Oct 12th, 2009–
John Frankenheimer’s Prophecy is a strange beast, pun fully intended. A schlocky update of the mutant animal flicks of the 50s and 60s, the film wasn’t a hit upon its release and it hasn’t really fared much better since then; it possesses a Rotten Tomatoes score of 25%. But while Prophecy might not win awards for competency as a serious eco-thriller, it does deliver silly B-movie pleasure.
June 20th,2009-
This is something new I’m trying at Cinematropolis. Nothing fancy, just a series of stills capturing a scene from film history. I’m heading out tomorrow to join some friends camping in Virginia and I thought it apropriate to begin then with one of the more haunting sequences from my childhood movie-watching. In 1979 director John Frankenheimer made a film called Prophecy (not the Chris Walken angel war thingee) based off a novel by the author of The Omen. It was an environmental knee-jerk thriller with Robert Foxworth looking like Bob Ross (please don’t cut down the happy little trees), Talia Share as his wife, and Armand Assante….as a Native American. This motley crew discover mercury poisoning in the water in New England and its aberrant effects on the local wildlife. The film’s heavy is a result of the mercury mutation; an enraged mother bruin that looks like what would happen if you threw Gentle Ben and a meatloaf into the Brundle Machine and hit ‘deepfry’. Continue reading
Cinematropolis 