The correct order (i.e. release order) to watch the “Prophecy” movies is:
- Gregory Wyden’s “Prophecy” (1995)
- Greg Spence’s “Prophecy II” (1998)
- Patrick Lucier’s Prophecy 3: Ascent (2000)
- The Prophecy: Uprising (2005) directed by Joel Soisson
- Prophecy: The Forsaken (2005) directed by Joel Soisson
At the end of “The Prophecy II”, Gabriel fails in his attempt to overthrow humanity and is turned into a human by Archangel Michael (Eric Roberts). Sacred places were re-envisioned as industrial wastelands, a common creative choice throughout the 1990s. For example, the Garden of Eden is now an industrial park. In “The Prophecy 3,” Gabriel is humble and at peace as he understands the pain he has caused humans as an angel. By the end of that movie, Gabriel shows mercy and becomes an angel again, now ascending to heaven to be with God. One would think that would be the end of the story, but in 2005 his two sequels starring Kari Uhler hit video stores.
The fourth and fifth films were shot simultaneously in Romania. So many cheap horror movies have been filmed in Romania that any observant horror fan could probably traverse the Romanian forests without a compass, thanks to the amount of times we’ve seen the movie.
Some may see the movie “Prophecy” as an outcrop of many 90’s trends. At the end of the millennium, there was a sense that the world was coming to an end and that magic had disappeared. The angels were now just angry people. We paved the paradise and set up a parking lot. The first movie was impressive and stylish, but with each sequel, the series became less and less interesting. But that first film is an interesting time capsule of 1990s preoccupations, and a corker of horror films to boot.
