The Prophecy

Alliance | Release Date: September 1, 1995

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

44	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

J. R. Taylor

Mixing one of B horror’s lamest clichés (the failed priest-turned-cop character) with an innovative plot device (a long-missing chapter from the Bible), The Prophecy is an old-fashioned thriller with art-house pretensions. Read full review

EmpireJulian Ketcham

Good ideas. Average film. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

As it is, the movie never quite delivers on the Big Idea, but at least Walken comes through in spades: he's out of this world. Read full review

Eric Hansen

Daring and unique on the one hand, but hard to swallow on the other, Prophecy is a fantasy thriller about murderous angels waging a war on Earth. First-time director Gregory Widen deserves a pat on the back for attempting risky balancing act. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

For all its goofiness, director Widen has made a film with some genuinely creepy moments. Read full review

Hal Hinson

Though the actor (Walken) does little more than stroll through the film, he creates such an immediate sense of electricity that everyone else seems dim by comparison. Angels, devils or cops, they just aren't in his league. Read full review

Anthony Puccinelli

It's not your usual story line, but Widen makes it sufficiently plausible; unfortunately, the film's fireworks ending isn't as subtle or spooky as the rest of the movie. Read full review

David Kronke

The Prophecy has an odd appeal that keeps you engaged, if only to find out just how strange it dares to get. Thomas, the cop who quickly unlocks the mystery, accepts everything that unfolds around him with little or no problem, but audiences will likely be filled with doubting Thomases. [04 Sep 1995, p.F6]

Jackie Potts

The Prophecy suffers from an overall dreariness, a surprising lack of suspense and sloppy, rapid-fire editing. Despite Walken's alternately amusing and frightening performance, the low-budget movie becomes so tedious that, by the end, even a cameo by the Prince of Darkness fails to impress. [05 Sep 1995, p.5D]

Marc Savlov

Widen gets an “A” for ambition here, but by the end of the whole shebang, you really couldn't care less. Read full review

Stephen Holden

Angels have proliferated in popular culture in such profusion lately that maybe they needed a comeuppance. A few more movies like The Prophecy should stop the whole celestial bandwagon right in its tracks. Read full review

James Berardinelli

This is a bad movie with a good sense of humor. Read full review

John Hartl

A supernatural thriller that would like to be the new Exorcist, this hapless film has a promising villain and a sympathetic hero, but their confrontations are mostly anti-climactic. [02 Sep 1995, p.F3]

Owen Gleiberman

The Prophecy is an occult freakshow so inert it seems to have been pasted together out of stock footage. Read full review