Prophecy (DVD)

Product description:  A doctor investigating the environmental impact of the logging industry find a mutant which is responsible for a series of bizarre deaths.  John Frankenheimer updates the mutant-monster films of the 1950s with a modern environmental twist in this well-meaning but cliché-ridden late-'70s horror film. Robert Foxworth is so earnest it hurts as a rabble-rousing ghetto doctor who packs up his pregnant wife (Talia Shire) and heads out to the Maine woods to investigate claims of environmental pollution. That's the least of his concerns when a gooey mutant grizzly goes on the rampage and he joins forces with Native American activist Armand Assante (wearing his humorless resolve like war paint) to get out of the woods. Frankenheimer is a good director saddled with a bad, blunt script, and like a pro he delivers the requisite gore and even racks up the tension in a terrific opening chase. But even he can't overcome the clumsiest collection of deformed woodland creatures to claw their way through a monster movie. --Sean Axmaker