Prophecy (1979) - Scene from John Frankenheimer's ecological horror film

In Maine, a woodland community is terrorized by a Bigfoot-like creature called Katahdin by the Native Americans. Is this creature a product of man's pollution? This underrated "big monster" is much more fun than it should be.

[liamdenise]

i like how the film subtly presents that something's wrong with the forest, despite the picture perfect look of it at first glance. For instance, the pond looks stunning, surrounded by forest, but then he notices the feeder roots out of place, above ground when they should be below, the pond full of fish and clear but the fish are much too large, salmon that eat ducks, the giant tadpole, the odd substance on the mud, the fact there are less of certain animals then there should.
Like it doesn't need to look wrong to be polluted, much like radiactivity in chernobyl works, it looks very natural with forests, rivers, etc, but in chernobyl there are far less insects and birds then there should be, and many mutated creatures, even the fish have far too much radioactivity.
I wish they could have made more films of this forest, because the possibilities could be endless of what monsters lurk in the place.
Like a enormous mutated pike or salmon that eats people like a bull shark, and has grown extra limbs which allows it to lunge out of water like the early fish did.
Or a oversized wolf that has grown to have claws on it's skin and two heads.
So many monsters could exist in that forest.

[deanladue]

The ecological message of the movie is a rather strong one, the movie itself was actually pretty good. Some holes in it plot wise, but at the time director John Frankenheimer was battling issues with alcoholism and wasn't really at his best. Also one of the worst ever industrial pollution disasters in US history was still front page news, the Love Canal toxic spill in upstate New York in 1977.

[TheRivrPrncess]

Pay attention here, please everyone. John Frankenheimer made a movie he nor the cast or crew realized they were making. The old native American man describes Katahdin and also pay attention to when Isley(Paper Mill owner) describes him also. Neither description fits the mutant bear. The bear was not Katahdin. We never see him/her. I really think this movie needs a re-release and with a description that shows it is a question of what Katahdin is. Then a sequel could be made to show who he/she really is. Major Ending
At the end of this movie, somthing could kill the bear that appears or the writers could wait on open with this scene and then something kills it.

[kibakim]

Masterpiece movie, i saw this movies 100 times