2005 The Prophecy: Uprising

• Directed by Joel Soisson
• Written by Gregory Widen, John Sullivan, Joel Soisson
• Stars John Light, Sean Pertwee, Kari Wuhrer, Doug Bradley
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 28 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8hqv21
  

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This was a bit of a reset of the story, without Christopher Walken this time around. It’s more of the angels battling with humanity stuck in the middle. It’s a step down from the first three, but it’s not too bad. The setting in Romania helps the atmosphere, and Doug Bradley adds some extra life to it. It was fairly entertaining.

Spoilery Synopsis

We watch old footage of an unnamed tyrant in Europe. Twenty-five years later, the country is a mess. A man starts running from something. He’s in a panic and even gets hit by a car, but he doesn’t stop, making his way to a big old church.

The man chasing him goes through the scared man’s pants; he’s Dani, a cop. Serban is the running man, a drug dealer.

We cut to a church, where Dani makes eye contact with Allison. Allison helps out the old priest there. Father Constantine goes into a hidden area of the basement with a pickaxe and opens one of the tombs. He finds an ancient book inside. He reads it in Romanian, and new words appear on the page. He has a massive heart attack and dies.

Dani goes outside and meets John Reigert from Interpol. Dani tells him to get lost and tries to leave, but then his car won’t get going, which is awkward when John walks up and gets into the passenger seat. They get a call that a man has jumped from the roof of a church; it’s Serban. It looks like his heart has been removed. John says the heart was removed before he fell.

They meet two local cops who introduce themselves as Laurel and Hardy. There’s a message written on the wall, “Welcome Dani Simionescu.”

Clara, a waitress, walks through the park and sees dogs attacking a woman on the ground; she runs the dogs off. Something from the woman on the ground possesses Clara and she walks off– straight to that same old church. She goes down into the basement, where she talks to a glowing entity, Simon, who calls her Belial. Simon says that the book is gone.

Allison has the book after finding dead Father Constantine with it, and Simon warns her that Belial is coming for it. “He is going to rip you apart.”

Reigert has Dani drop him off at home, but when Dani goes around the corner to follow, Reigert has vanished. The next day, the two get called to the woman who was killed by the dogs; her heart is gone too.

Carla/Belial goes to the morgue to see Father Constantine. She rubs his eyeball to see what happened when he died. The undertaker comes in, and she transfers Belial into him. Florian then tears her heart out.

Dani starts to do research on the case, and gets an online response from the coroner Joseph from the previous films. He warns that angels are involved; “All angels are terrifying.” They go to an old house that used to be the headquarters for the old Communist Secret Police. They go into the basement and Dani gets a vision of the tortures that used to go on here. He watches his own parents murdered by the Communists. Reigert says the killer was a man named Treptow. Reigert continues and reveals that Dani had a sister who was taken away: Allison.

Allison goes to talk to Ion, a priest, and shows him the book. He gets a nosebleed as he explains that Revelation is not just the last chapter of the Bible, but it’s incomplete, waiting for God to write the ending. He goes to the restroom, and it goes badly for him. Inside her head, Simon warns her that Belial is approaching once again. She doesn’t know it, but Belial is now inside Ion.

Reigert wants Dani to meet his sister and explains that she’s at the heart of a prophecy. Laurel calls, and he’s done facial recognition on Reigert, and he dates all the way back to the seventies. Reigert admits that he’s an angel and gives a brief overview of the war in Heaven. The book that Allison has is capable of ending the world.

Reigert demonstrates to Dani that he’s not necessarily a “good guy.” Laurel and Hardy come in and they all discuss Reigert. They have Ion in custody, and he has a staring contest with Reigert. Ion/Belial has a seizure. Something nasty comes out of his mouth and goes into Laurel, who walks out the front door– after killing Hardy.

Allison calls another priest friend and gets the scoop on who Belial is. Dani explains that Laurel is going to try to kill Allison before she gets to the old government house. There’s a brief chase, and everyone ends up at the old torture asylum.

Allison goes inside, and she also gets visions of what used to go on there. Treptow was behind it all, killing his own people and then himself. Dani, Reigert, and Belial come in, separately, Belial talks, and it seems that he and Reigert were once on the same side; Reigert is the devil himself. They all argue over who gets the book.

Dani points his gun at Belial, who promises to possess him next. Dani says he’ll kill himself if that happens. Dani shoots him, but Belial takes him over as promised. Allison then shoots Dani. Belial then goes into Reigert, who just sort of absorbs him and walks away says that Belial is where he belongs now, with him.

Allison goes outside and talks to Reigert. He says it’s over for now, but there are more out there.

Brian’s Commentary

Romania was a very inexpensive place to make movies, and there were a lot of them filmed here around this time period. “Hellraiser VII: Deader” (2005) even had the same stars. Still, it’s a very alien and exotic place, and it adds a lot to an otherwise fairly bland story. This was filmed simultaneously with the following film, “The Prophecy: Forsaken” (2005).

This one doesn’t have Christopher Walken, but it’s still got good points. Still, it’s definitely a step down from the predecessors. We get a flash of what’s to come… in the next film.

Kevin’s Commentary

I was bracing myself for a boring abomination of a sequel dragging the story on beyond where it should have ended in the third movie, and I was pleasantly surprised. While it’s not a terrific film, I thought it was quite good and it entertained me. If you enjoyed the first three, I’d recommend carrying on with this one.