Scarier than "Alien"?

"Prophecy" is a forgotten eco-horror film from 1979. Back then, some people considered it to be more scary than "Alien". Personally, I always assumed that the promotional poster for "Prophecy" was the ditto for "Alien". After watching both movies, I can definitely say that "Alien" is far scarier!

The main character, Robert Verne, is a demoralized medical doctor trying to help poor victims of slumlords in the ghetto. He eventually gets a new assignment: to investigate a paper mill in Maine, the managers of which are in conflict with a Native tribe, called "Opies" (Original People). Verne eventually realizes that the mill pollutes the surrounding forests with quicksilver, causing bizarre mutations among the local animals. The shaman of the Opies tells Verne that the spirit of the forest, Katahdin, has awakened to protect the land from the White polluters. It soon turns out that "Katahdin" is really a mutant bear. The rest of the plot is easily imagined.

I can't say I really liked "Prophecy". Its ecological and social message is rather shallow, and really a cover for a typical Hollywood entertainment flick. Don't look for a deep analysis of eco-problems or Native-settler relations! But then, I didn't expect any either. Still, it was interesting to watch some eco-social seventies nostalgia. Just a few years later, neo-liberalism reigned supreme, and here we are today, with eco-problems far scarier than "Prophecy"...

Or "Alien", for that matter.