The Prophecy is a biblical horror thriller starring Christopher Walken as Gabriel, an archangel who hopes to find the key to igniting a literal holy war that would eradicate humanity and place his kind back in their rightful place as the apples of God’s eyes. The only thing standing between our existence and Armageddon is a detective who is a former seminary student who had lost his faith.
The film literally has a beautiful
cast: Christopher Walken, Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen, Eric Stolz, and Viggo
Mortensen as Lucifer channeled through David Bowie.
Overall, the film is a patchwork of horror
fables ranging from Dracula (1931) and The Terminator (1984) to The
Exorcist (1973) and The Golden Child (1986)—who pilfers The
Golden Child? Wow. The get there before the bad guys do plotline involves
something about retrieving the evil soul of a recently deceased Korean War
colonel who is the key to the apocalypse and transferring that wicked spirit
into the innocent vessel of a Native American little girl (Moriah Shining Dove
Snyder). Yep.
I admit that I love this movie for all
the right and wrong reasons. Among the right reasons is that Walken is always
fun to watch, especially as he chews up scenery as if his payrate depends on
it. The second right reason is Mortensen’s androgynous Lucifer possesses both
sexual charisma and menace that just pops off the screen—even a 27-inch CRT
screen channeling 333x480 VHS resolution.
The wrong reasons for loving this movie?
It’s audaciously stupid and recklessly fun to watch. It’s just stupidly
inconsistent about its philosophy and execution. Are archangels immortal? Sure.
Wait, no. They can sure do cool things like fly though, right? No. They do manage
to get around except they can’t drive cars and need zombies to do that for
them. What good are celestial powers if you can’t operate a can opener?
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