[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_prophecy_1979_movie_poster.jpg]]

->''"It is not an offspring of witchcraft or Satan. It was created by man. It will grow to be 15 feet tall. It will have huge eyes, webbed hands, hooked claws. It will walk upright. And it will mindlessly, mercilessly, kill every living thing it meets."''

''Prophecy'' is an ecological horror film from the year 1979. It was directed by Creator/JohnFrankenheimer and it stars Creator/RobertFoxworth, Creator/TaliaShire, Creator/ArmandAssante, and Creator/RichardDysart.

Dr. Robert Verne (Foxworth) is sent by the EPA to Maine, to investigate a dispute between Native Americans led by John Hawks (Assante) and a local paper mill. Taking his wife Maggie (Shire) with him, he discovers that the area is heavily contaminated by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylmercury methylmercury]] and encounters the mutations it has caused.

Especially one certain bear...

If you were looking for the Creator/ChristopherWalken movie, go see '''''[[Film/TheProphecy The]]''' [[Film/TheProphecy Prophecy]]''.

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!!This film contains the examples of:

* AffablyEvil: Isley, almost to the point of being an AntiVillain. He's genuinely nice and helpful to Rob and Maggie early on, only showing his nastier side when [[KickTheDog encountering the Indians]]. He seems to have turned a blind eye to pollution rather than explicitly ordered it, resulting in a last act HeelFaceTurn.
* ArtisticLicenseReligion: "Katahdin" is relevant to the Penobscot (''Pαnawάhpskewi'') Nation's mythology, but not as a monster. Indeed, the movie seems to be conflating it with the actual resident of Mount Katahdin in folklore: Pamola, the "{{Thunderbird}}", a being far more grotesque than your pop cultural picture of this fowl, with moose and humanoid traits for maximum BodyHorror.
* BarrierBustingBlow: Katahdin doesn't give a shit about your "walls" and "roofs".
* BearsAreBadNews: Katahdin is a giant mutant bear that earns its name after a mythological being of Native American folklore.
* BigBad: The mutant bear, that is mistaken for the mythological being called "Katahdin".
* BloodlessCarnage: In the opening scene, a group of lumberjacks are slaughtered by the monster. It's all done in the dark, [[NothingIsScarier we hear them die but see nothing]], and is rather spooky... until the next morning when we see their bodies, completely untouched.
* ChainsawGood: When John Hawks and his fellow "opies" try to stop the papermill vehicles carrying Verne and his wife from moving forward, he gets threatened with a chainsaw inches from his throat.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Isley. Though he sees [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the folly of his ways]] when he is shown what the pollution has done to the local wildlife.
* DeathOfAChild: In the film's most infamous moment, Katahdin kills a sleeping bag-bound kid.
* DontGoInTheWoods: People venture into the woods and get slaughtered by Katahdin. Later, the protagonists get stranded in the woods, and try evade the thing.
* DoomedHurtGuy: The helicopter pilot is badly hurt when the bear attacks M'Rai's camp. He is killed off for good when Katahdin attacks the transport that the protagonists try to use to get back to the civilization.
* TheEndOrIsIt: The final shot of the film has [[spoiler: a rather obvious SequelHook, suggesting that there are many more adult mutant bears in the woods. But nothing ever came of it.]]
* HorribleCampingTrip: There's a small subplot that deals with a family who ventures into the woods and never returns.
* JumpScare: As the cast make their way through dark woods, tension is built up until Katahdin finally appears from the darkness.
* MamaBear: A literal one, as Katahdin only really starts stalking the protagonists when they pick up its cubs.
* MisplacedWildlife: Maine actually doesn't have any grizzly bears in it[[note]]Even the grizzly bear's historical range barely made it to the border of Missouri. And in modern times is much smaller, almost entirely in Canada and Alaska, with only a few small pockets in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, over 2,000 miles from Maine[[/note]].
* MomentKiller: A tender moment between Rob and Maggie is interrupted by a crazed raccoon.
* MonsterThreatExpiration: Creator/RogerEbert called it the "Hero's Death Battle Exemption" and cited this movie in particular; Katahdin is a real powerhouse about killing people until it gets to Robert, whom it just picks up instead of killing him outright, giving him time to stab it to death with an arrow.
* {{Mutants}}: Some animals, due to pollution.
* MySecretPregnancy: There's a subplot consisting Maggie's sudden pregnancy and her attempts to tell Rob about it, especially when it becomes clear that her fetus has probably been affected by the pollution too.
* {{Novelization}}: By David Seltzer, the man responsible for the film's script.
* NonIndicativeName: There are no prophecies anywhere in the film.
* OffWithHisHead: Two people get their heads bitten off.
* OnceIsNotEnough: Averted; when Katahdin is finally taken down, Verne goes for its throat to just make sure it's dead.
* OneWordTitle
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Isley is killed by Katahdin shortly after his HeelFaceTurn.]]
* SceneryPorn: British Columbia (standing in for Maine) sure has nice forests.
%%* ScreamDiscretionShot
* SexySoakedShirt: Wetlook fanservice is provided by Ramona when the gang escape Katahdin through a river.
* SpaceWhaleAesop: [[GreenAesop Don't let paper mills pollute nature]], because that will create killer mutant bears that will come after you.
* StockFootage: The footage of animals reacting to Katahdin's presence with terror is taken from various documentaries.
%%* TheStoic: John Hawks.
* SuperPersistentPredator: Justified with Katahdin, as she wants her cubs back from the protagonists.
* TooDumbToLive:
** The decision to take the bear cubs to M'rai's camp. Even if they were mutated, anyone with common sense should know that the mother bear will set out to look for them.
** The rescue team at the beginning. One of their dogs goes over a cliff, hanging by its leash. Something yanks ''hard'' on the leash, to the point that it just snaps off. Two of the three rescue workers rappel down to check on the dog. Not a genius move, but ''maybe'' understandable. The third guy hears bloodcurdling screams from down below as whatever grabbed the dog massacres his coworkers. ''He rappels down after them.''
** Hector M'Rai falls into this when instead of swimming away in the lake with the other survivors, he decided to go to shore to confront Katahdin, apparently under the belief he could reason with his tribe’s god. He gets killed and tossed around like a rag doll for it.
* ToxicWasteCanDoAnything: There is actually a specific chemical instead of a generic 'waste': mercury, and unlike most films, it actually gives a little explanation for its effects: if ingested, it confuses the body into thinking its another, beneficial chemical, and exposure to it scrambles the genes of developing fetuses. While in the film this produces the expected birth defects among humans and animals, it also manages to produce a grizzly bear that's twice the size of a normal one, smarter than a normal one (it's quite willing to sit and wait outside a hole for people to emerge from), fully functioning beyond severe skin deformities, and viciously, demonically hostile.
* TrailersAlwaysLie: Trailers (and [[CoversAlwaysLie the poster above]]) give an impression that the monster is a MixAndMatchCritters kind of thing, which it was set about to be early on. Frankenheimer decided to go with a mutated bear instead.
* TwoFaced: Katahdin's right side is hairless and disfigured.

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