Prophecy

[Tetsujin]

Questions posed by this movie:
- Why were there grizzly bears in Maine?
- Why was Kataden / cubs the only horribly disfigured animals?
- Why did Kataden constantly run on two legs?
- Why didn't Kataden / cubs freeze in the winter? [No fur / Moist skin]
- Why was Kataden able to walk underwater?
- Why did the house / sleeping bag explode when Kataden smacked it?
- Why did Rob say that fetuses follow every stage of evolution during development?
- Why didn't the shotgun shell to the face kill Kataden?
- Why was there shameless shock value added to the end of the film in the form of another bear?

Obviously the filmmakers didn't do their homework for this movie. Grizzly bears do not live in Maine, and they do not run on their hind legs. Where they got the idea that a fetus developes into every stage of evolution while in the womb is beyond me. Also, the whole idea that something like mercury poisoning will mutate an animal into a grotesque super predator is a complete fabrication, too. Genetic deformities do not make an animal bigger, faster, and meaner. They make the animal sickly and weak, and are usually abandoned by the mother. I'll admit the idea of a melted, giant grizzly is scary, but it's ridiculous nonetheless.. and the sleeping bag scene doesn't help either. =P

[Jeff]

I love this movie!!!!!!Saw it the day it came out, and bought the book when it first came out too. The bear in the book had membrane-like wings stretched between the front and rear limbs(ala Varan). The orignal bear for the movie was much more horrific that what wound up on screen. Frankenhiemer saw it, and made the special effects crew change it to look more "bear-like", at the last minute of course! The original was close to the poster art. What a shame. I like the monster so much, I sculpted it as a bust! Pretty nasty, my wife keeps moving it out of the living room. After seeing that movie, it makes you have a new respect for the great outdoors!-Jeff

[natsuamoapandabear]

Folks! The storyline has some interesting points to it... like the legends of the Indians. I always begin wondering when I hear those: the great spirit & everything, ya' know?

[Dili rikono]

WOW, This movie and "Tourist Trap"(with Chuck Connors) were the two SCARIEST movies I had EVER seen when I was a kid! I had nightmares about that big, Freddy-Krueger-bear chasing me through a moonlit forest for quite sometime after. Even now, in my 30's I still get a shiver because of the scare it gave me then. That's the key with these things: Sure they look cheesey now, but hey they were made a a while back - who would have imagined "Jurassic Parrk" dinosaurs in 1978? The thing that is scary is not how clumsy they look if you stare hard enough at the screen, its to imagine, like a kid would, what it would be like if this WAS real! Leave your disbelief at the door, ignore much of the dialogue ("Its drowned! It's drowned!) and just pretend - (but still, the sleeping bag scene is kinda funny ;->  Enjoy the rampage of Kataden!  Peace, out.

[slugbiker]

I don't remember of the actual movies scared me that much, but I had nightmares for quite a while of a hideous creature walking on the lake bottom only to rise up and get me.  Yow!  The only other movie that scared me worse was "the Omega Man", which my dad took me and my brothers to when we were only 10.  

[BeeMovies]

Caught this little "Gem" at the local theater as a teen. Afternoon showing had very few patrons adding to the spooky "things go(((CRACK!))) in the deep dark woods"nature of this flick.I will not rate it based on J Frankenheimers other films as some have,instead just treating as a stand alone flick being rooted in sci-fi or horror.Check your preconceptions at the door and watch this movie at night(better on a windy,stormy ,just before camping trip planned night)with the lights low and volume high.From the opening scene this flick had me on edge,the dogs trailing "some scent" of "something" and several grisly(~:^)scares.Don't get caught up in the dialogue pertaining to warnings of eco' horrors just go with the flow of frights.Many ,very effective scenes that made me jump.This movie got under my skin in 79' and still remains there. Surfing channels recently I came accross it at the opening scene and instantly remembered it,I watched the start with the tracking hounds and had to switch channels because it was late and my wife had gone to bed.Middle aged man still frightened by this movie how pathetic.Prophecy is a classic good "B" horror movie with some "A" filming and pacing.

[DamnBears]

Despite the fact that most people I know feel differently, this movie still scares me whenever I watch it (and I'm 19 now).  The concept really is scary...an angry, horribly-deformed mutant bear that mauls people while they're camping?  Yeah, it's far from being realistic, and the F/X definitely needed improvement, but it's so grotesque that it frightens me just thinking about it.  

However, some of the attack scenes could have been better.  The scene where Kataden kills the camping family would have been more terrifying if they hadn't put in the "exploding sleeping bag" bit, although it was certainly scary enough as-is.  Also, the end was pretty bad (mostly because it becomes too obvious that the creature is a man in a suit).  However, the scene where the monster tears apart the camp was scary, especially when they were in the tunnel and listening to the screams of other people being mauled.  I also thought it was pretty scary when the corporate guy (the fat one) got caught by the bear while trying to slide under the fence.  

Overall, this movie still works as a scary monster film.  I don't think I'll ever be going camping again, and if I do, I'll bring along a personal armory of weaponry (including assault rifles and grenades).  

[night heron]

One of the dumbests looking monsters ever and why only idians should play idians and how about the homicical racoon and the salmon the size of flipper what kind of mess is this?

[Ethan Williamson]

I actually thought that Prophecy had awesome potenial, it just wasn't executed properly. It probably could of been more then just a bad 70s movie and become a good horror classic. John Frankenhiemer did the Manchurian Candidate and it was good, Prophecy was not, but's still a movie I watch with friends, I do like it!

[Repoman]

Around our house we call that Grizzly "Fishbear"...and he has been a favorite "Junk" movie monster for a long time!

  we really do get a kick out of watching the movie every now and then.  If you go into it chearing for Fishbear it isn't so bad.

[IT]

First of all I like to say to everyone stop complaining about Kataden running on Its hind legs and remember that Its a MUTANT BEAR.And thats just part of its mutation.One of the best horror movies from the 70s.I seen it when I was a kid and it scared the hell out of me.I give it six stars .

[Greg]

I'll never forget the sleeping bag scene.  That shot of the mutant baby still haunts me.

[Katy]

I saw this movie last night.  I unfortunatly missed the sleeping bag scene but I thought the scenes with the melted bear that I saw were hysterical.  I would have given this three slimes myself for laught value.

Some people have mentioned that "fetal evolution" thing.  The way the present it in the movie is BS but it bears (heehee) similarity to the actual early stages of fetal delevopment.  We never go through a "feline stage" though.

[Jonathan]

Saw this one last night . What a stinker!  Wife and I laughed hard when the sleeping bag blew up though.  We were slightly inebriated and even that didnt keep us from watching most of it on fast forward.  This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

[Dave Munger]

They haven't shown this on TV here in a long time, but I just read some stuff about it in this Steven King book that someone here mentioned (Danse Macabre). "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogony" or the other way around maybe. I think that mainly means that an early stage of embryonic development in mammals is very superficially fish-like.