Prophecy (1979)
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Villian(s)
Metamorphosed bear
Actor(s):
Talia Shire, Robert Foxworth, Armand Assante, Richard Dysart
Brief Description
Prophecy (1979) is an American science fiction environmental monster horror-thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer and written by David Seltzer. The plot follows an EPA investigator and his wife who travel to the wilderness of Maine to mediate a land dispute between a logging corporation and a Native American tribe, only to discover that toxic industrial waste has spawned a massive, murderous mutant grizzly bear.
Plot:
Dr. Robert Verne, an inner-city doctor and environmental agent, is hired by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to write an independent report on a paper mill operation near the Androscoggin River in Maine. He travels there with his wife, Maggie, a concert cellist who is secretly pregnant and fears raising a child in a polluted world. Upon arrival, they find intense tension between the regional paper mill director, who blames the local Native American tribe for disappearing lumberjacks, and the tribe's chief, who accuses the mill of poisoning the ecosystem. The tribe insists that the disappearances are the work of Katahdin, a legendary, vengeful spirit of the forest.
Dr. Verne soon uncovers that the paper mill has been heavily dumping mercury into the water supply. The toxic runoff has caused severe, gruesome mutations in the local wildlife. The primary threat manifests as a horribly deformed, 15-foot-tall mutant grizzly bear. After Verne captures a mutated cub for biological testing, the mother monster goes on a rampant, bloodthirsty killing spree across the wilderness, forcing the survivors into a desperate battle for survival.The film is widely recognized as a classic piece of "eco-horror" or "creature-feature" cinema. It heavily lectures on the real-world dangers of industrial waste, corporate negligence, and pollution.