Prophecy

Prophecy (1979)

She lives. Don't move. Don't breathe. There's nowhere to run. She will find you.

When a dispute occurs between a logging operation and a nearby Native American tribe, Dr. Robert Verne and his wife, Maggie, are sent in to mediate. Chief John Hawks insists the loggers are poisoning the water supply, and, though company man Isley denies it, the Vernes can't ignore the strangely mutated wildlife roaming the woods. Robert captures a bear cub for testing and soon finds himself the target of an angry mutant grizzly.

Date of release
1979-09-14
TMDB
5.4 / 10 (155)
Runtime
1h 42m
Genres
Horror, Science Fiction
Director
John Frankenheimer

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $9M
  • Filmed in: British Columbia

Prophecy is a 1979 American science fiction monster horror-thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer and written by David Seltzer. It stars Robert Foxworth, Talia Shire and Armand Assante. Set along the Androscoggin or Ossipee River, the film follows an environmental agent Dr. Robert Verne and his wife Maggie filing a report on a paper mill in the river, not knowing that the paper mill's waste has polluted the river, causing mutations to man and beast alike. One of these animals, a local bear, runs amok in the wilderness.

Production

Frankenheimer was approached by Michael Eisner who wanted the director to make a monster movie for Paramount. Frankenheimer and producer Robert Rosen hired David Seltzer, who had written The Omen, to devise a story.

Filmed in British Columbia, Canada in 1978, this film marked the beginning of "Hollywood North", the major start to the development of a massive film production business in Vancouver and other areas within the province. Since then, hundreds of "American" movies have been filmed in the Canadian province. Scenes were also shot in Daisy Lake, Crofton, Squamish, Capilano Canyon, Britannia Bay and Fort Langley.

Some scenes containing violence and gore were cut because director John Frankenheimer deemed them "gratuitous". The deleted scenes included a longer close-up of a Huntoon (Tom McFadden)'s headless corpse and a shot of Katahdin graphically disemboweling Bethel Isely (Richard Dysart), a flashback to the night where Dr.

The original concept for Katahdin was considerably more terrifying than what would eventually appear in the film. However, when Frankenheimer saw the concept, he suggested that it should be altered to look more "bear-like". The original concept was actually quite similar to the poster art. Frankenheimer considered Prophecy a film with far more potential than what he eventually delivered.

Frankenheimer later said he wanted to make an "R" rated version of the film but Eisner insisted on a "PG" rated one. "It didn't work as a PG," argued Frankenheimer. "It wasn't scary."

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