Maggie Verne is a woman attempting to find the right time to inform her husband that she is pregnant. Robert is a busy doctor trying to make a difference in the run-down tenements of a poor district when, due to his people skills, he is invited (with his wife) to mediate in a dispute between the timber trade and the local American Indians. There has already been a number of incidents – including back-packers being killed – for which the Indians are being blamed. When the incidents become increasingly more gristly they soon discover there is a creature in the woods… An unwitting creation of man with no intent except destruction...

As part of their classics range, Eureka Entertainment presents Prophecy on high definition Blu-ray for the first time in the UK. The first print run of 2000 copies incorporates a limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling, and a collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Craig Ian Mann and an archival interview. Standard extras include a new feature length commentary by Richard Harland Smith; a new feature length commentary by film writers Lee Gambin and Emma Westwood; a new interview with screenwriter David Seltzer; a new interview with mime artist Tom McLoughlin; and the theatrical trailer. Film stills can be downloaded.

Prophecy (1979) is directed by the award winning John Frankenheimer (best known for The Manchurian Candidate, and Ronin), and stars Robert Foxworth of Falcon Crest, and the Oscar-Nominated Talia Shire of The Godfather and Rocky (all together now: “Adrian!”). The acting is on the whole pretty good, but the pregnancy story is rather dragged-out before being revealed. Mercury in the water is responsible for attacking the foetuses of animals and deforming them at different stages of their growth. There was a similar real event in Japan and the scriptwriter used this premise for his environmental monster movie. You may be wondering why there is an interview with a mime artist on the special features. Mom McLoughlin – who at one stage was miming on the streets for cash before finding his way into film via Woody Allen’s Sleeper - plays the Indian legend Katahdin, the ultimate mutated animal. The interview is informative, and includes the information that the original sketches for the creature were rejected in favour of a horribly mutated bipedal bear. In this instance, the creature is supposed to be made up of every other creature in nature, but there is little evidence of this apart from the scene wherein it utilises its gills to walk under the water to the other side.

There are some nice action scenes, with horror and blood enough to satisfy most enthusiasts. I will just say that the reveal at the end is unnecessary, and that Maggie’s storyline is not played-out. At the end of the film she is still pregnant and we the audience have no idea if she will have to have an abortion or will give birth to a twisted, mutated killer. Even taking into account that missed opportunity this is a pretty good retro creature feature.

7

Ty Power