into the world, given all that he had seen going on in his line of work (shades of the plotline of First Reformed- see #4)- he fights valiantly against the creature to save his wife, though Lord knows what awaits her on the other side of that pregnancy. Perhaps something akin to what we see when they discover two deformed baby bears, which they fruitlessly try and keep alive as "evidence"? We never find out, though I like to think of It's Alive as the end result of that particular  tale, lol, though it technically came out first, back in 1974. 

Given this dangling loose end of a plotline, and the fact that the film ends with the revelation that the cub's father is still alive and well and ready to wreak even more havoc, it's possible that Seltzer might have intentionally left the door open for a sequel, although he himself balked at doing a second Omen because he disliked the idea of sequels in general. 

Still, Seltzer no doubt collects checks for them, nonetheless, as he got a credit for all the subsequent sequels for that franchise, so it might have been on purpose, even if he had no intention of being involved beyond that sort of thing, which is to say, beyond creating the original story and characters. Despite the fact that the film was modestly successful, garnering $54 million on a $12 million budget, no sequel was forthcoming, unfortunately, leaving us fans to ponder what might have happened next in our imaginations.

Prophecy, for the most part, holds up quite well, thanks to still-timely topics as polluting the environment and the consequences of that; the displacement and taking advantage of Native Americans- which is still ongoing, even to this day- and even the touchy subject of abortion, which was long thought to be a settled matter until recently. For the record, Verne's wife wanted to have the baby going into the film- not sure how she feels knowing what she knows now, but it could have been fascinating ground to cover in a potential sequel as well. 

What dates the film almost cripplingly, however, are the special effects, some of which are admittedly laughable at times. What damn near scared the shit out of me as a kid, decidedly did not have the same effect on me as an adult. Of course, I've seen a million more horror movies since then, but still, Alien was released the same year as this film, and it holds up nicely, so it was certainly nothing if not possible to have had FX that stood the test of time. 

That said, some of the effects, by Thomas R. Burman and his Burman Studio, are quite effective, even if you never quite buy them as the real deal. For instance, the giant tadpole looks pretty real, as do the baby bear cubs. You know in the moment that you're looking at a highly elaborate mechanized puppet, but they still look pretty cool.

Burman and his crew would later go on to be nominated for an Oscar (for Bill Murray's Scrooged) and to win several Emmys, including one for their oft-ick-inducing highly realistic effects for the TV show Nip/Tuck, so they obviously got much better at it on down the line. 

Also worth a look is their work for the movies The Beast Within, The Food of the Gods, The Manitou, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1977 and the 1993 versions), My Bloody Valentine, Happy Birthday to Me, Halloween III, The Goonies ("Sloth" was all them) and plenty more where that came from. They also did the honors for TV's Chicago Hope, Private Practice and Grey's Anatomy, the latter of which they still work on to this day.

Alas, the once-fearsome Katahdin, previously the stuff of nightmares when I was a kid, now looks painfully like the guy in a suit mutant bear costume it actually is, a matter probably not helped by South Park's later skewering of the film in it's ongoing "ManBearPig" storyline, which marries this film to Al Gore's dire warnings about the environment in an amusing way. 

Incidentally, the guy in the mutant bear suit is none other than Kevin Peter Hall, a name that will undoubtedly be familiar to genre fans, even though he wasn't credited for his work here. Hall is the 7 foot+ tall (!) actor that was also behind some of the 80's most beloved creatures, including the Predator in the first two films in the franchise and the titular "Harry" in Harry and the Hendersons. 

In addition, he was also the alien in Without Warning, Eddie in One Dark Night, the monster in Monster in the Closet, Big John in Big Top Pee-Wee and Charon in Highway to Hell. Hall also had recurring roles in the TV shows Misfits of Science and 227 (where he met his wife, whom he was also married to on the show itself) and he reprised his role in the Harry and the Hendersons TV show spin-off.

Sadly, his life was cut short when he died in 1991 from complication from the AIDS virus, which he got from a contaminated blood transfusion after a near-fatal car accident, that, in a way, ultimately proved fatal after all. By all accounts he was as friendly as they come, and I'm sure if, like me, you grew up in the 80's and 90's, you have nothing but fond memories of his work, especially as Harry, the sweet-natured Bigfoot of HATH. (Incidentally, he also crops up near the beginning of this film as a mime!)

As for the rest of the cast, actress Talia Shire received top billing, and does the best she can with what she has to work with. Though her role is better fleshed out in the novel version, she's actually quite effective here, often without saying a word.

Shire is, of course, best-known for her role as Adrian in the Rocky films, the second of which she shot around the same time as this film. Indeed, her role had to be rewritten in that film to accommodate her work in this one, which is why her presence is slightly diminished in the sequel. (You might recall she's in a coma for part of the film, and watches the end fight from the hospital.)

Shire is also the younger sister of famed director Francis Ford Coppola, who put her on the map as an actress with a juicy role in his Godfather series, as Connie Corleone, the daughter of Vito, Marlon Brando's character, whose wedding famously opens the film in grand fashion. Shire got her surname from a previous marriage to composer David Shire, of Saturday Night Fever and Zodiac fame.

The two divorced in 1980, and Shire later married producer Jack Schwartzman (Being There, Never Say Never Again). You might be familiar with their son, Jason, formerly of the band Phantom Planet and star of many Wes Anderson flicks. She's also the aunt of actor Nicolas Cage and director Sofia Coppola. 

Her other credits include: The Dunwich Horror (her 2nd film ever), the underrated Windows, the campy 80's favorite Rad (about BMX racing), the acclaimed TV-movie Blood Vows, Deadfall, which was directed by her nephew Christopher and co-starred Nicolas Cage; I Heart Huckabees, featuring her son, Jason; Palo Alto, co-written and directed by Francis' granddaughter Gia; and more recent stints on the TV shows Kingdom, Grace & Frankie and Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce. 

Shire's leading man is Robert Foxworth, who will be a familiar face to genre fans. Foxworth has appeared in loads of TV shows and movies, with over 100 credits to his name on IMDb.com. Some of his best include The Devil's Daughter (with Dark Shadows star Jonathan Frid), Dr. Frankenstein in a made-for-TV adaption of Frankenstein  from 1973; and roles in the likes of Ants, Deathmoon, Damien: Omen II, Beyond the Stars, Syriana and the voice of "Ratchet" in the Transformers films. 

Another familiar face from Prophecy is Richard Dysart. Dysart is probably best-known to those of us who grew up in the 80's and 90's from the long-running TV series L.A. Law. However, my favorite film of his is undeniably the classic John Carpenter version of The Thing, which features effects that are still eye-popping to this day. I hope to cover that film before too long. 

Dysart was also in The Lost Man, The Hospital, The Terminal Man, The Day of the Locust, The Hindenburg, Meteor, Being There, Bitter Harvest (which has a similar plotline to this film, but is more grounded in reality), The Falcon and the Snowman, Mask, Pale Rider, Warning Sign, Wall Street, Back to the Future III, Hard Rain and as the voice of  Cogliostro in HBO's animated Spawn series.  

Playing the leader of the Native American contingent is the decidedly non-Indian actor Armand Assante, who is actually of Italian and Irish descent. His exotic looks have allowed him to play all manners of ethnic backgrounds, for better or worse. Prophecy was one of his first big roles, after his attention-getting turn in the Sylvester Stallone vehicle Paradise Alley, in which he played Sly's brother. 

Other notable roles include: Private Benjamin, Little Darlings, I, The Jury; Unfaithfully Yours, Q&A, The Mambo Kings, 1492: Conquest of Paradise; Hoffa, Trial by Jury, Judge Dredd (his delivery of "Law!" is the stuff of legend), Striptease, Gotti (in the titular role), Two for the Money, American Gangster, Breaking Point, The Neighborhood and The P.I.M.P.  

As for the rest of the cast, you might know Victoria Racimo, who played Ramona, from The Day of the Dolphin, The Mountain Men, White Fang 2 or, God help us all, Ernest Goes to Camp. Actual Native American George Clutesi, who played tribal elder M'Rai, who ends up on the wrong side of the mutant bear, was also in the cult creature feature favorite, Nightwing, about rabid bats. And Graham Jarvis, who played Shusette, was a well-respected character actor that cropped up in everything from The Hot Rock and What's Up, Doc? to the teen romp Mischief, the cult favorite Parents and the Stephen King classic Misery. (Incidentally, this movie was one of King's faves, possibly in part due to the Maine setting, where he's from.)

The director was John Frankenheimer, who, in his heyday, was one of the most gifted directors around, helming such classics as Birdman of Alcatraz, The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, The Train, Seconds, Grand Prix, French Connection II and Black Sunday, based on the novel of the same name from Silence of the Lambs scribe Thomas Harris.

Alas, by his own account, a drinking problem led him to start doing work that was beneath him, beginning with this film, which might have been even better in more competent hands. Frankenheimer flinched at the violence in the film and ended up gutting it almost entirely, hence the PG rating, which was uncommon for horror films at the time, what with the slasher craze becoming such a huge thing, post john Carpenter's Halloween. 

As a direct result, scenes that were far more effective and grisly in the book were made incredibly tame, and sometimes even laughable in Frankenheimer's hands, much to writer Seltzer's dismay, who still hasn't entirely forgiven him. (When one fan who read the book and thought it was far superior asked Seltzer what happened in the transition, he replied curtly: "John Frankenheimer happened.") 

I do enjoy the bit with the sleeping bag kid, though, which preconfigures a similar kill in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, ironically enough, given the director's distaste for violence. However, the scene is way scarier in the book as well, and way more graphic. 
Frankenheimer did eventually get clean, fortunately, after such enjoyable pulpy films like 52 Pick Up and The Challenge, and rebounded in the 90's with the acclaimed HBO movies Against the Wall and The Burning Season, and the TV movie George Wallace. 

While he did make another misstep with the legendarily troubled production of The Island of Dr. Moreau, which he was brought onto as a hired hand after the director was fired, he rebounded again with the underrated Ronin, which featured a car chase to rival the legendary ones in the French Connection films.

He went out strong as well, with another politically-themed HBO movie, Path to War, which proved to be his last, though he was scheduled to direct The Exorcist: The Beginning  before pulling out due to health concerns. He died shortly thereafter. 

One of the film's greatest strengths is the cinematography, courtesy of Harry Stradling, Jr. (Little Big Man, 1776, Carny), which is often jaw-droppingly good- too good, in some cases, given how goofy some of the mutant bear attack scenes come off. But when it works, which is most of the time, it's pretty awe-inspiring. 

Take, for instance, the scene in the cave, which is arguably one of the most effective in the film, with its extreme close-ups and clever framing. There's also another incredible shot in which M'Rai watches as his village is torn to shreds by  Katahdin, as the fires caused by his destruction are reflected in M'Rai's glasses. Combined with the gorgeous location shooting, these scenes make the film well worth-seeing, even with its many missteps. 

One of which is arguably the score, by Leonard Rosenman. It's rare for a horror film to feature such a lush, full-on orchestral score, and this film shows why it can be both a blessing and a curse. On its own, the score is quite beautiful and compelling to listen to, but within the film itself, it comes off as in-your-face and overblown, and not in a good way- more like in a way that threatens to completely overpower the film itself.

Fortunately, Rosenman's skills are put to much better use in more appropriate films like the classics East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, Fantastic Voyage, A Man Called Horse, Beneath the/Battle of the Planet of the Apes, Race With the Devil, The Possessed, the guilty pleasure The Car, the animated The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek IV, RoboCop 2 and, most recently, La La Land. A soundtrack album for this film is available, and you can listen to selections from it via YouTube here.

So, does Prophecy hold up? Like I said, yes and no. The premise is still relevant and it deals with issues that we're still struggling with, as aforementioned. The film has some effective moments, and the cinematography is so strong it's almost worth seeing the film for alone. At the same time, the direction is sometimes clumsy, by the director's own admission, and his hesitance to embrace the more gory aspects of the story render it a bit impotent by design. 

Though the bear is still a sight to behold at times, at others, it's almost laughably bad, if not outright silly, thanks to the way it was filmed. I might have jumped a few times, and the final scare at the end admittedly caught me off guard, but overall, it's too goofy to be scary, and there's not enough gore to satisfy the gorehounds out there. 

But, it's reasonably well-acted, and well-scripted, and if you grew up with it, you'll probably still dig it for what it is. Or if you were curious about the source material for the whole "ManBearPig" thing, you might also get a kick out of it. Overall, the best I can do is give it a mild recommendation, mostly for some of its parts, rather than the sum of its parts, as it were.

So, check it out, I guess, and remember, if we keep polluting our environment, this may well be what's in store for us on down the line, so let's all try and do better before it's too late and Katahdin comes and gets us all for real! 👹