Streaming Availability: Youtube (with a lot of ads, wtf, Google)
The Prophecy has two key selling points: 1) a misanthropic killer Archangel Gabriel and 2) Christopher Walken. Since neither Gabriel or Walken are demons that seemingly should disqualify The Prophecy from Spooky Month 2023. The idea was to cover thirty-one(ish) movies about Demons and Devils and an angel seems like the very opposite of that. Well, to argue with myself, that's merely a technicality. Angels and demons are the same class of being, either serving God or serving evil. Lucifer was an Angel once. If an angel turns evil, what really separates them from a demon?
Also, the Devil is not going to sit out this party. Don't worry.
The Prophecy is the only film directed by Gregory Widen, best known as the creator of the modern fantasy battle film, Highlander. Much like Highlander, The Prophecy was only ever a cult hit, and a minor one at that, followed by a string of less well-regarded sequels. (Which was a huge surprise for me writing this review, there were five sequels to this thing?? The Hell??) The Prophecy does feel a lot like Highlander with a bit more Bible in the DNA. They are both about very handsome immortals fighting a secret war, only now they're angels and demons. The shame of it is that Freddie Mercury died in 1991, The Prophecy would be a truly great movie if it also had a Queen soundtrack.
Queen aside, The Prophecy is a far from perfect movie. It has a lot of really awesome and interesting ideas, not a flawless execution. At 97 minutes, it is actually way too short, leaving several characters underdeveloped. There's a terrible voice over narration from our protagonist, which is just one of many clunky things about the script. There's two DPs credited on this movie, Richard Clabaugh and Bruce Douglas Johnson, and it kinda shows. The Prophecy does feel like a production split between two different filmic ideas. Half of it is shot like a Law & Order episode. The other half is a handsome western set out in the mesas of Arizona.
One thing to note about 1995: this is way before the online memes about "biblically-accurate angels". The pop culture of angels in the Clinton years could not be more friendly or wholesome. They were nice winged humanoids smiling down on us. One of the sappiest things on TV was the CBS drama Touched by an Angel. There also was a short blip of angelic romance films with City of Angels, Michael, and A Life Less Ordinary. There were a number of books about angelology written to span the gap between spiritualism and self-help guides. See if an angel can help you find yourself. Finally, I recall as a kid hearing stories on TV about people seeing angels. You had ghost sightings, UFO reports, and angels too, why not?
The Prophecy jumps in and is like "No, that nice winged Christopher Lloyd Angels in the Outfield is total bullshit. Angels are beings of terrible power. Be afraid of them." The Prophets in the Bible who get close to God or his angels are usually shaking in fear afterwards. The depictions of them are often more terrifying than the descriptions of demons. A bunch of chimera creatures covered in eyes endlessly, mindlessly chanting around the throne of God sure sounds disturbing to me. The angels in ancient Jewish mysticism were known to be violent guards of the heavens. Any rabbi foolish enough to try to ascend into God's Court would be burnt away - unless you had the right incantations. I wouldn't try to mess around there, the angels seemed to take joy in it.
The angels in The Prophecy are only seen in humanoid form. Christopher Walken cannot bend himself the way you'd need to become wheels within wheels. But a coroner character does fill us in on their biology. They have both sets of sex organs, they have the body chemistry of an unborn fetus, and there's no eyes. Gabriel might be unpowered in human form, he cannot turn a city to salt, but he is an unstoppable Terminator force. His worst power though is non-lethal. He has a talent for trapping near-dead humans in limbo, slowly and painfully rotting in their meat suits, forced to be his valet since Gabriel considers driving beneath him, "monkey work".
There's more interesting ideas at play in The Prophecy. God has disappeared, the souls of the dead have been stuck in the ground for thousands of years, those in heaven no longer have a leader. Out of jealousy from mankind's favored status, the cosmos split away into a second civil war between pro-human and anti-human factions. Gabriel might seem nice in the New Testament, but he really hates people, and wants to rule a reopened heaven with his kind again at the top. The key to all this is the soul of the most awful human being in history. That happens to be that of an American officer, a kind of Korean War Colonel Kurtz. That soul has been hidden away in the body of Mary (Moriah Shining Dove Snyder), a Native American school girl. Gabriel must get to her, to eat her guts and take her soul, before her people can exorcise the spirit.
I should mention that The Prophecy has cool ideas about Abrahamic angels and a disturbing vision of a heavenly throne left vacant. But this Native American business is completely ancillary. While this Enemy Ghost Ceremony seems to be a real cultural practice for the Navajo nation, I have no idea how culturally accurate any of this is. It is treated as strange and foreign as Voodoo was treated in Angel Heart. The Non-White characters are props more than characters, with very few scenes, and they are utterly ignored by the camera when Gabriel attacks.
That complaint aside, there is a very solid cast in The Prophecy. It is packed with character actors. Christopher Walken is a beloved institution for a reason, he gets to chew a lot of scenery as Gabriel. Letting schoolkids play with the trumpets from the Book of Revelation is a good laugh. Elias Koteas is Thomas, the heroic police detective. His journey of faith is powerful, even inspiring. Nobody else has stood to the supernatural with this much courage and certainty all month. Virginia Madsen plays Katherine, who does not get much to do, sadly. Some stand-outs are Adam Goldberg and Amanda Plummer as Gabriel's poor unwitting zombie sidekicks.
I cannot go away without mentioning the little cameo we get from Lucifer (Viggo Mortensen). He is an electric presence of nightmares who appears late in the movie. In plot terms, he's the last-minute cavalry that saves the day, a diabolus ex machina. The Devil is temporarily on mankind's side, seeing Gabriel's heaven as a false parody of paradise, merely "another Hell". I love this performance, every line is iconic. "Little Tommy Daggett, how I loved listening to your sweet prayers every night. And then you'd jump in your bed, so afraid I was under there. And I was!" Lucifer comes off as a sorrowful figure, almost regretful about his place in the universe, maybe he's been doing some therapy. He might still need work because when covered in blood, he switches to uncontrolled malice, suddenly greedy for every soul in the room. "I want you to come home with me."
Even a Christopher Walken angel gets upstaged by a spooky devil sometimes.
PS: Pretty much this same movie was made fifteen years later as the much less interesting film, Legion. Which dared be an even more blatant riff on Terminator. Cool spooky grandma effect, otherwise mid. The Prophecy is much better.
Next Time! There are worse things to make Faustian bargains with than Satan. Pro-tip: do not make wishes in Wishmaster.
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