Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31036 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-04
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 93 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A prime candidate for cult status (it even spawned a sequel), The Prophecy is a 1995 apocalyptic horror flick that belongs in the darker corners of the comedy-horror sub genre alongside Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mimic and Phantoms--and like those movies it's a mixed blessing with some highlights worth savouring.

This one's got Christopher Walken in its favour, starring as the Angel Gabriel, who's really mad at God for allowing humans into heaven (because, you see, humans have souls and angels don't, and God plays favourites). Gabriel takes his anger out on the human race, coming to Earth to capture the soul of the most evil human alive in an effort to defeat the "good" angels that remain in God's good graces. One of the good angels is played by Eric Stoltz, who captures the evil soul before Walken does and transfers it into the body of a little girl.

Are you with us so far? Don't worry if you're not, because writer-director Gregory Widen filled The Prophecy with so many wild ideas that he didn't bother to connect them to a coherent plot. Add Viggo Mortensen as the devil and Elias Koteas as a priest-turned detective who's tracking Walken and it's clear that Widen was attempting something ambitious here. He nearly succeeded, since The Prophecy jumpstarts its heaven-and-hell rivalry with enough action, humour, and intelligence to make the movie sufficiently entertaining. It was enjoyable enough to entice Walken back for the sequel, so if you're into this kind of thing, this one's a keeper. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Video Description
DVD Special Features
Languages: Dolby Digital 5.1: English
Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired
Running Time: 94 mins approx
Widescreen Format: 2.35:1

Synopsis
There is war in heaven when Archangel Gabriel (Christopher Walken) leads a revolt to unseat the usurpers of God's chosen: Mankind. But when a homicide investigation takes a turn for the Biblical, a cop (Elias Koteas) and a school teacher (Virginia Madsen) learn that they are not just dealing with a string of mysteriously mutilated bodies, but with saving the earth from becoming a suburb of Hell.

Customer Reviews

HALF WAY DECENT
Years after losing his faith, Detective Thomas Daggett, (Elias Koteas) is assigned to a murder case where the victim is almost unrecognizable. Finding an ancient bible among the victim's belongings, he begins to translate it and finds that it contains a previously-unknown chapter detailing a second war in Heaven among angels. On an Indian Reservation in Arizona, teacher Katherine Henley, (Virginia Madsen) thinks that something's wrong with her children, and it leads Det. Daggett to the area. Also racing to the area is Gabriel, (Christopher Walken) a renegade angel wanting to restore Heaven to it's former past. Investigating the appearance of the angel and the sudden chaos in the town, they band together to stop the renegade angel from unleashing a war on Earth that will tear apart Heaven above.

The Good News: This one is pretty decent. One of the film's best attributes is that it has some really fresh and creative ideas that are, for once, interesting and memorable. The notion of what angels actually are, with one memorable line of dialog in particular summing up what they're actual purpose is for that is one of the most distinctive and important parts of the film. The originality of it makes it so important, as it's a side that seems like it would've been interpreted as such much earlier, as it's logical but also clever and it earns big points for being so. The back and forth nature of the story keeps the suspense pretty high, allowing for some really good action scenes. The fight in the apartment room is a big highlight, and a really good car chase is the icing on the cake to it's conclusion, a climactic showdown in a ceremonial Indian hut that is quite gory and never loses any of it's punch. The gore here is quite nice, with several hearts ripped violently out of the chest, a charred skull that keeps on talking, glass shards stuck into throats, a huge slew of gunshot wounds, and more. This is quite violent and gory, which is in perfect keeping with the method of disposal needed for the participants in the war. The scenes depicting the war, showing angels being impaled on row after row of spikes by the thousands, blood drenching the ground and more fighting above them, are effectively haunting and quite creepy, and their periodic use throughout is used to it's benefit, making the images clearly there to freak out, and the purpose is handled greatly. This one is quite nice overall.

The Bad News: This does have a few problems. It is a rare thing that a horror film is conducted with literacy and intelligence, but this one suffers from being too smart for it's own good. There's such a large amount of plot-holes and goofs here that it is quite a headache trying to piece everything together. The storyline defies logic, as if Gabriel is God's appointed angel of war, why would he need the darkest soul on earth to aid him? Why not simply use his own power and influence to wreck havoc, especially since he also has the power to resurrect dead humans as zombies who are forced to follow him? It was never said what Gabriel needed the colonel's soul for. These are just a few of the film's many headache-inducing questions that don't get answered. There's also a big pacing problem, as it is certainly a film that asks patience of an audience. It is a good half-hour into the film before the often wilfully cryptic plot strands begin to coalesce and one begins to properly understand what is going on, and even then, the plot has one or two strands that are left unwound. Scenes are often left going on far too long, with an encounter in a school-house basement being the prime example. Others are simply there for no reason, as it's not exactly necessary for the plot to have an angel conversing with people inside a diner. These bring the film down from what it could've been.

The Final Verdict: I can't vouch for how accurate it is, but it's still a mildly entertaining film with a few good ideas and a few that shouldn't have been there. With a little more thought put into an already over-thought film, this would be a better film, but it's hard not to be entertained by it. Give it a shot if it sounds interesting.

Fun with theology
Heaven's been closed for the past two thousand years because of a war between the angels, with Christopher Walken's Archangel Gabriel leading those eager to do away with the talking monkeys who have supplanted them in God's affections, and now the War in Heaven has spilled out onto Earth. These angels aren't the benign, mournfully watchful figures of Wings of Desire or City of Angels, let alone the make-a-wish do-gooders of Touched by an Angel. These are God's hitmen, creatures that spend their whole existence praising God with one wing dipped in blood. They don't grant wishes, they don't make things better and you really, REALLY wouldn't want to see one. But, experienced as they are in laying waste to whole nations, they lack man's capacity for true evil and need to find the darkest human soul to show them the way to win. Viggo Mortensen's Lucifer isn't too keen on the situation, fearing a victory for Gabriel's side will result in Heaven becoming another Hell - and two Hells is one Hell too many for him. Stuck in the middle is Elias Koteas' priest-turned-cop, who lost his faith not because Heaven showed him too little but because it showed him too much.

The similarities to writer-director Gregory Widen's Highlander screenplay are apparent, although this boasts a much lower budget but infinitely superior direction, a good visual sense and some great locations. Much of the film's strength is in its ideas and its dialogue: the plotting is at times perfunctory, Virginia Madsen's schoolteacher takes little convincing of the Angelic threat and Walken probably has a little TOO much fun as Gabe, whether letting schoolchildren blow his horn or gleefully explaining "I'm an angel. I kill firstborns while their mamas watch. I turn cities into salt. I even, when I feel like it, rip the souls from little girls, and from now till kingdom come, the only thing you can count on in your existence is never understanding why." The ending too is more than a little awkward. But the good points outweigh the bad.

No extras (the US release includes the trailer) but a decent 2.35:1 widescreen transfer.

Life's Too Short To Watch This Film.........................
Now don't get me wrong; I LOVE psuedo religious horror thrillers. Devil's Advocate, The Omen, End Of Days. The Prophecy, however, is one of the most disjointed, over-acted and nonsensical films that I have ever had the misfourtune to sit through.

It resembles a 2 hour trailer: Fleeting images, hints of a story, dismembered lines. At no point was I gripped, entertained, or even interested in this film and the only reason I have given it one star is because I couldn't give it a 0.

This is an episode in the life of Walken that I think we should all forgive him for. His subtle method acting looked utterly ridiculous against the backdrop of D-List wooden pantomime characters that littered the rest of the film.

Congratulations to other reveiwers who seemed to have got the story. It didn't just go over my head, It broke the sound barrier and left me in a cloud of dust.

One piece of advice: Don't say I didn't warn you. This is not a low budget, cult film. It is a bad film. Life is too short.