The Prophecy

"I am an angel. I kill firstborns while their mamas watch. I turn cities into salt. I even, when I feel like it, rip the souls from little girls, and from now till kingdom come, the only thing you can count on in your existence is never understanding why." Now, who decided to give this a three star average on this app. The Prophecy is a cult horror fantasy film with none other than Christopher Walken starring as the angel Gabriel (and absolutely smashing it). This film was reviewed poorly by critics at the time and that completely and utterly baffles me. The story follows police detective Thomas Daggett (Elias Koteas) who is working on a strange murder case of what is revealed to be an angel, this sends him down a path of religious mystery and a war between the angels in heaven, spearheaded by Walken's Gabriel, searching for the soul of a military commander hid inside a schoolgirl. While the special effects can be questionable, the Bible quotes not entirely accurate and the depiction of angels as cool middle aged men with leather jackets, slick back haircuts and accents from downtown New York are not exactly what the local priest would want, the story here is absolutely fascinating and none of the actors missed the mark on what debutant director Gregory Widen was trying to achieve with this film. Overall, this film has been described as being 'able to carve itself into your bones if you let it' and I strongly agree. The Prophecy is definitely one of my favourite films now and is one of the most underrated films of the 90s, if not, of all time.