Franchises: The Prophecy. The Prophecy 3: The Ascent (2000)

I'm probably really reaching for something here, but I find it interesting that this film's subtitle is The Ascent and its director went on to do the Dracula 2000 movies, the second of which had the subtitle, Ascension. Moreover, the working title for Wes Craven's New Nightmare, which Patrick Lussier was an editor on, was A Nightmare on Elm Street 7: The Ascension. "Resurrection" may be a pretty common sequel subtitle, but for a time there, "Ascension" was rivaling it, even if it wasn't used in the final film in that latter case. Anyway, sorry for the rambling, but I had to fill up some space because, like with the previous movie, I had no expectations or any real thoughts when I first went into this. Since the Prophecy franchise was now 0 for 2, with a first film that I just thought was okay and a second one that was a comedown from that, I'd given up hope that it could redeem itself, even with one last movie featuring Christopher Walken. And then, I watch this and find that Walken's Gabriel is no longer the main villain but, instead, is side-lined and made into something of a guardian for the protagonist, with a much more subdued personality. Still, Walken, as always, makes the most of what he's given, and there are some interesting dynamics to his character here. Also, upon re-watching it, I will say that The Prophecy 3 is something of an improvement on the second, as it adds more to the mythology, has some interesting callbacks to the first film, from characters to settings and even the music score, there are some stylish and memorable instances of imagery and editing, and the action sequences have a bit more to them. At the same time, though, it repeats some conventions from the previous films that are now beginning to feel tired, the protagonist is far from the most engaging, some other characters and casting choices are equally disappointing, and the low budget keeps this from being the epic wrap-up to the trilogy that you'd hope for.

After his mother was randomly killed by a mob at their home, Danyael Rosales has since become a street preacher who holds sermons where he claims that God has long since abandoned mankind. At one of these sermons, attended by Gabriel, the former Archangel-turned-human, Danyael is shot down by an assassin who, as it turns out, is blind. The man flees the scene and returns to his apartment, where he hears the disembodied, otherworldly voice that commanded to do the deed. He's told that, because he didn't destroy Danyael's heart, he didn't kill him, and the voice seemingly abandons him, only to then show him its physical form. A new angel arrives on Earth to finish the job, while at the morgue, Joseph the coroner learns that the latest corpse he's had to examine has been identified as the son of Valerie Rosales, whom he met briefly before. At the same time, Gabriel is interviewed about the murder, telling a detective that he and Danyael "went back." The angel gains entry to the precinct and comes upon Gabriel, who recognizes him as Zophael. Displaying the same disdain for mankind that Gabriel himself once did, Zophael, knowing that Danyael is a Nephilim and the last hope for the faction still loyal to God, heads down to the morgue to kill him once and for all. Before he can reach him, Danyael, after experiencing bizarre and horrific visions, awakens and escapes, but not before Joseph, on a hunch, hangs around to photograph him. After having his own encounter with Zophael, Joseph looks up his identity via the mark on his neck, while Gabriel meets Danyael on the street, telling him that he's known from before he was born, "both times." In his research, Joseph learns about the meaning of a Nephilim's birth, as well as another angel called "Pyriel." He also has to try to make Danyael's distraught girlfriend, Maggie, understand when she blunders into the situation, telling her about his past experiences. Meanwhile, Danyael wanders the streets, pursued by Zophael and protected by Gabriel, as he tries to learn who he really is and why he's drawn to the sign of Pyriel. He eventually heads out into the desert to meet his destiny, with both Zophael and Maggie in pursuit, while Gabriel is interested to finally see how it will all play out.

By this point, Patrick Lussier is a familiar name to horror fans, and possibly was even before he became a director, as he was an editor on a number of Wes Craven's later films, beginning with the aforementioned New Nightmare, as well as the short-lived Nightmare Cafe TV series, which Craven produced. He's also worked on Mimic, the American remake of The Eye, and Apollo 18, among others. Lussier made his directorial debut with The Prophecy 3, the screenplay for which was written by Joel Soisson, the producer on the previous movies and writer/director of the following two, and Carl Dupre, who co-wrote Hellraiser: Hellseeker and wrote Hellworld from an idea by Soisson. While he may not be the greatest director, Lussier is still skilled enough to where I think his involvement is a big reason why this is more visually interesting than the previous one. And since he was the editor on Mimic, I wonder if he got Guillermo del Toro to help him with something here, as del Toro has a "special thanks" credit here. In any case, Lussier immediately went on to direct the three Dracula 2000 movies, following that up with White Noise: The Light, My Bloody Valentine 3-D, Drive Angry, Trick with Jamie Kennedy and Omar Epps, and 2022's Play Dead, with Jerry O'Connell.

Named after his angel father, Danyael Rosales (Dave Buzzotta) starts out as a cynical street preacher who, as a result of he and his mother being randomly attacked at their home, and her dying while protecting him, holds sermons about how God couldn't care less about mankind. At the beginning of the movie, he talks about how man was God's greatest creation, then adds, "The Lord, he didn't keep his word. No, he backed out on it. He abandoned his kids a long time ago, and he ain't paying child support... Brother and sisters, our Father is a deadbeat dad. That's right, and we can all forget about the 'divine plan,' because there is no divine plan! It's a blind universe out there, friends. Our lives are nothing but a chain of unrelated accidents. Get used to it! Bad things happen to good people for no reason! Get used to it! Good things, they happen to bad people for no reason. Get used to it!... God is not dead. He just doesn't give a damn." That leads to him getting shot up by a blind zealot and seemingly dying in the arms of his girlfriend, Maggie. But because he wasn't shot in the heart, he comes back to life in the morgue, after remembering the death of his mother, his running from the mob and into Gabriel, and his getting shot up, as well as after a vision of himself lying amid a mass of writhing, naked bodies, with a man in white standing over him. That vision continues plaguing him after he escapes the morgue, finds some clothes, and takes to the streets. Also seeing a symbol associated with the figure in his vision, Danyael tracks down the blind man, only to find he committed suicide, and is then chased and nearly caught by Zophael, but manages to escape thanks to Gabriel's intervention. Maggie eventually tracks him down and he tells her what he saw, and when he kisses her, they both see a vision of her lying among the bodies and him standing over them. Frightened at what this could mean, he makes her leave, and he's attacked again by Zophael, but manages to hold his own and even pin him against the wall. He makes him tell him what the symbol means, and learning it's the sign of Pyriel, whom Zophael calls "the next God," Danyael heads out into the nearby desert to ultimately confront him.

When compared to Thomas Dagget and Katharine in the first film, and Valerie in the second, Danyael is a vastly inferior protagonist. He does start out kind of interesting, as a Nephilim who's lost faith in God due to the tragic life he's had ever since his mother was murdered, but after he's shot up and resurrects, he becomes very bland. You're watching him wandering around, remembering what happened the night his mother died, seeing visions of Pyriel and his symbol, and being chased by Zophael, and all this time, you

would expect to see him slowly learn and realize what he is, but not really. Maggie does some of the first act learning from Joseph that Danyael has returned to life because he's a Nephilim, but with Danyael himself, there's never such an epiphany, be it in his confrontations with Zophael or his initial cryptic interaction with Gabriel. Speaking of which, before the climax, Danyael has another interaction with Gabriel, who tells him that there is a higher reason for his being there and that it's God's will. That could obviously be the point where he, if nothing else, has a

pretty big clue about what he is, but that doesn't explain why he wasn't shocked by some of the things he was able to do beforehand. Of course, there is the possibility that his mother told him of his heritage when he was a kid, which would explain why the visions are all that truly freak him out, and it also adds a new level of intrigue to his disillusionment with God. But, at the same time, he clearly didn't expect to come back to life after being shot, so he either didn't know that he was a Nephilim or his mother just never told him that part. It's also implied

that his resurrection has caused a radical change in him, meaning he could now instinctively know, but if that's the case, it's not conveyed very well. In any case, he has more visions that inspire him to head out into the desert and to a Native American reservation, where he has a brief scene with Mary, but on the whole, I really never get the sense of why he's so vital to ending the war in Heaven. And while he does defeat both Zophael and Pyriel, he does so through aid from others, sheer luck, and, in the case of the latter, an apparent random act of divine intervention, rather than through any advantage his being a Nephilim seems to give him.

Maggie (Kayren Butler) spends much of the first and second acts distraught over Danyael's "death," only to be confused and horrified when his body disappears from the morgue. Even when Joseph shows her the picture he took right after Danyael's resurrection, she still doesn't want to believe it. That's when he tells her of his research into what a Nephilim is, as well as the weird stuff he's seen for himself over the years. She soon tracks Danyael down to the place where he held his sermons, and is horrified by the vision they share when they kiss. Though she doesn't want to, he makes her leave, just as Zophael arrives. Having seen him at the police station, she calls 911, then runs back inside, where she finds Danyael gone and Zophael pinned to the wall. He manages to free himself and abducts Maggie, forcing her to act as his driver in pursuit of Danyael. She tries to escape at one point in the desert, and even manages to shoot him a couple of times, but he not only disarms her but also reveals himself to be an angel, and claims that Danyael is heading down the wrong path and they must stop him. Because she has no real choice, she decides to go along with Zophael, though she's still suspicious about his motives, and insists they must not kill Danyael. But when they catch up to him, Zophael orders her to run him down. When she refuses, he grabs the steering wheel and flips the vehicle over in a bad wreck, seriously injuring her. Despite this, she still has enough strength to shoot Zophael when he tries to kill Danyael, allowing Danyael to finish him off. Gabriel arrives on the scene and, while Danyael goes to face Pyriel, he stays by Maggie's side. At the end of the movie, when he's redeemed and becomes an angel again, he manages to restore her.

The film picks up with Gabriel where The Prophecy II left off: turned human by Michael the Archangel and forced to live as a derelict. Though that movie ended with him counting on everything being made right and for him to be made an angel again, in the time that's passed since then, it turns out that he's now grown accustomed to living as a human and no longer harbors ill will towards them (he's even learned to drive, though not very well, and has a license that he managed to get without having to give a last name or an age). In fact, when he first meets Zophael at the police station, he's basically faced with who he used to be, as Zophael talks about making everything the way it was before God created humans. Gabriel, in turn, comes off as a truly benevolent version of Simon from the first movie, telling Zophael that he likes Earth, though admits it isn't perfect, and also tells him that he was never out to destroy Heaven, which Pyriel clearly plans to (while he was planning to use Col. Hawthorne's soul to turn the tides of the war and, likely, overthrow God, I do think he's sincere when he says he didn't want to destroy Heaven; it becoming another Hell, as Lucifer suggested, would've been an unintended consequence). Most significantly, after trying to kill him before he was even born, Gabriel has been acting as a guardian for Danyael, protecting him from the mob that killed his mother, attending his sermon at the beginning of the movie (though he's unable to stop the blind man from shooting him), and also saving him from Zophael at one point. In the lead-up to the climax, Danyael runs into Gabriel at this small gas station out in the desert, and he tells him that he's there to serve a higher purpose, that his continued survival is God's will. Gabriel also admits that he himself is curious about what that purpose is, why he's so important to God that he was unable to kill him before he was born. He tells Danyael, "You're the Word... No angel, however powerful, can be anything but the messenger. Danyael, you're the message. And now, for the first time in a gazillion years, I get to know what it is! I get to know what that message is."

After being over-the-top and delightfully villainous in the first two movies, The Prophecy 3 gives Christopher Walken the opportunity to portray Gabriel in a much more understated, literally down-to-Earth manner. While that results in him not having much screentime, despite his again being top-billed, it is interesting to see the Angel of Death, once filled with piss and vinegar, as well as a seering contempt for humanity, now mellowed out and having long accepted, as well as grown to like, living on Earth as a

human. Like I said, it's also interesting to see the role reversal in his interactions with Zophael, whom he views with contempt in the same manner that past angels like Simon, Danyael's father, and Michael once viewed him. When he thwarts Zophael's first attempt to kill Danyael, and Zophael, in turn, threatens to kill him, Gabriel shoots back, "Fried food can kill me. A mugger can kill me. You're not so special down here, 'Jones!'" Zophael then asks how he can stand being reduced to such a "lowly" state, and Gabriel retorts,

"You been with a woman, Zophael? It's like dying. You moan, cry out. You get to a spot that has you begging for release. Once... I was an Angel of Death. Now, I die every day, when I have the cash." Zophael goes to leave but Gabriel then says, "Enough about me. You must be scared. What if you lose? You must be scared you might become like me, right?" Zophael admits to this before walking off, leaving Gabriel with a satisfied look on his face. Most amazing of all, though, is how deftly Walken is able to portray Gabriel showing compassion and being completely

redeemed by the end of the movie. Following Zophael's death during the climax, Gabriel arrives and, seeming upset about it himself, breaks it to Danyael that he doesn't have the power to restore the gravely injured Maggie. He then encourages him to go face Pyriel, saying, "You know what Heaven's gonna be like for her if you don't finish what you start." He then stays by Maggie's side, telling her who he is, holding her hand, and telling her not to be afraid, as well as that Danyael is fighting for her. By the time Danyael returns after defeating Pyriel,

Gabriel has been restored to his angelic status. He tells him, "It's not a mindless, indifferent, blind universe, Danyael. It never was. Get used to it." With that, he uses his power to restore Maggie, shushing her in a manner similar to when he would instantly knock people out, and disappears in a burst of light, becoming a flock of doves in the process.

One thing that hasn't changed about Walken's portrayal of Gabriel is his quirky sense of humor. When being interviewed by the detective about Danyael, and asked if the address on his DMV card is current, he answers, "I can tell you in two words: un-fortunately." The detective laughs, asking if that's with a hyphen, and Gabriel answers, "Slash," while making the motion. As for his nonexistent age on the card, which he claims was an oversight on the DMV's part, he answers, "39," and when the detective doesn't

seem to buy it, he asks, "How old do I look?" The detective decides to just go with 39 (an inside joke, as Walken always gives that as his age). You also have to love the sight of him driving down a desert highway in his old, beat-up car, changing the radio after he doesn't like the sound of Earth Angel and a sermon, and starts jamming to another tune. He then looks at himself in the rear-view mirror, with his long hair blowing in the wind (that's another thing: how can you not love the sight of Gabriel looking like a hippie?), takes out his trumpet, and starts playing it,

all while swerving along the completely deserted road. Finally, in a nice callback to the first movie, Gabriel ends up at the same roadside diner and talks with the same waitress, Madge, asking her directions to a specific place. The dialogue is very similar, and Madge hasn't forgotten him, as she asks, "Where's your friend?" Gabriel responds, "You have a long memory. Rachael is, um, under the weather. She's bedridden. But, I'll tell her you inquire." The scene ends with him ordering an enormous meal (in a country accent, no less), adding, "It's gonna be a long day."

Zophael (Vincent Spano) is not only akin to the way Gabriel was in the first two movies but is also like Uziel and Samayel in that he's quite brutish and, instead of the main villain, is only a servant to someone more powerful; unlike them, however, he proves to be a very tough and competent opponent. After the blind man fails to kill Danyael by destroying his heart, Zophael arrives on Earth to finish the job, heading for the precinct where his body is being kept in the morgue. There, he runs into Gabriel, and in their conversation, shows not only a disdain for man similar to Gabriel's, right down to referring to humans as "monkeys," but is also disgusted with Gabriel's being reduced to one, the same way Gabriel hated the idea of Danyael's father having sex with Valerie. Just as Gabriel offered to Simon and Danyael, Zophael asks him to join him in making everything the way it was before God created man, but when he refuses, he pushes past him, calling him a monkey. He's unable to stop Danyael from resurrecting and escaping, and begins following his trail throughout the city, initially tracking him down at a doughnut shop. Told he's currently in the restroom, Zophael comments, "Hiding in shit. Just like a monkey," and then attacks and chases him out of the store. He does manage to catch Danyael and almost kills him, but is stopped thanks to Gabriel. Enraged, Zophael threatens to kill Gabriel, saying it would be easy, and then, again, shows his disgust with him by asking how he can take being reduced from an Angel of Death to a "monkey." Most significantly of all, when Gabriel asks him if he's afraid of suffering the same fate should he fail, he answers with a definite yes. He manages to track Danyael down again, but this time, Danyael gets the upper-hand and pins him against the wall. Danyael demands to know what the symbol he constantly finds himself drawn to is, and Zophael tells him it's the sign of Pyriel, whom he calls "the next God." This leads to Danyael rushing out into the desert, while Zophael finds his own way to get out there.

While Gabriel was definitely tough as an angel, Zophael proves to be an especially formidable foe in combat, using his agility and strength in a very potent combination. Along with what you've come to expect by this point, he also has some new powers, like the ability to create imaginary objects, such as a fake ID identifying himself as an FBI agent, which he uses to access the morgue (his fake name on the card is "Casey Jones," which could be a sly callback to Elias Koteas in the first movie), or a $50 bill, which he

makes out of a napkin to get some information out of the guy who runs the doughnut shop. A really unique ability is when, after tracking Danyael to the blind man's apartment, he licks the dead man's eyeball and sees a vision of Danyael from its POV, seemingly confirming to Zophael that he was there. And as far as killing him is concerned, Zophael, rather than ripping his heart out with his bare hands, uses a bladed weapon that's able to produce a three-pronged hook from its tip. Finally, while it's not dwelt upon as much, there are some moments where Zophael has to

deal with the modern human world, like when the cop buzzes the door to let him down to the morgue and it takes him a second to realize what the buzzing means, or when he goes to the doughnut shop and asks the man what the "D" on the door means, then asks for a doughnut, "With the colored fragments."

Even though he initially comes off as stoic and severe, Zophael does have some charisma to him. When Danyael tries to escape him in the doughnut store, he grabs and pins him against some shelves, before commenting on the blind man's failure to kill him earlier: "No matter how many times you tell them, they never seem to learn. You must always, always remove the heart." Later, when he catches Danyael again in an alleyway, and is asked who he is, he calmly answers, "Judgement." But his best

moments come when he meets Maggie, who comes across him after Danyael pinned him against the wall. After extricating himself, he keeps her from escaping by using his power to take her van's keys, appearing behind her and taunting her with them. She tells him that he can take the vehicle himself but he answers, "Afraid that won't do," and forces her into it. Predicting what happens next, as she pulls a gun on him, he talks about how she keeps it underneath the front seat, having done so ever since she got robbed,

but that, because she doesn't like the idea of using it, she keeps the bullets in the glove compartment. He gives her the keys, telling her that he's not going to hurt her, and she drives him out into the desert. At one point, after he complains that they're going too slow, she tries to escape him by slamming into a large rock on the side of the road, then runs off with both her gun and the bullets. Aggravated by this, given that he's kind of on a time crunch, Zophael follows after her, complimenting her on the trick she pulled: "I'll have to remember that. You just jerk the wheel to the

the right... Wow." Not fazed by her threatening to shoot him, he continues approaching her, and she does shoot him a couple of times. But, naturally, this does nothing, and he takes the opportunity to disarm her, before bolting straight up, like Count Orlock in Nosferatu, and saying, "Fact: I am an angel." 

He then attempts to get her on his side, saying that he's her friend and they can help each other: "We both see things the same way, you and I. A world abandoned by the Creator, a universe in chaos. Danyael Rosales saw it too. He saw it more clearly than any of us. But he's lost his way, now. He's been deceived by my brothers who still cling to old ways, old truths. Who still harbor some cold, empty faith that our beloved father shall somehow return, and deliver us from this wasteland, this killing field! But

that will never, never happen, Magdalene. You know, I know it, and, most of all, Danyael Rosales knew it... until now... He's being driven by forces beyond his control... He's going to stop our savior. The only one who can set things right again, with Heaven and Earth." He goes on to tell her about Pyriel, claiming him to be the "Light of Heaven," and that he will lead them from, "An eternity of rotting despair," unless Danyael stops him. He then whispers into her ear, saying that angels have always communicated with mankind through voices, and that those voices, which

drove the mob that murdered Danyael's mother, are now driving him to kill Pyriel. Though Maggie is still unsure of Zophael's true motives, he tells her that she has no choice but to trust him. On the way to intercept Danyael, there is a moment where, like Gabriel before him, Zophael shows that there is a bit of vulnerability and sadness behind his actions. Maggie asks if he still loves God and, as he solemnly looks out the window, he answers, "As much as he loves me." When they catch up to Danyael, Zophael, despite what he said earlier, makes his intention to kill him clear, saying

it's the only way. Maggie refuses to do so, telling him she's not afraid him, to which he says, "You should be." Remembering what she did to him earlier, he grabs and wrenches the wheel, causing them to crash and nearly killing her. Despite this advantage, though, Zophael is ultimately killed by Danyael, and with Maggie's help, no less.

After a build-up throughout the entire movie consisting of nightmarish visions and Zophael talking him up, Pyriel (Scott Cleverdon) is ultimately a big disappointment. He talks a big game, laying out his plan to exterminate mankind through genocide, or "mutual slaughter," as he calls it, and tries to encourage Danyael to simply walk away, telling him there's no such thing as destiny, but he's defeated quite easily. Danyael manages to impale him with Zophael's weapon, and even though Pyriel gets a hold of and nearly crushes his head, Danyael succeeds both through sheer luck and random moments that feel like God finally decided to step in, something he should've done a long time ago. It's really pitiful, even when compared to the first two movies' fairly low-key finales. (And is it me, or does Pyriel look like an effeminate Crispin Glover?)

Brad Dourif is sorely underutilized here as the blind zealot who shoots Danyael, having been influenced to do so by the voices of angels. Though he manages to empty a number of bullets into him (for a blind man, he has pretty good aim), when he takes out a knife to cut out the heart, it's knocked out of his hand, and by the time he finds it, the crowd forces him out of the building. Upon returning to his apartment, he hears the angel's voice again and assures it that Danyael is dead. But when it emphasizes that he had to destroy the heart, he, after reacting with increasingly urgent, "Ohs," apologizes, attempts to explain what went wrong, and says he can try again (I don't care how much of an obsessive, easily influenced zealot he is, why would the angels entrust this task to a blind man?). The voice disappears, and he begs for it not to leave him by himself, when the window shade pops up and the angel reveals itself to him, allowing him to see despite his blindness. The man is overcome with ecstasy at the sight of this, then leans back in his chair and takes out his knife. Later, when Danyael tracks down the apartment, you learn that the man was compelled to kill himself.

Steve Hytner returns one final time as Joseph the coroner, getting probably the most screentime he has out of any of them. When tasked with examining Danyael's "corpse," commenting at the sight of the bullet-holes, "Well, lead poisoning. Okay, Rasputin, what army did you piss off?", he learns that he's the son of Valerie Rosales, and immediately realizes what it means. It prompts him to examine photos from the scene of Valerie's death, and deduces from the position of the body that she was shielding her son from the fire that the mob set. On a hunch, he hangs around after Danyael's body is put away, and when he resurrects, he snaps a photo of him. He also has a brief confrontation with Zophael, who demands to know where Danyael went after he escapes, but Joseph, noticing the mark on the side of his neck, is too shaken to answer. After Zophael leaves, Joseph has to deal with Maggie, distraught over losing Danyael and him suddenly disappearing, and he clearly doesn't know what to tell her. He then begins a long bout of research into Zophael's symbol, which also leads him to learn about Nephilim children and the sign of Pyriel, though he's unsure of the latter's significance. Maggie shows back up, still not believing his claims about Danyael, even when he shows her the photograph he took, and Joseph takes the opportunity to have her drive him home, as he's been boozing it up while researching. At his home, while watering and feeding his plants (which he's named and talks to), he tells her about the Nephilim, off-handedly suggesting that Danyael is one. When Maggie asks if he really believes that, Joseph proceeds to tell her about the weird things he's seen and experienced over the years: "I've had four gutted hermaphrodites burn to black pitch right under my nose. I've had one cop, my best friend, driven insane by the angels shrieking in his head, before somehow spontaneously combusting in a madhouse he had mistaken for a monastery. A pretty young woman, now dead, knocked up by a stranger, who left her three months pregnant in only 48 hours. And just yesterday, a young man, allegedly her son, shot up six ways to sundown, crawled out of a drawer and waltzed out like Lazarus." He then adds, "So, yeah. I'm pretty much open to a buffet of possibilities." Joseph is never seen again after that, though this wouldn't be last "appearance" in this series, as we'll see.

Besides Joseph and Madge the waitress, another returning familiar face from the first Prophecy is Mary (Moriah "Shining Dove" Snyder), the Native American girl. She first appears in a vision that Danyael has while talking with Gabriel, prompting him to head to a reservation owned by the Hualapai tribe. There, she greets him, telling him that she dreamed about him the previous night, and, giving him a stone that has his father's symbol etched on it, as well as motioning towards some nearby petroglyphs that tell the story, adds, "I dreamed the end of one history, and the beginning of another. The darkness was met by the coming of a great warrior. I dreamed of you." However, she does add, "You look smaller in person." She's only in that one scene, and it clearly has no purpose other than fanservice, as does much of Joseph's screentime, if I'm being honest, but it's still nice to see her again, especially since I rather liked her character in the first movie.

I personally find this to be a more visually appealing film than the second, as its color palette is not as muted, nor does it have that murky quality, or the need to recycle images from the previous movies. It's also more dynamic in that sense, with some of the early scenes, like Danyael's sermon, in the blind man's apartment, and the police station, having a warm, golden-brown look, while those inside the morgue have a cold, clinical, blue-white feel, and those on the city streets a much more white aesthetic. Also, the exterior nighttime scenes are effectively

dark and shadowy, with lots of flashing lightning illuminating Zophael's arrival, and when the angel appears before the blind man, not only do we only see its shadow, but its presence is conveyed through it opening the window shade and letting in a sickly, pale-green light from the glowing neon signs outside. The transition from that scene to Zophael's arrival on Earth is also our first sign of how impressive and dynamic the editing and other visuals here are. As the blind man begins to draw his knife down the length of his hand and arm, the scene dissolves to an image of

an angel skeleton in the sand, getting closer to it in two sharp cuts, before the camera pulls back to show it in full, as it's illuminated by flashes of lightning. That's followed by our first look at Pyriel in some rapid edits, before the scene dissolves back to the city, on what initially seems to be a backwards shot of a neon cross that says "JESUS SAVES," before Zophael's foot comes down, revealing it to actually be a reflection in a puddle. Zophael then stomps towards the camera in a quick succession of dissolves, and

illuminated by a series of lightning flashes, as he walks towards the symbol of Pyriel on the outside of the zealot's apartment building and touches it. That's when we finally see his face when he turns around, showing that he, as per usual by now, has no eyes, at first.

The visions and dreams that Danyael has throughout the movie are pretty impactful in and of themselves, with the first starting off with flashes of his mother after she was murdered by the mob, his younger self running through the streets, with the mob in pursuit, and him running into Gabriel, who provided him with shelter using the old coat he had as a derelict. Danyael then relives the blind man shooting him, done in a wavering, dream-like manner, and when he falls back, he finds himself on a mass of writhing bodies, with Pyriel standing over and reaching for his face, as

shots of his symbol appear almost subliminally. Those latter images recur constantly, with Pyriel's symbol even appearing reflected on the surface of some water, as does an image of the blind man's apartment building, which sends him there. When Maggie tracks Danyael down at the condemned church and they kiss, the details of the vision become switched around, with Danyael standing over the mass of writhing bodies, replacing Pyriel, while Maggie lies among them, and Pyriel's symbol is reflected in one

of their eyes. The visions also point Danyael towards the desert, and when he's talking with Gabriel at the gas station, he sees a haunting image of young Mary superimposed in front of a close-up of Pyriel's face, his symbol then materializing behind her, leading Danyael to seek out her reservation.

The film's settings also remind me a lot of the first movie, with much of it initially taking place within the confines of a city (possibly still San Fernando from the previous one), before ending out in the desert. And unlike the previous film, there are more than just a few noteworthy settings within the city. Among them are this church that's either condemned or undergoing construction work, which is where Danyael gives his sermon and also where he has his first fight scene with Zophael; the zealot's apartment, with the exterior of the building having angelic

symbols spray-painted on it, while its small interiors are filled with statues depicting angels; the morgue where Danyael awakens after being shot up and breaks his way out of the freezer; Joseph's home where he dotes on his plants while talking with Maggie; and the streets, where some chase scenes take place. Even the doughnut shop, which should be the most unremarkable place imaginable, actually manages to be memorable just because of how small and plain it is, and also because of how crappy the restroom is, with a truly nasty green color to it. But

like with the first movie, I really like it when the film switches to the nearby desert (instead of Arizona, I think they kept it in California due to the budget), as you get all those nice shots of the landscape and the virtually empty highway winding its way through. However, this time there aren't as many notable settings within the desert itself, save for this small gas station where Danyael has his significant talk with Gabriel, and the little roadside diner from the first. And while the final battles with both Zophael and

Pyriel take place on a Native American reservation like in the first, there's no settlement this time; instead, it's truly in the middle of nowhere. Still, they do shake it up by having the chase with Danyael, Zophael, and Maggie take place in the middle of a sandstorm, and the setting for the battle with Pyriel, in a stretch of barren land totally surrounded by darkness and flashing lightning, makes for a nice visual, despite some of the poorly dated effects. The latter also brings the series full circle, as Pyriel starts out as a skeleton in the sand, and the movie all but comes out and says that was the skeleton Simon was standing over at the very beginning of the first one.

In addition to the new powers Zophael shows off, we get a little more insight into the series' mythology, specifically the Nephilim and how they work. Above all else, a Nephilim, like a normal angel, can only be killed through the heart, and being injured in a manner that's fatal to a normal human leads to a period of unconsciousness. Moreover, when one resurrects from this, it seems to also awaken their formerly dormant angel side, as that's when Danyael begins having the visions that point him toward his destiny, and also when he becomes almost as strong

and agile as true angels. And it gives Danyael a major hankering for sugar as well, as he not only scarfs down a bunch of doughnuts but also pours a ridiculous amount of sugar into his coffee (Zophael notes, "Spontaneous tissue regeneration tends to do that,"). On another topic, the moment where the angel shows itself to the blind man but we, as the audience, don't see it, alludes to something that's been hinted at in the previous movies: the human forms angels take when they're on Earth is not what they really look like. This has been suggested with how they never

have eyes when they first arrive and have to generate them, and also by the scene in the previous movie when Danyael's father had to prove to Valerie that he was one. I thought he was just revealing and spreading his wings, but the similar moment here, where we only see the angel's shadow and the zealot is absolutely astonished, suggests that he was showing Valerie what he really looks like and it was something we couldn't comprehend. The really unsettling, disembodied voice (Tom Kane) we hear

speaking to the man and the hideous sounds it makes when it reveals itself suggest they might actually be downright nightmarish. It gets back to the core concept of this series, that angels may not be the beautiful, gentle, moralistic creatures they're typically portrayed as. In fact, they're still mostly portrayed as real bastards here, not just through Zophael's villainous acts and manipulation of Maggie or their influencing the zealot to shoot Danyael, but also in the notion that they influenced the mob to attack him

and his mother at their home when he was just a kid, which not only led to Valerie's death but him getting chased down the street until Gabriel came to his aid. That's to say nothing of how Pyriel intends to not only bring about the extinction of mankind through genocide but truly overthrow God and make himself the new one.

And that's why, as much as I enjoy Christopher Walken's performance yet again, I also have mixed feelings about the ending, where Gabriel is "redeemed" after he sets Danyael on the path to defeating Pyriel and shows compassion to the gravely injured Maggie. While I like seeing Gabriel come to question and regret what he did in the past, given how even the "good" angels in these movies have been portrayed as rather callous or even indifferent to mankind, I find it rather contradictory for him to be forgiven and returned to his status as an Archangel for

helping them. Maybe his helping end the war is what redeemed him in the eyes of God, but they focus so much on his helping Danyael and Maggie that it comes off like that's the specific reason in and of itself. Again, given the depiction of even those still loyal to God in the past movies, I just don't know.

A much more major problem I have is how, by this point, the series is starting to become terribly repetitive. Like before, you start out with the angels doing their thing while one of our main protagonists is trying to figure out what's going on; Zophael is all but a stand-in for Gabriel in the first two movies, right down to his forcing someone to help him out, mainly because he's unable to drive, with the only difference being that Maggie isn't undead; Gabriel himself has the role of the benevolent angel this time; the Terminator-esque chase aesthetic from the second

movie is repeated, and Danyael does indeed have some John Connor aspects to him, both in his personality and stated significance in the story (plus, his riding a motorcycle with a leather jacket and dark glasses does also give me Terminator 2 vibes); and, as much as I like some of the callbacks to the first movie, it does also make it feel as though the filmmakers don't have much imagination to them. But, more than anything else, we're yet again watching characters wearing long, black coats battling

each other using inhuman powers, research scenes that involve someone going in-depth into the Bible and transcribing the meaning of angelic scripture, and the story culminating into a final confrontation that's not nearly as profound as you'd expect. I'll be the first one to admit that I like a lot of franchises which can be considered repetitive, but since I wasn't that big a fan of this one from the get-go, it's starting to get old by this point.

Once again, if you're a gorehound, you're out of luck here, as you don't get much of the red stuff, save for some standout moments here and there. One of the grisliest sights is the aftermath of Valerie being burned alive by the mob at the beginning of the movie, including some close-ups of her scarred face. You also get some violent bullet shots when the zealot shoots up Danyael (he retains the holes across his chest afterward), the zealot himself is later found dead from having sliced open his arm and written Pyriel's symbol in his own blood on page after page of his

braille Bible, some more gunshots, and some impalements, like Zophael getting pinned against the wall through his shoulder, getting stabbed in the chest by a piece of Danyael's motorcycle, and both Danyael and Pyriel getting completely speared by Zophael's weapon, with grisly shots of the former pulling it out. And since it wouldn't be a Prophecy movie if someone's heart didn't get ripped out, Danyael finishes off Zophael that way, and while the act itself is quick but fairly bloody, he then plants it in his open hand, which we see in gruesome close-up (Pyriel also

gets his ripped out, but it's done very quickly and you can't see it that well). On the visual effects front, this one uses digital effects much more than the previous two, and given the low budget, that's not a good thing. The third act is where you especially come to notice it, with imagery such as a digital sandstorm during a chase scene, some digital fire effects for Pyriel's awakening, and visuals during his and Danyael's fight such as bolts of lightning, Pyriel sprouting wings

when he first attacks, and a pretty bad digital mountain of writhing bodies. The film's very last shot is a bad effect, as the doves that Gabriel turns into become glowing orbs that fly off into the night sky. Finally, during the first scene between Maggie and Zophael on their journey through the desert, there are some shots where you can tell they're standing in front of a green screen, and as much as I like the surreal nature of the landscape where the final battle is set, there's no denying that it often looks terribly fake, particularly when Danyael walks away after it's over.

The film opens up with shots of young Danyael and Valerie getting attacked by a mob at their home, with a Molotov getting thrown through the living room window, as Valerie shields her son against it. A series of kinetic cuts show the fire spreading throughout the room and Valerie lying dead, serious burns covering her face. Following that almost immediately is when, as a young adult, Danyael gives his sermon decrying God as a deadbeat father, which leads to the blind zealot shooting him up until he collapses behind his

podium. The man then whips out a large hunting knife to finish the job by cutting out his heart, but it's knocked out of his hand by a fleeing bystander. After he fumbles around and finally finds it, there's too much chaos for him to get up on the stage at Danyael, and he's then forced out by the fleeing crowd. Later, as Zophael enters the precinct and heads down to the morgue to finish the job, Danyael awakens in the freezer and manages to smash his way out of the drawer. Zophael, hearing this, quickly hurries downstairs, unknowingly followed by Maggie, while

Danyael, due to the vision he had before resurrecting, initially sees Joseph as the gun-toting blind man when he takes a photograph of him. He slams him against the wall and nearly punches him, but quickly realizes he's not who he thought he was. By the time Zophael reaches the morgue, Danyael has escaped. He has his first run-in with Gabriel on the street when the latter sees him stealing some clothes from a car, and Danyael, in turn, recognizes him from the night his mother was killed, but then quickly flees the scene after continuing to have flashes of being shot.

When Zophael tracks Danyael down to the doughnut shop, it leads into the first chase scene, where Danyael tries to flee while hiding in the restroom. He kicks the door hard enough to knock it off its hinges and fling Zophael back with it, but when he tries to escape, Zophael catches him and slams him up against some shelves. While holding him with one hand, he takes out his weapon, produces the blade, and goes for the kill, only for Danyael to grab a nearby tray, whip around with it as a shield, and cause

both his hand and weapon to puncture right through it. He shoves Zophael aside and runs out the door, only for him to crash out the window and chase after him down the sidewalk. Danyael runs down an alleyway and manages to bound off a parked car's bumper and over a chain-link fence with barbwire running across its top. He jumps down to a lower alley and continues running, but Zophael does the same thing and keeps after him. He chases Danyael through a clothing warehouse, kicking him right

through a line of hanging, plastic-covered shirts, but he does a tumble and keeps running. He rushes out of the building, with Zophael still on his tail, and there's a really hairy part where he rounds a corner and rushes down another alleyway just as a truck is backing up through it. He slides along the wall and just barely manages to squeeze through the other side, avoiding getting crushed against it, but it doesn't faze Zophael, who merely bounds across the truck's front and back, then leaps right at Danyael, kicking him to the ground. Landing with a twirl, Zophael picks

Danyael up, pins him against the wall, and again pulls out his weapon and deploys the blade. Just as he's about to stab it through Danyael's heart, he's interrupted again, this time when Gabriel comes flying down the alleyway in his car and hits him, knocking him up onto his hood. Gabriel then hits the brakes, sending him flying through the back of the cargo truck. Danyael actually seems intent on fighting him some more, but Gabriel advises him, "Don't push your luck," and he runs away. Zophael explodes back out of the truck, smashes the windshield, grabs and pulls Gabriel through it, and pins him down on the hood, but then decides he's not worth the trouble of killing.

Less than five minutes later, Zophael tracks Danyael down to the condemned church, arriving right after he's met back up with and then sent Maggie away. As Maggie, seeing Zophael stomp into the church, calls the police via a nearby payphone, Danyael faces off with him again. The two of them charge and then leap at each other, but Zophael manages to send Danyael slamming against the construction scaffolding, before landing with another twirl. He charges at Danyael, who jumps up onto the platform behind him, only for

Zophael to stab up through the wood with his blade, deploying its deadly three-pronged hook and pulling it back out, ripping out a big chunk right next to Danyael's face. Danyael grabs a metal pipe, does a backflip down to the floor, and when Zophael comes at him again, he uses the pipe as a shield against the blade. Zophael does manage to get in a couple of hits to the face, and dodge Danyael's swings with the pipe, but when it looks like he has him dead to right against the wall, Danyael manages to turn the tables when he charges again. He grabs and slings him against the

wall, then uses the pipe to pin him to it through the shoulder. After he makes Zophael tell him what the symbol of Pyriel means, Danyael, after having another vision, runs out of the building and down the sidewalk. Seeing a man coming towards him on a motorcycle, he runs out into the middle of the road and yanks him off the bike. Grabbing the man's discarded sunglasses and the bike, he heads off on it after another vision that points him out into the desert. Meanwhile, Zophael not only removes himself from the wall and makes Maggie his unwitting chauffeur.

On the way out into the desert, Zophael becomes frustrated with how slowly Maggie's driving and, when he demands she go faster, she suddenly veers off the road and slams into a huge rock. While this does nothing but fling Zophael around a bit, it does buy Maggie enough time to get out of the truck, taking her gun with her, and when Zophael steps out, she runs back and quickly grabs the bullets out of the glove-box. She runs up a nearby slope, fumbling and dropping a number of the bullets on the ground, as

Zophael storms after her. She finally gets her gun loaded and points it at him, but he ignores her warnings that she'll shoot. Screaming at him to stop, she then shoots him in his right thigh, making him stumble, but he quickly rights himself. She shoots again, this time hitting him in the middle of his chest and sending him falling back on the ground. Unfortunately, she then does the cliched horror movie trope of slowly approaching him, pointing her gun, and kicking him slightly to see if he stirs. Even though he doesn't, she still feels the need to bend

down towards him with her gun, allowing him to quickly disarm her and rise up. With that, he seemingly manages to get her on his side and convince her to help him stop Danyael, but she's still clearly suspicious of his motives.

Following the scene with Gabriel at the diner, Maggie and Zophael find Danyael, as he drives across the landscape. Under his direction, she speeds up until they're just a few feet behind him, when they see a swirling sandstorm up ahead. Danyael drives through it and Zophael orders Maggie to do the same. She initially manages to keep up with him, but then loses him when he rounds the corner by a large boulder. Zophael instructs her to make a hard left and when she does, she manages to get around the boulder. 

She's still unable to see him in the storm, but Zophael insists he's still up ahead; she's driving so blindly that her right-side mirror gets knocked off when she drives too close to another boulder. They finally catch up to him and Zophael tells her to go faster, intending to run Danyael down, which Maggie is unwilling to do. As Danyael gets closer to where Pyriel is, Zophael again insists they have to kill him. And when Maggie, again, is unwilling to comply, Zophael grabs the steering wheel and wrenches it to the right, sending the car tumbling through the air and out of the sandstorm. It crashes very roughly, landing on its side, and, just as he's heading over the ridge leading to Pyriel, Danyael turns back and sees this. 

Maggie is slumped on the sand next to the wreck, badly injured, while Zophael merely climbs up atop it. Perched there, he tells Danyael how Maggie is likely dying, enraging him to where he knocks loose a pipe on the side of the motorcycle and walks back to the crash-site, wielding it like a club. Zophael hops down, brandishing his weapon, and deploys it to its full, spear-like length. He leaps and swipes at Danyael, who uses the pipe as a shield. While he now proves to be more adept with his agility and speed, 

Zophael still manages to outmatch and knock him against the side of a slope. He jumps at Danyael, who fends him off with the pipe, but then Zophael grabs him and flings him over his shoulder, causing him to land and tumble off the side of a large rock. Zophael stands over him, but before he can deliver the killing blow, Danyael uppercuts him with the pipe, knocking him on his back, then shoves its end into his chest, wrenching it back and forth. After groaning in pain, Zophael comments, "So, this is what it must feel like

to be human." Danyael then rips the pipe out and repeatedly beats him with it, before dropping it and running to see to Maggie. He kneels down next to her, trying to comfort her, when she tries to warn him to look behind him but gets into a coughing fit. Zophael's blade then goes all the way through his torso and activates its three-pronged hook. Danyael tries to pull it out the front, but he doesn't have the strength. Before Zophael is able to pull it back through, Maggie shoots him, causing him to lose his grip long enough for Danyael to kick him. Maggie

shoots him one last time, knocking him on his back, as Danyael manages to pull the spear all the way through him and drop it to the ground. He turns around, in a quick series of dissolves, and walks back over to Zophael, who sneers at him. He smashes his hand through his chest and rips his heart out. Before he dies, Danyael puts his heart into his own hand and tells him, "This is what it feels like to be human." With that, Zophael expires, his eyes becoming the black sockets they were when he first arrived.

With Gabriel's urging, Danyael, despite his concern for Maggie, goes on to face Pyriel, who appears to him when, after he reaches his skeleton in the dirt, a ring of fire suddenly materializes around it, forming an enormous version of his symbol. After gaining eyes, he tells Danyael, whom he calls, "The child of divine fornication," about his intention to wipe out mankind through genocide. But Danyael, despite looking behind him and seeing that mass of writhing, screaming bodies from his visions, with Maggie

among them, doesn't back down from the challenge, even when Pyriel advises him to. Pyriel floats into the air, deploys a pair of wings, and flies at Danyael, who whips out Zophael's weapon. He does manage to stab it through Pyriel's torso when he comes down at him, and he lands on the ground behind him, but he simply stands up and turns around to face Danyael. Danyael runs and grabs the one end to try to finish him off, but Pyriel grabs his head and attempts to jam his thumbs into his eyes. He struggles to get free, and initially

appears to have no hope of winning, when he suddenly has another vision, this one of a virtual mountain of bodies, along with the images of both Pyriel and himself standing over it. Somehow, this gives him the strength to break free, then kick Pyriel back with a flying kick that allows him to do a flip through the air, and Pyriel is then randomly hit straight on by a bolt of lightning (the act of divine intervention I mentioned). This weakens him enough to bring him to his knees, and Danyael walks up to him, grabs his shoulder, activates the hooks, and pulls

the weapon through, tearing his heart out in the process. Pyriel lets out a pained scream and falls backwards, landing amid the bodies, which promptly attack and cover him. The vision vanishes and he's revealed to have been reduced back to a skeleton in the dirt. Just for one final coup de grace, Danyael takes the stone with his father's symbol that Mary gave to him and drops it onto the skull, which smashes it as though it were a hammer. He plants the weapon into the ground as well and walks away, heading back to where the redeemed Gabriel has been keeping watch over Maggie.

This time, the music score is the work of Steve Boeddeker, who mostly works in the sound department, and occasionally contributes to songs that appear on a film's soundtrack; this is the only film where he's credited as a composer. Like the previous film, much of the score is made up of David C. Williams' music for the first, but here, the new material sticks out a little more. In fact, during the opening credits, you hear Gloria Laus again, but, at the same time, Boeddeker plays electronic, percussive music that emphasizes the shots of the mob getting ready to attack, and gets much more orchestral, with singing voices, when they throw the Molotov through the window and Valerie dies protecting Danyael. It continues on into the opening scene, with a sad, soft piano piece playing, but then becomes fast-paced and electronic again when Danyael is gunned down. There are other notable and memorable themes that Boeddeker comes up with, like this weird strumming for when Gabriel first comes upon Zophael, and he manages to keep the action scenes moving with music that isn't 100% memorable, but does the job. However, my favorite piece of original music here is this really cool-sounding one made up of this electronic beat and vocalizing, which you hear in the movie when Danyael first rides off into the desert, and in its entirety over the latter half of the ending credits. Some may find it cheesy because it's such an utterly late 90's, early 2000's kind of beat, but I have to be honest, I really dig it. Once the movie transitions out into the desert, the original Prophecy themes take precedence, specifically all the ones you've now likely come to know by heart after watching these movies in a row. In fact, some of those themes are played over shots and scenes identical to those in the original film, like when Danyael, Zophael, and Maggie are driving out into the desert, and when Pyriel is defeated. And at the end, when Gabriel returns to Heaven, his leitmotif from the first plays.

Speaking of pieces being reused in similar spots, when Gabriel is in the diner, the exact same song from the scene in the first, Sleepwalk, is heard playing on the jukebox. Like I said earlier, when he's driving around in his car, Earth Angel is initially playing on the radio, but then he turns it over to another station, one that's playing a cover of The Tornados' Telstar, one covered by both Boeddeker and David Hannibal. And like in the first movie, Surf 'N Turf by David Michael Tenney is listed as part of this soundtrack, though I couldn't tell you where.

While still not great by any means, The Prophecy 3: The Ascent does have more going for it than the previous one. Although he doesn't have many scenes, Christopher Walken is still able to bring an interesting new take to Gabriel; Zophael does make for a pretty good primary antagonist; it's much more visually appealing in terms of its look and settings, and is full of many stylish edits and imagery; it does introduce some new aspects of the mythology; the action sequences have more flair to them; and the music score is actually pretty damn good, even when it's not the original's music. However, the protagonist is not only not very interesting but there's no real sense of why he's such a significant figure, and he doesn't even succeed because of his own skills or unique heritage; Brad Dourif is criminally underused; Pyriel, for all of his buildup, turns out to be a really weak villain; the movie clearly didn't have the budget to make the final battle as awesome as it should've been; there are some bad digital effects; some aspects of the story and plot don't work with what's already been established; and, more than anything else, the series is beginning to feel rather stale at this point. I can recommend it more than the second one, especially for those who liked the first, but like with this entire franchise, I don't see myself ever re-watching it again.