Prophecy (1979)

After talking about it for a while Jocke decided to watch Prophecy again, and after his review I just had to watch it again myself. Because this is probably THE BEST killer-bear movie ever made. Yes, even better than William Girdlers Grizzly, and that proofs a lot. Not that it's a movie that's been loved during the years, more the opposit. Even John Frankeheimer, the director, didn't care much of it.

Robert Foxworth plays a doctor, a humitarian, that get's a job investigation a pulp factory and how it interacts with the nature and people around the area. The indians are, of course, very upset and are also blamed for a couple of very brutal murders in the forests. They're claiming it's a demon, a spirit, doing the killings - but the truth is something else: a mutated giant bear!!!

I guess the movie works so good because Frankenheimer knows what he's doing. The first part is a bit slow, but the atmosphere and actors are good and the conflict is something that you as the audience care about. I've always thought that Armand Assante was a good actor, and he's doing fine as an indian here. But Robert Foxworth and Talia Shire as his wife are the main and best characters in the whole movie. Richard Dysart, a wonderful character-actor, so good to. But the main star is the Kaiju-style giant bear stomping around in the forest, crushing people (including children), ripping their heads of and being quite nasty actually. Frankenheimer cut the movie before it was released, and it looses a lot of blood and gore - but it's far from what we would consider PG today. I think it's quite brutal sometime, and the sleeping bag-killing is a classic.

The bear-costume is a bit silly. It's a bit rubbery to. But it works because of the good direction and and the brutality. I guess the slick production of the rest of the movie helps getting more power to the killer-bear to.

We're many that love this movie and I hope it someday someone will unleash a big, fat, mutated special edition of it!