Review of The Prophecy (1995) by Melvin W — 24 May 2013

Gabriel: 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.

"There is a war in heaven and hell is about to break loose.".

The Prophecy is a pretty good little religious horror, thriller. If there's one way of describing this film, it would have to be, interesting. Every development in the plot and with the characters(humans and angels alike) are all very interesting. If there's a problem with the film, it's the lack of satisfaction that comes from the ending. As the movie wrapped up, I was left with a feeling that someone came up with a great story, but had no satisfactory way of ending it. All in all though, this is still a more than worthwhile movie.

Thomas once had the voice of God with him, and he was on his way to becoming a priest. Then on the day he was to be ordained, the voice left him. Now he is a detective, but with his knowledge of the bible and angels, he soon comes to realize that there is a second war among the angels going on. This war concerns the souls of all humans. See, a group of angels became jealous when humans were given souls and they weren't. A fallen angel named Gabriel is now lurking around trying to find the darkest of all souls, which was hidden in a little girl, and Thomas has taken it upon himself to save the little girl.

Although the story is pretty intriguing, the best part of this film has to be Christopher Walken as Gabriel. There couldn't have been a more perfect choice for Gabriel then Walken. Also, Elias Koteas, a very underrated actor does a good job as Thomas, and Viggo Mortensen shows up near the end as Lucifer in one of the more optimistic characterizations of him we've seen. .

The Prophecy is by no means a great film, but it is an entertaining and fairly well thought out one. These religious horror films almost always turn out bad, and it's nice to see that every once in a while, a good one can be made. This is worth a look, if not just for Christopher Walken's performance. .