I couldn't help myself, since I was so fascinated by the character of Gabriel, and the fact that Christopher Walken was even in these movies and I didn't know about it, I had to follow up on The Prophecy with it's two sequels.


The Prophecy II decides to take some time off, Detective Dagget becomes a monk and has left the LAPD, and all the other characters are nowhere to be found. Instead Gabriel returns from hell to prevent the birth of a nephilim, an offspring that is half angel, half human. The nephilim is supposed to help mend the war between heaven and hell. Spoilers ahead for those of you who haven't seen it, but within the first twenty minutes of the movie, the character of Dagget is thrown away almost immediately. He is killed in the same fashion some of the other angels were by Gabriel lighting him on fire. It felt very cheap to throw a character away like that. Sure none of the cast is back except Walken, but recognition could have been given to the significance of his character. It was a direct to video/DVD movie so I took it with a grain of salt.

Prophecy II actually has a great list of actors in it. Jennifer Beals plays the woman who is pregnant with the angel Danyael's child. Eric Roberts plays the Archangel Michael, Steve Hynter reprises his role as the wacky coroner, Danny Strong (Buffy) makes an surprise cameo as a suicidal boyfriend, and in a very creepy fashion, Brittany Murphy plays a girl named Izzy who commits suicide by running their car into a brick wall. Gabriel brings her back to drive him around and help him with things he is unfamiliar with.

For the most part Prophecy II sticks to the sort of horror, creepy tendencies of the first film, including turning Eden into an industrial wasteland, but it just didn't have the magic that made the first film gel so well. Despite the stronger casting for Prophecy II it doesn't work out as well. It wasn't terrible, but had an inkling what was going to happen very fast.

*More spoilers ahead*

The Prophecy 3 - The Ascent also waits a few years in time between stories. Gabriel has been made human by Valerie (Jennifer Beals), and is homeless, getting by with whatever he can. The angel of genocide, Pyriel (Scott Cleverdon) has come along with the intent to destroy humankind, essentially the same as Gabriel story. Danyael (Dave Buzzotta) , the nephilim, born of an angel and a human, is much older and has become a street preacher to a small group of people. He is gunned down by an assassin, but the angel in him kicks in, and he comes back to life in the coroners office.

Another angel, Zophael (Vincent Spano) is in charge of hunting down Danyael and ripping his heart out, the only way to kill an angel. He convinces Danyael's girlfriend Maggie (Kayren Butler) to help him. The cast is not very well known, but it seems to work a lot better in this sequel. Unfortunately the mistake of throwing away characters again is made and Valerie has been killed at the beginning of the film. No matter what these characters can't get a break or have time to be cared for, and we move on again.

The first two Prophecy films were considered more horror, but I would classify number 3 as an supernatural action film. The action scenes in 3 alone were better than Prophecy II. It was probably due to a different team of people working on the film, Gregory Widen responsible for the first two, while Patrick Lussier directed The Ascent.

The coroner, played by Steve Hynter again, is more centered upon as he does research into angels, and what is going on. I really enjoyed this more because he was someone I knew from the film, we know he is weird, but he has connections to what is going on and is sewing loose ends together. Speaking of loose ends, one character from the first film, Mary, makes a cameo in the film after Danyael takes off to the desert to confront Pyriel by telling Danyael she believes he will triumph over Pyriel. Gabriel kind of took a backseat in the film, he helps Danyael escape from the clutches of Zophael, and in the end is giving reprieve by becoming an angel again.

Overall I was probably more impressed with the Prophecy 3, even though it didn't have the more gothic creepy style that the first two films had. The Prophecy still takes the cake overall, but it had one decent B sequel.

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