Starring:
John Light as John Reigert
Sean Pertwee as Dani Simionescu
Kari Wuhrer as Allison
Jason London as Simon
Doug Bradley as Laurel
Special Features:
Extended Ending
Deleted Scene
Making The Prophecy: Uprising
Cast Auditions
Commentary Track With Director, Cast, And Crew
The Prophecy Slide Show
Other Info:
Widescreen (1.85:1)
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
French and Spanish Subtitles
Running Time: 88 Minutes
Synopsis:
This is the fourth film in The Prophecy series. The following is the description from the DVD cover:
“The next chapter in the wildly popular Prophecy series, The Prophecy: Uprising is a spine-tingling supernatural thriller starring Kari Wuhrer (Eight Legged Freaks, Hellraiser: Deader), Sean Pertwee (Equilibrium, Formula 51), and Doug Bradley (Hellraiser Franchise)! Not all prophecies have already been written. The Lexicon is an ancient religious manuscript that continues to write itself and reveal the mysteries of the future. When it lands in the hands of an unsuspecting young woman, she is suddenly thrust to the center of an epic battle between ruthless fallen angels who will move heaven and hell to learn the secrets contained in the Lexicon! With its sexy young cast and hours of incredible bonus material, this must-have addition to your collection will thrill you to your soul!”
The Prophecy: Uprising is rated R for violence, disturbing images and language.
The Movie:
I have never seen a film in The Prophecy series, so this fourth film was my first taste of it. Fortunately, the movie stands by itself pretty well. You don’t need any real knowledge of the previous movies in order to follow this. And while it’s labeled as “the next chapter in horror”, I found it to be more of a supernatural thriller than a horror movie.
I was pleasantly surprised by The Prophecy: Uprising. The story was pretty solid and the story of angels and demons racing to try and find this book was intriguing. The pacing of the movie was pretty good and it was suspenseful. The subplot of a disgraced cop trying to redeem himself in post-Communist Romania also offered up some unique dramatic situations. In short, this movie was a lot better than I was expecting from the fourth film in a B-Movie horror series.
Like many movies shot in Romania, The Prophecy: Uprising looks great. The dark, moody atmosphere there lends itself to the supernatural battle going on behind the scenes. The production certainly got a lot of bang for its buck while there. The movie also features a lot of people speaking Romanian, but there’s never a subtitle on the screen. Despite this, you always know more or less what they’re saying. It works quite well for giving it the appropriate foreign feel.
The cast of this movie is also surprisingly strong. Sean Pertwee is good as Dani Simionescu, the tortured and somewhat renegade Romanian cop. He’s kind of an anti-hero in the movie, but you don’t quite know what side he’s on till late in the movie. The same goes for John Light as John Reigert. You know he’s an angel of some sort, but a surprise revelation about him at the end really helps make things interesting. Kari Wuhrer delivers one of her better performances as Allison. After seeing her in Hellraiser: Deader, I expected Wuhrer to head more towards scream queen status, but this film shows that she can handle drama as well. Other cast members are good, too.
If you’re looking for a supernatural thriller that is suspenseful without resorting to much gore, then I think you’ll enjoy The Prophecy: Uprising. I think even fans of the series will enjoy how this one turned out.
The Extras:
There are a fair number of bonus features on this DVD. Here are the highlights:
Extended Ending – In this extended ending, the ‘bad angel’ explains a little more about why he wants the book. It gives some more insight into his motivations.
Deleted Scene – There’s only one deleted scene, and it simply consists of John Reigert asking for a Twinkie at the police station. Oddly, this deleted scene is the only scene from the movie where you’ll see subtitles.
Making The Prophecy: Uprising – In this brief feature, the director tells how they incorporated sporadic snow flurries that happened during shooting into the plot of the movie. Unfortunately, that’s all the ‘making of’ you get from this.
Cast Auditions – Audition tapes for John Light, Sean Pertwee, and Doug Bradley are shown.
Commentary Track With Director, Cast, And Crew – This is actually a pretty good commentary. They discuss a lot about their unique experiences of filming in Romania. Kari Wuhrer even takes part in the discussions.
The Bottom Line:
Even if you haven’t seen the other films in this series, The Prophecy: Uprising stands well by itself. It ends up being a surprisingly entertaining supernatural thriller.
