Movies
[Review] Prophecy
“Realistic, dramatically acted, and supported with graphic violence, Prophecy is not easily forgotten – forging a professional horror film from the 70’s that holds its own and stands towering amidst the sub-genre from which it spawned.”
The monster-movie phase underwent a mitosis into the serial killer and alien eras, somewhere circa 1980. As the disaster movie had dominated in the 1970’s, Jaws took horror in another direction with an Academy Award winning shark, shifting per the viewer’s fears, into the shredding jagged teeth of nature. Thereafter we saw every animal take its swipe at mankind, from killer whales (Orca) to ants (Empire of the Ants) to frogs (Frogs) and worms (Squirm) to bears (Grizzly) and even rabid human beings (Rabid)… But all of this branched off near its burnout. Inhuman serial killers emerged, into the woods and neighborhoods, to stalk victims in their homes and camps (Halloween, Friday the 13th, etc). And on the other half of this splitting cell, was the evolution of the animal into aliens (CHUD, Alien, etc), and the one of which we speak of here today – the deformed, supernatural animal from 1979’s Prophecy!
Prophecy is a widely respected monster movie amongst those that were around during its age. Although quite forgotten about and left behind since then, Prophecy was a gritty, violent, and deadly film that packed a death punch with very vivid, nightmarish special effects (as rubber as they were). Heads are bitten off and faces shredded beyond recognition as the local residents of a mountainside forest are eaten alive by a towering and deformed, bloodthirsty and vengeful bear.
In short, Prophecy is the story of Dr. Verne and his wife Maggie, played scientifically callous by Robert Foxworth, and the over-emotional and shy Talia Shire – as hired by the EPA to look into a logging operation in the Androscoggin mountains of Maine. Loggers have been going missing, or found dead, and the local American Indians are the main suspect. While traveling up into the mountains accompanied by the paper mill director (Richard A. Dysart of The Thing), Dr. Verne and his wife are stopped by John Hawks (Armand Assante) and a group of Indians. The accusations and the forest raping has come to a head, and they’re able to continue – but only after a nasty chainsaw is held to Hawk’s throat. The actors are good, and this scene is awesome. That massive chainsaw was running just an inch from Assante’s adams apple, without CGI. Sick.
After reaching their destination in the mountains, the doctor sees a massive salmon eat a duck in the lake, and a raccoon shred up his cabin (this is by far the fakest, dumbest scene in the whole film. It reminds you of Bruce Campbell fighting his hand in Evil Dead 2, or the brothers in Phantasm with their hands on that monster that they try to kill in the garbage disposal – only its supposed to be serious. I don’t remember one facetious line in Prophecy.)
Now sympathizing with the Indian community, Dr. Verne looks for the cause of these abnormalities, and a link to the loggers’ deaths. They discover mercury being leaked into the waters surrounding the paper mill, thus poisoning the fetal community – causing stillbirths and deformities. While struggling with the knowledge that she is pregnant, Maggie discovers a couple of mutated baby bears being washed down river in a storm. One is dead, but the other is rescued by the doctor, who intends to bring it to the local Indians, and call in the logging director to show once and for all, what is taking place.
With all of them gathered in tents – the Indians, the doctor and the loggers – comes the best part of this movie. The Katahdin attacks! Bodies are broken in half by an exo-intestinal monster mutation that the locals had been describing as “larger than a dragon with the eyes of a cat” comes in search of her screaming, baby cub. People are thrown into fires, twitching in death spasms, the high-pitched, horrid screams of the imminently dying as their necks are broken and heads are bitten off. The Katahdin rips the camp to pieces. Our stars escape to a tunnel below, until one unlucky survivor sticks his head up out of the hole to see if its safe minutes later. His head is gashed to the brain by bear claws Freddy Krueger would be jealous of. Survivor no more. All of this culminates in an attempt to escape the mountain the following day, after spending a fear-drenched night in the tunnels.
Final analysis: Director John Frankenheimer and writer David Seltzer team up to formulate a serious attempt to put fear into the hearts of the environmentally challenged with a monster that would not soon be forgotten. What makes it different than something like Grizzly? The deaths are hardcore realistic and shocking, and this is compounded by the fact that it is expertly scored and shot by composer Leonard Rosenman and cinematographer Harry Stradling Jr. – housing inside out deformities and unforgiving violence with the power of an out of control locomotive within the structure of professional actors who would go on to become legends, and a forest backdrop that is beautiful and colorfully deceiving. When heads are taken off, with it usually are the gritty bellows of a mutilated cadaver, and the accuracy of it is more unsettling than just a kill shot. Realistic, dramatically acted, and supported with graphic violence, Prophecy is not easily forgotten – forging a professional horror film from the 70’s that holds its own and stands towering amidst the sub-genre from which it spawned.
The holiday weekend means a light week for new horror releases, but it does bring the return of Dark Castle Entertainment to select theaters. It’s being joined by 6 new horror movies.
Here’s all the new horror releasing June 29, 2026 – July 3, 2026!
For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.
You wished for it. The highest-grossing horror movie of the year (so far), Curry Barker’s Obsession, arrived on Digital on June 30.
In Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession, after breaking the mysterious One Wish Willow to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Michael Johnston (“Teen Wolf”), Inde Navarette (“Superman & Lois”), Cooper Tomlinson (“That’s a Bad Idea,” Milk & Serial), Megan Lawless (The Death That Awaits), and Emmy Award-nominee Andy Richter (“Conan,” Elf) star.
Based on a story by director James Kondelik (Behind The Walls) and a screenplay by Canadian writer Victor Rose, survival thriller Pitfall headed home to Digital on June 30. Family is murder in this Cineverse release.
In Pitfall, a young man becomes separated from his friends in the woods and plunges into a ten-foot pit lined with spikes, impaling his leg and leaving him helpless. As reality sinks in and his situation grows dire, he realizes the fall wasn’t an accident.
The film stars Richard Harmon (Final Destination: Bloodlines), Alexandra Essoe (The Pope’s Exorcist), and UFC champion Randy Couture (The Expendables) as the ruthless killer who stalks his prey in the woods. Marshall Williams (The Ice Road), Jordan Claire Robbins (The Umbrella Academy), and Matt Hamilton (Murder for Sale) also star.
The Amityville IP leans into Jaws with Amityville Shark House, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday too, as it released on Digital June 30.
Will Collazo Jr. (Amityville Thanksgiving) and Shawn C. Phillips (Amityville Karen) co-direct from a script they wrote with Julie Anne Prescott.
In the movie, after discovering an ominous shark idol hidden beneath the decaying floorboards, Richard unknowingly awakens an ancient and savage force. As the entity begins to merge with him, a quiet coastal town descends into blood-soaked chaos.
With each victim claimed, the monstrous predator grows stronger, fueling a cult’s belief that their dark god has been reborn. Now, the race is on to stop the carnage before evil consumes everything in its path.
Phillips and Prescott also star alongside Tasha Tacosa, Maritza Brikisak, Gigi Gustin (The Retaliators), Adam Marino, and Carl Solomon.
Available on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD as of June 30 is Jacked, directed by John Fucile from a script he co-wrote with Simon Fraser.
The synopsis: “Set in the summer of 1987, JACKED follows two small-town teenagers whose day at the lake turns into a fight for survival after their car breaks down and they encounter a violent stalker.”
Marla Jean Robison, Tom Koch, Anthony Cipriani, Wynn Reichert, Kam Perez and Bella Marie star.
Get ready to work up a killer sweat and maybe spill some blood with Slashercise, a workout meets slasher hybrid that arrived exclusively on Bloodstream on July 1.
Written and directed by Ama Lea (Deathcember), the retro-styled feature follows “a masked killer known only as Meathead as he stalks the fitness clubs of Los Angeles, turning workout sessions into blood-soaked nightmares. As the city’s top trainers are picked off one by one, a group of determined fitness fanatics must fight back before they become the next bodies on the mat.”
Vanessa Decker (Stiletto), John Bloom (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Spencer Charnas (Ice Nine Kills), Sarah French (Blind), Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet), Sarah Nicklin (V/H/S/Halloween), Diana Prince (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Jared Rivet (The Once and Future Smash), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Tiffany Shepis (Victor Crowley), and Lisa Wilcox (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) star.
After a record-breaking box office run, A24 and director Kane Parsons’ feature debut is heading back to theaters with bonus footage. AMC Theatres is unleashing Backrooms: Everything Must Go Editiontoday, July 3.
In the film written by Will Soodik, the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsvestar.
AMC describes this release as a “theatrically exclusive post-credit” with additional footage from Kane Parsons. Expect 16 minutes of bonus footage, with the new version clocking in at 2 hours and 6 minutes.
The Last Exorcism director Daniel Stamm and Dark Castle Entertainment are back with Lockbox, in select theaters July 3. It adapts Soren Narnia‘s Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop” by Emmy-winning playwright Justin Yoffe.
In Lockbox, “Seeking peace after her mother’s death, Ellen retreats to a rural town and takes in her severely traumatized cousin Winthrop. Their fragile domestic balance shatters when an erratic neighbor warns that Winthrop is dangerous. As strange phenomena escalate, Ellen must put everything on the line to defend Winthrop from a dangerous otherworldly entity determined to track him down.”
Lou Taylor Pucci (Touch Me, Evil Dead), Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game, The Fall of the House of Usher) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Backrooms) star.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by Lockbox.
Be careful who you let in. Carla Gugino and Lou Taylor Pucci star in Lockbox, only in select theaters this Friday. Get tickets.
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