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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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! 👹
No comments:
Post a Comment