Movie Review - Prophecy Uprising

Greetings. First up, my apologies for my absence for the past few days - this was due to a medical emergency for my beloved Wife. She is now out of hospital and back home. I humbly ask if you could offer her your prayers and well-wishes to whatever form that the Great Ineffable Divine One takes which you offer your respect and devotions to.

Today I shall offer my views and opinions on the movie "Prophecy Uprising". This is the fourth instalment in the series - though it is a sort of reboot of the series and does not follow on directly from the first three movies. The movie is set in Romania and has a somewhat bleaker and darker tone to the first three movies which were excellent vehicles for Christopher Walken as the archangel Gabriel. In the future I intend to revisit these three movies and review them also. However, on with this review.....

The movie opens with a street drug-dealer called Serban being pursued by an unseen assailant. At one point he halts and looks down into a rain puddle, a faint shadow of something flying above is reflected in the water. He is eventually caught by a cop, Dani Simionescu (played by Sean Pertwee). Dani is an embittered and troubled man. He takes the dealer's ill-gotten money and later leaves it in the collection box at a local church. Returning to his car he find a young man in a long black coat leaning casually against the vehicle. The young man introduces himself in very clipped English tones as John Riegert (played by the aptly named John Light - for those who have ears to hear), an Interpol agent, who has been assigned to investigate a number of murders in which the hearts of the victims are being torn out. The pair get off to a strained relationship.

Back at the church we are introduced to the young heroine of this movie and its sequel, Alison (played by Kari Wuhrer) - who discovers and becomes the guardian of a sacred book called the Lexicon - a book which continues to write itself and will be the final revelation of God - revealing the very name of who shall be the Anti-Christ. Her angelic spirit guide Simon guides her in protecting both the book and herself. She is Dani's estranged sister.

So who, you may ask, is the antagonist? Well that would be Belial a body-jumping dark angel who seeks to obtain the book so he can create a new Hell. The bodies he abandons are the reason for the heart's being torn out. His final form being acted by Doug Bradley of Hellraiser fame.

John seems a strange and mysterious character. Dani goes online to find out about heart's being torn from corpses and at an Internet chat room discusses the situation with "Joseph_1995" (a reference to Joseph the coroner from the original trilogy). He is told that this is to prevent the corpses being possessed by entities.....angels....and that "all angels are terrifying". He is startled when John appears from nowhere behind him and asks for a ride somewhere. Eventually he takes Dani out to an abandoned and decaying mansion which was once a haunt of Romania's infamous Securitate. He uses the building itself and the very energies and ghost that exist there to force Dani to face his personal demons - that as a child he betrayed his parents to torture and death at the hands of the Securitate - his baby sister being spirited away to safety by a nurse. Dani is left extremely shaken and we are left in no doubt that there is much MUCH more to John than meets the eye.....yes he is an angel.....a particularly (in)famous one shall we say....and announces that right now he is "the lesser of two evils".

After a confrontation with Belial at the police station we are set for the final showdown with Alison, Dani and John, and Belial all headed to the abandoned Securitate mansion.

The journey of John and Dani to the mansion has two of my favourite scenes. In the first their car turns down a side street only to be blocked by a crowd of people. The following dialogue occurs:

John: "Just shove them out of the way"
Dani: "They're human beings John, not sheep"
John: "If you insist on splitting hairs"
Dani: "I do actually"
The car edges past the crowd.
John (in a most deadpan tone): "That one looks like a sheep"

The second is when Dani asks if he will ever see John in his "true form". John assures him that eventually he will. Dani asks if that's a promise. John assures him that it is. Now then....bear in mind Dani's past and his somewhat corrupt practices as a cop (beating suspects etc).....so who could John be? OK.....SPOILER ALERT.....

John is Satan!! The weirdest odd-couple buddy cop combination ever huh? A Romanian cop with a shady past and Satan. The dialogue between these two throughout the movie is priceless.....Pertwee and Light's performances are priceless.

So on to the final showdown. We learn that Alison was chosen specifically by the angel Simon to be the guardian of the Lexicon....the fate of the Cosmos lies squarely on her shoulders....this young man haunted by her past, because as John points out "broken people make the best pawns".

First Alison arrives at the mansion...and is confronted by the dark energies in the place. John and Dani arrive.....swiftly followed by Belial. Belial and John/Satan engage in some verbal sparring. Belial expresses how he is fed up that the Universe has become nothing but "endless shades of grey" and yearns for the old days when there "were saints and true demons". He demands the Lexicon. John/Satan says he wants Alison to keep it as the book repulses him. Belial chastises his former master for "going for the draw". John retaliates that there is "always tomorrow". John offers Alison his protection but points out that this can only apply whilst she remains in the mansion which as he points out is "Because this house, forgive the overused metaphor is Hell on Earth. It was ceded to me by virtue of the deeds committed here which makes it my domain. My house. My rules". Dani, who has been quietly observing proceedings now steps up and confronts Belial. He has emptied the magazine on his pistol of all but two bullets - one to kill the human vessel Belial currently occupies and the other to shoot himself when Belial possesses him (Alison of course now being under John's protection). John smiles wryly at this Mexican stand-off. Belial tries to rush Dani - BANG. Belial's human form crumples with a bullet in the head. Belial's spirit is not seen but we hear the fluttering of wings. Eventually Dani lets down his guard and Belial rushes in to him causing Dani to drop the gun. Dani is now possessed by Belial. Alison is forced to shoot him. Belial's spirit, with no-where left to go rushes headlong into John. John steps outside.

Alison eventually exists to a new morning. The sun has just risen. She sees John stood with his back towards her and approaches him. Arriving next to him we see that his eyes are now entirely black. He explains that Belial is now where he belongs, back with him. He explains Belial's motives and that there are some amongst the angels who fear what humanity may one day become and despise them for it. She asks him if he despises her. He says nothing, simply tenderly puts his hand on her face and in so doing gives her a flash-forward of what she will face. She is extremely shaken by this. John quietly walks off and then explodes into a flock of ravens...ahhhh, wonderfully Gothic n'est ce pas?...thus ends part 1 of the story.

This film is excellent and I much prefer it to the original trilogy, which were also classics, but somehow this one feels better. The storyline is stronger and grittier and sets up the next movie very well. In the sequel, Prophecy Forsaken, we concentrate much more on Alison and her role as the Guardian of the Lexicon. The acting in this movie is great and John Light is superb as john/Satan. Sean Pertwee is, as always, excellent. As I have stated the interaction between these two is worth watching the movie for on its own. The Bucharest setting of crumbling Communist era concrete blocks, ancient Orthodox churches and the decayed Baroque splendour of the old mansion add an excellent bleak Gothic back drop which suits the story of Angelic wars brought to Earth so well.

If you have not yet seen this movie than I strongly recommend you give it a try. This is an overlooked and underrated classic. Too many people dismiss it out of hand because of the absence of Walken and the lower budget.....but trust me.....this movie is a gem.

Here is an expanded clip of part of John and Belial's confrontation:

I found this on YouTube which shows John explode into the flock of ravens....and includes the very nice end credit music....which has a nice, Gothic, Within Temptation/Evanescence feel to it.