If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Admirable film.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

For anyone still doubting the cruelty of show business, consider this tacky thriller was directed by John Frankenheimer, once an A-list filmmaker of merit reduced in 1979 to making a monster movie. Tenement doctor accepts a government job easing tensions in the forests of Maine, where lumber czars are taking land away from the Indian tribe; meanwhile, toxic waste attributed to the business has created its own rampaging monster, which looks like a melting grizzly bear and walks upright like a man. Depressing, distress-laden nonsense. One figures screenwriter David Seltzer had to be kidding; he's so heavy-handed with his messages, he even gives the doctor a pregnant wife afraid to tell her husband of her condition (he thinks there's enough people in the world already!). Good actors Robert Foxworth (looking a bit like Grizzly Adams himself), Talia Shire and Armand Assante are wasted. Assante, the stern, solemn mouthpiece for the Native-Americans, fights everybody in his path and gets kicked in the crotch for his trouble. Seltzer seems to be asking, "Who's worse, the lumber lunkheads or the beast in the forest?" Save a kick for Seltzer, who must have penned this for the paycheck. * from ****

Humanitarian Dr. Robert Verner (Robert Foxworth) is asked to help out the Environment Protection Agency in a bitter land dispute between a paper mill and the neighbouring native Americans. While investigating, Verner discovers that a chemical leak from the mill has been causing mutations in the wildlife, resulting in a massive, monstrous, bear-like creature that roams the land killing at will.In early Hollywood movies, the Red Indian was a whoopin' and a hollerin' savage intent on scalping heroic cowboys, but by the '70s, the white man was feeling a tad guilty about stealing the Indians' land and then depicting them as bloodthirsty brutes, and so tried to atone for their actions by thereon portraying the native American as a peaceful, noble breed, living in harmony with the environment, while showing Caucasians to be untrustworthy rogues. Director John Frankenheimer's Prophecy is not only guilty of this ridiculous politically correct reversal of stereotypes, but it fails to offer horror fans much to get excited about: the plot is predictable eco-warrior garbage, there is little to no gore, and the monster is utterly laughable.Several scenes do, however, make this one just about worth a watch, albeit for the wrong reasons: brave Native American John Hawk (played by Italian/Irish actor Armand Assante) locked in a chainsaw vs. axe battle with a lumberjack, a hilarious attack by a raccoon on the doctor and his wife (Talia Shire), and the unforgettable sight of a kid in a sleeping bag being swatted like a fly by the creature are all guaranteed to make you smile.

This film could have been much scarier and some segments hinted at its potential. But I didn't find myself bored. I'd say about 30% of the scenes (in isolation) were quite good but got tainted by weaker scenes throughout. The acting was average.I liked the all-too-common message of corrupt polluters looking the other way, even though the outcome was exaggerated vs. real life. Methyl Mercury can cause deformities but probably not gigantic creatures. The bulbous Katahdin "bear" was possibly meant to be supernatural, though. It's predictable that a number of people disliked this movie because of its ecological tone, and I wish we could ship them to another planet to ruin in isolation.I was inspired to write this review to point out one of the biggest flaws: If you see a mangled baby something-or-other (bear?) with sharp teeth and claws, you don't stuff it inside your jacket and care for it like a puppy! The woman found this out toward the end when it started gnawing on her neck, but that was oddly downplayed. I didn't understand the urgency of keeping it alive since the corpse would have sufficed, unless they thought the lumbermen might have taken it for a hoax.Anyhow, this movie is worth watching but could have been more polished and realistic.

***SPOILERS*** Not feeling any fulfillment in life as a doctor working for the city in the rat infested slums of Washington D.C. Dr. Robert Verne,Robert Foxworth,gets a dream job working for the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, and sent with his wife Maggie,Talia Shire, to the clean air healthy living surroundings in far off picturesque Maine. It's there that a number of loggers were killed by some mysterious creature who ended up almost decapitating them.Right away Dr. Verne sees that things aren't going right there between the local native American population and the owner of a paper mill that's defoliating their ancient homeland and hunting grounds.The paper mill owner Bethel Isley, Richard A. Dysrat,is determined to get the unruly Maine Indians lead by collage educated John Hawk, Armard Assante, arrested by the local sheriff for interfering with his operation. As for Hawk he's just as determined to stop Isley from destroying his forest to the point of putting his life on the line to stop him. What no one realizes is that the paper mill is using high and dangerous amounts of mercury that's polluting the nearby Androscoggin River and turning everything in it,or that drinks from it, as well as its water supply of the region into mutant monsters!It's one of these mutants a 12 foot tall brown bear who's been tearing people apart whenever he runs into them in the forest. In fact there's also other creatures in the area that have been effected by the river who not only go crazy but become totally unafraid of the people in the area and attack them almost at will! The film goes on to show how by polluting our environment we in fact are polluting as well as destroying ourselves. And the killer bears deadly rampage is only a small fraction of the damage that's to be caused in the film from mercury poisoning. As we see at the end of the movie the by far worst is yet to come!***SPOILERS*** It's non other then the at first villain Bethel Isley who comes across as the most heroic as well as sympathetic character in the movie. Knowing that he and his paper mill screwed things up royally he volunteers to get help on his own and ends up becoming one of the killer bears victims. There's also Indian mystic Hector M'Rai, George Clutesi, who's suffering from severe brain damage because of ingested mercury in his system who thinks he can talk the bear out of doing any more damage only to get riped apart and torn to pieces by him! The final insult in the movie is that which is done to Maggie Verne who by eating some fried fish, that her husband fished out of the polluted Androscoggin River, that infected her body with the deadly and fetus deforming mercury. In her keeping the fact that she was pregnant from Robert and not willing to have an abortion the upcoming blessed event that's soon to follow will turn out to be a curse for the Verne's instead!