Franchises: The Prophecy. The Prophecy II (1998)

For whatever reason, this film gets its own disc in that Echo Bridge Blu-Ray set that I bought, whereas the original and the latter three are all crammed onto the first. God knows why, as this is hardly a standout entry in the franchise, especially being a direct-to-video sequel, as are all the other movies. Anyway, as you can probably guess, since I didn't have that many preconceived notions about the first one, or the series as a whole, I absolutely didn't know what to expect with this. Since I wasn't that big of a fan of the first, I was hoping that, if nothing else, the second would justify my purchasing this set. Unfortunately, this not only shares a lot of with the first, including story elements such as the audience initially having to watch the protagonist investigate what we already know, an early fight between the most benevolent angel and one under Gabriel's command (only doubled, this time), Gabriel having to make use of a tortured, undead servant to get around and function in our world, and a scene in the morgue concerning the autopsy of a dead angel, but it also reuses many shots from the first and, as a whole, is a noticeable comedown. It's very obvious this had a smaller budget, from the way it looks to all of that reused footage, and the setting being more confined to a city, making it less visually appealing; the story, when you think about it, is a rehash of The Terminator (!); and worst of all, it often feels rushed and unfocused. There are some good aspects, to be sure, chief among them being, of course, Christopher Walken in his second turn as Gabriel, as well as a lot of the other actors coming off pretty good, and some nice moments and scenes here and there, among other things, but all in all, this is pretty lackluster.

While on her way to work one morning, San Fernando nurse Valerie Rosales hits a man with her car after being momentarily distracted, and quickly gets him to her hospital. Elsewhere, at St. Gregory's Monastery, former LAPD detective Thomas Dagget, who now resides there as a monk, has a violent breakdown in his room after continuing to receive visions of the war in Heaven. He believes Gabriel will return, and he's right, as Lucifer soon expels him from Hell. Gabriel immediately tracks down Thomas and confronts him about his visions, which he knows center around a specific woman. But when he refuses to tell him who she is, Gabriel kills him. Valerie, meanwhile, becomes close with "Daniel," the man she hit, and after he leaves the hospital, he walks her back home that night. He seduces her and the two of them have sex, during which he asks if she accepts him; she says yes. He leaves immediately afterward, as he is actually the angel Danyael, and after meeting up with another angel, Rafayel, the two of them are attacked by two who are still loyal to Gabriel. Though the attackers are defeated, Gabriel then appears and tries to make Danyael reveal Valerie's identity, but he retreats, and when Rafayel refuses to say, Gabriel kills him. He tries to track Valerie down using a claim-check from a local dry cleaners, which she used to clean Danyael's coat, but finds himself unable to use a computer to trace it. Thus, he makes a slave out of a teenage girl named Izzy, right after she commits suicide with her boyfriend, Julian. At the same time, Valerie learns that she's not only pregnant just a few days after her and Danyael's coupling but is also into her second trimester. She's then told of a "murder" Danyael committed and is shown the body at the morgue, where Joseph the coroner meets with her privately, telling her about the body of Uziel and its similarities to this one, as well as of Thomas' fate. Despite his advising her to walk away from it all, Valerie goes to the monastery and learns of Thomas' obsession with angels, as well as his writing about the war in Heaven, said to end with the birth of a half-human, half-angel child. As much as she may not want to believe it, she soon realizes she is to birth this "Nephilim," something Gabriel is determined to prevent.

The Prophecy II is one of only two films written and directed by Greg Spence, with the other being Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering; in fact, the higher-ups at Dimension were so impressed with Spence's work on that film that it got him this (I haven't seen any of the Children of the Corn movies outside of the first one, but the fourth does appear to have been one of the better ones). As with that movie, Spence also co-wrote The Prophecy II, this time with Matt Greenberg (who worked on the screenplay for Halloween H20 around that same time), and other than needing to bring back Gabriel, obviously, and bring in Michael the Archangel, who was briefly mentioned in the first movie, the two of them were given very little directive from the studio. Though Spence, who said he enjoyed making the film, hasn't directed anything since, he's hardly hurting for work nowadays. He transitioned into producing television, working on mini-series such as John Adams and Generation Kill, and, most significantly, shows like Game of Thrones and The Last of Us.

As I said, like Thomas Dagget in the first film, our protagonist here, Valerie Rosales (Jennifer Beals), is someone who spends much of the first half investigating something we already know, for the most part. The difference, however, is that, from the beginning, Valerie suddenly finds herself thrust into this crazy situation and also realizes she's at the very center of it, rather than just walking into it, like Thomas. She's just living her life when this stranger suddenly crashes onto her windshield and is flung into the street. Being a nurse, she immediately takes him to the hospital where she works and, feeling very guilty, hangs around until he awakens so she can apologize. She even goes as far as to have his coat dry-cleaned, and gives it to him when he's released. Learning that his name is "Daniel," and finding herself undeniably attracted to him, Valerie allows him to walk her home and, on the way, she tells him about how she used to hope that something better would happen for the terminally ill kids in her ward, as well as how she was married before, but only for three months. Daniel then seduces her and, despite her mixed feelings, Valerie has sex with him, after which he suddenly disappears. Her life quickly begins to unravel, as she learns she's suddenly pregnant, and quite far along in it; is told that Daniel is wanted for murder, and sees the horribly mangled body of the person he killed; is then told by Joseph the coroner about the strange body years before that was very similar to that one and advises her to stay out of this affair; and when she instead investigates Thomas Dagget's fate, learns of both the war in Heaven and the prophesied birth of a Nephilim. Looking through Thomas' notes, she also finds that the symbol she saw marked on Daniel's neck is that of the angel "Danyael." Next thing she knows, she's attacked by Gabriel, momentarily saved by Danyael, and then chased across the neighborhood by Gabriel and Izzy, the latter of whom helps her to momentarily escape. Danyael takes her to a church, where Valerie, despite the crazy stuff she's already seen, demands to know who he is and what's going on. Not believing that he and Gabriel are angels, thinking they're just psychotic, it's only when Danyael shows her his wings that she realizes it's all true.

Naturally, Valerie, already not happy about how Danyael seduced and impregnated her, is no less thrilled when she learns she was used by the angels as part of some divine plan. Still, she tells him of Thomas' book about the war, suggesting it might be of some use, and after another attack by Gabriel, she and Danyael flee to Eden, which has become an industrial wasteland. There, she meets Michael the Archangel, whom Danyael thinks can protect her. However, Michael tells her that there's actually

nothing he can do, and when Gabriel arrives, he allows him through the gate, saying the others won't interfere in his pursuing her. Though Danyael does try to help, he ends up getting killed, and Valerie has to face Gabriel on her own. By the end of it, when he has her cornered, she tells him that God would've let him kill her a long time ago if that's what he wanted. He then tries to make her admit that God isn't with her but she insists he is, and that Gabriel doesn't hear him anymore simply because he refuses to listen. Telling Gabriel that God is speaking to her, she grabs

him and dives off a platform with him, landing unharmed while he's impaled on a spike. In the end, Valerie decides to have the Nephilim child and raise him like normal, despite knowing that angels will likely come for him sooner or later.

Like Simon in the first movie, Danyael (Russell Wong), despite being the most benevolent angel we see, even among the "good" ones, is still a tad bit shady. Just as with Simon, Danyael uses an unsuspecting human as a pawn in the war in Heaven; in this case, he comes into Valerie's life by making it seem as though she nearly killed him (whether or not that was part of the plan is never made clear), seduces and impregnates her with a child meant to end the war, and suddenly disappears afterward, only returning to intervene when Gabriel comes for her. Here, however, the plan is not Danyael's alone, and he tells Valerie that he never had a choice in being a part of it, but it's still a really crappy thing to do. Even though he didn't go all the way until she consented, he waited until they were in the throes of passionate sex to suddenly ask, "Do you accept me?" What, was she going to say "no" at that point? And his trying to make her come over to his side, as well as understand the truth, by going into how important their child is and that she's been blessed with it just flat-out sucks. Still, as much as Simon did seem to have some empathy for Thomas' loss of faith but still pulled the dick move of putting Col. Hawthorne's soul into Mary, Danyael appears to grow genuine feelings for Valerie, and protects her not just because their child is important. He's even willing to disobey Michael and continue protecting her during the climax, an act that ultimately gets him killed. But, in the end, I don't know if I agree with Valerie when she tells Michael that Danyael was the only decent one among them.

Eric Roberts plays Michael the Archangel, appearing in the third act in the industrial wasteland that Eden has become. Coming across as somber due to all those who've been lost in the war, he breaks it to Valerie that, as much as he hates what Gabriel is doing, he's unable to protect her. He also offers her no reassurance whatsoever, as when she asks if she came all this way for nothing, he answers, "If that's what you want to believe, then yes," and when she then says, "I can't believe that," he responds, "Then don't." He confronts Gabriel at the gate, calling him a "walking tragedy" that even Lucifer wouldn't have, adding, "Surprising, since the two of you have so much in common." When Gabriel insists that what he's doing is for all of the angels, Michael tells him to submit, but when he refuses, warns Gabriel of, "A stricter punishment than any of us have ever known." Still, wanting to avoid a conflict between both factions, he allows Gabriel through the gate to hunt down Valerie, saying that none of the other angels will interfere. But Danyael tells him flat-out that he won't allow Gabriel to kill her, and Michael does nothing to stop him, either. In the end, after Gabriel is defeated, Michael punishes him for his crimes by turning him into a mortal man, i.e. the thing he hates the most. Before she leaves, Valerie tells Michael that she's going to raise her Nephilim son herself, despite the possibility of angels coming for him at some point, as she believes Danyael's child deserves better than Michael and the others.

The character of Thomas Dagget does briefly return here, but is now played by Bruce Abbott. Having become a monk following the events of the first movie, he resides in a monastery and continues to see visions of the war in Heaven, including the impending conception and birth of a Nephilim child, all of which he writes down in a leather-bound book. Early on, Thomas suffers a severe breakdown, yelling that Gabriel will soon return to Earth, and when the other monks rush to his room, it's revealed to be almost

completely covered in drawings and writings pertaining to his visions. He not only proves to be right about Gabriel's return but, immediately after Lucifer expels him from Hell, he tracks Thomas down, asking him to reveal the Nephilim mother's identity. Thomas mockingly notes, "Ironic, isn't it? An archangel needs a monkey to get a vision from God?", and Gabriel grabs him, throws him against the wall, and sets him aflame. Even though you can plainly tell that this isn't Elias Koteas, they at least cast somebody who kind of looks like him, and with the beard and long hair, the illusion works all the more. That's more than I can say for Lucifer's (Guri Weinberg) brief appearance, as you never see his face, only a close-up of his mouth, likely to hide that it's not Viggo Mortensen (which is pointless anyway, as you definitely know it's not him when he speaks).

The only other returning actor aside from Christopher Walken is Steve Hytner as Joseph, the coroner, who appears in one scene during the second act. Seeing the mark on the body of the angel Samayel, and noting Valerie's involvement, Joseph has her join him in his office. There, he tells her about Uziel's body and how identical it was to Samayel's, as well as how strange its chemistry was, how it was suddenly destroyed, along with all of the records that it was ever there, and that anybody who had anything to do with it ever died or went crazy. He finally tells her about Thomas, his sudden death at the monastery, and suggests, "Take my advice: walk away. Don't get involved, whatever you do." But this, of course, only prompts Valerie to head to the monastery, where she receives Thomas' book and learns about his predictions. Not a major scene, but it is nice to see Joseph again, and like Gabriel, he would appear one more time, in the third film.

Despite going through the trouble of helping the first film's protagonists defeat Gabriel because he didn't want him to turn Heaven into another Hell and create competition, just a little over five minutes into this one, Lucifer forces him out, saying this war doesn't concern him and Hell isn't big enough for both of them. Once he's out, Gabriel immediately gets back to work attempting to end the war in his side's favor, this time by preventing the birth of a Nephilim child prophesied to unite the warring factions once again (I'm not going to ask how he knows of this, given how all the other angels, including those still loyal to him, also know; his obsession with it may have been what prompted Lucifer to get rid of him). He first tracks down Thomas Dagget, knowing of his visions from God, and tries to make him reveal the mother's identity. Thomas, of course, doesn't cooperate, and Gabriel kills him. After two angels loyal to him attack Danyael and Rafayel, only to die, Gabriel finds their hideout, smells both Danyael and a human on Valerie's dry cleaning claim-check, and tries to make them reveal her identity. Danyael flees, much to Gabriel's aggravation, as he's already disgusted with him for having had sex with a human, and when Rafayel, whom he seriously wounds, refuses to say, he finishes him off. He tries to find Valerie's identity himself, but because he's out of his depth in the modern human world and unable to get into the dry cleaner's database using the computer, he gets himself a new undead servant in the form of Izzy; he also, as he did with Uziel, destroys Samayel's corpse at the morgue. With Izzy's help, he learns Valerie's name and home, and after killing her grandmother, confronts and prepares to kill her. Thanks to Danyael's intervention, she's able to escape, only for Gabriel to use Izzy to chase after her in a car. Valerie is able to escape again thanks to Izzy, who's reluctant to kill someone, but Gabriel continues pursuing her, and it eventually culminates in a showdown in what was once the Garden of Eden.

Like with the first movie, Christopher Walken is what makes The Prophecy II worth watching, as he easily slips back into the role of Gabriel and brings that same quirky charm and humor, while also being deadly serious when he has to. When he confronts Thomas at the monastery, he comments, "This place looks lived in," and then asks him what he does with the images he sees: "You write them down on a scroll, a stone tablet? I know you prophets enjoy doing that." When he first talks with Danyael, he, like with

Simon, tries to make him enjoy his side, telling him that, as far as he's concerned, his having sex with Valerie was just a lapse of self-control and judgment, and when Danyael runs off, Gabriel throws up his arms and grumbles, "Kids! They don't listen these days." Like with Jerry and Rachael, a lot of humor comes from his interactions with Izzy after he brings her back from the dead. He first eagerly watches her and Julian preparing to kill themselves, and when they crash their car against a brick wall, intones,

"Showtime," and hops down to the ground. Approaching the wreck, he inspects Julian's body, sniffing and asking, "Anybody home?", and then, realizing that he's already out of reach, says, "That's too bad." He walks over to the driver's side, pulls Izzy back from having her head smashed into the steering wheel, snarking, "Intensive care. My favorite," and brings her back. Just like with Rachael, when she first sees him, he responds with a childish, "Hi," then adds, "Nice hair." Izzy sees Julian's body and becomes preoccupied with him, while Gabriel breaks it to her,

"He's gone. He's dead. He's taking a dirt nap... He's the cold eye. He's spilled milk." He then finally removes her from the wreck and forces her to begin working with him. During the sequence where he and Izzy chase after Valerie in a car, there's a moment where Valerie climbs over a fence and they just miss her. Gabriel yells at Izzy to stop the car, then go in reverse, but when she does, she smashes right through the fence, causing it and a small building to collapse on top of them. Gabriel comments, "Drive, much?", and when Izzy tries to drive out to continue the chase,

he sincerely says, "Try not to hit the dog," referring to a Rottweiler that's gotten caught up in the madness. Despite Izzy betraying him during the chase, he still needs her, and forcing her to show him how to use a gun and a walkie-talkie. Izzy demonstrates the former by shooting herself, but he promptly brings her back to life and asks if the two of them are having a communication problem. He also tells the guy who runs the place to, "Take it easy," when he sees him reaching for the phone afterward. Finally, at the beginning of the third act, when the two of them arrive at Eden's gates, Izzy reaches for an apple hanging from a tree branch and Gabriel promptly exclaims, "Don't eat that! Trust me."

Greg Spence has said that one of his motivations behind making the movie was to expound upon how out of place Gabriel is in the human world, hinted at in the first with how he needs Jerry to chauffeur him around. It starts when he first goes to the dry cleaner to find Valerie with her claim-check, something he doesn't know the term for, nor does he a computer. When the guy there says he can't give out where Valerie lives, and Gabriel contradicts himself by saying she and him are family when he earlier called

her a friend, he quickly knocks the guy out and tries to work it himself. Naturally, he has no idea how to do so, and it's not helped by how the computer makes random quacking sounds when he types the wrong keys. He angrily grabs the monitor and tosses it aside, and later comes back with Izzy, who comments, "So, you're keeping me alive because you don't know DOS?" She types in the invoice number (they apparently got a replacement quick), and when the information pops up on the screen, Gabriel gets

excited, saying, "Something's happening," and has a look of wonder on his face. Later, following the car chase, he has to contend with a police officer, telling him, "The fact is, officer, I wasn't paying much attention. See... I was... with my woman." There's an awkward pause between the two of them, as Gabriel lightly nods, and then, when the officer responds to a call on his walkie-talkie, Gabriel is fascinated with it and innocently asks, "May I ask, you fellas use that to, what, talk to each other?! Yeah?" The aggravated officer confirms this is the case and Gabriel notes,

"It's a miracle," before rendering him unconscious and taking both his radio and gun. He goes to Izzy to make her tell him how to use them, and when the police band over the walkie-talkie tells him where they are, Gabriel says he loves these things. Later, during a confrontation with the police at a church, Izzy quickly uses Gabriel's naivety against him by putting the gun in his hand, which he innocently lifts up to his face, and then, realizing what's about to happen, he exclaims, "No, wait!", while still brandishing it, leading to him getting shot up.

Speaking of the church, the scene that takes place inside it is one of Gabriel's best moments here. While Valerie probably hides upon sensing that he's there, he walks through the double-doors, putting a knocked over candle back onto its holder, telling Valerie to be careful about that, and walks down the aisle, telling her she might as well come out, as he can smell her. Walking to the back of the church, he tells her, "We've been through this before: my kind, your kind. It's not a good mix: power of an angel, free will of a human.

The mothers love it, at first... 'til the birth. I've seen women rip themselves open tryin' to get these things out 'cause they knew they were carryin' bad kids, Val. Nobody liked them, not even you-know-who." He sits down and starts playing the organ back there, adding, "It took a big flood... to get rid of them," before managing to trick Valerie when she reveals herself, appearing behind her and disarming her of her makeshift weapon. He says she might as well say she's sorry, then attempts to drag her outside to kill

her, since he can't do it in a church. That's when he gets blown away by the police, which just turns out to be a minor inconvenience for him, as does the coroner attempting to steal his coat at the morgue. Gabriel comments, "Nice coat," when he awakens, and likely kills him offscreen, then walks into the office where the lead detective is talking with Izzy. He quickly knocks him out, saying, "Loose lips sink ships."

Of course, Gabriel is more than able to be creepy and downright threatening when the situation calls for it. In fact, the first time we see him, after he crawls out of this enormous fissure in the ground upon being ejected from Hell, he gives an intense look right at the camera. Then, during his meeting with Thomas, when he realizes he's not going to tell him who the Nephilim's mother is, he throws him against the wall and, before burning him alive, says, "It's a small step from prophet to martyr. Can you take it?" Later, after

he's badly injured Rafayel, and is asked why he couldn't just stay in Hell, Gabriel hovers over him and growls, "Why couldn't you stay out of it, mind your business? This was my fight. You made it yours. My enemy's friend is my enemy." Before he finishes him, Rafayel asks, "How many more worlds have to burn before you're satisfied, Gabriel?", and he answers, "Just the one. This one." Ripping his heart out, he adds, "I'm not greedy." Gabriel is especially creepy in the scene where Valerie comes into her house to find

her grandmother dead and him sitting atop a small stoop nearby. After admitting to killing her, that she didn't have much time left anyway, he shuts the door, jumps down, and slams her against the wall. He then hoists her up by her wrists and tells her, "What's goin' on here is not personal. It's business," before ripping her blouse open and adding, "It's what I do best." And, like in the first movie, his most threatening moment comes when he decides to tell someone, in this case, Izzy, exactly who they're dealing with. When she tries to kill herself in the diner, and asks

why he just can't let her die, Gabriel tells her, "Let's understand each other. I sang the first hymn when the stars were born. Not that long ago, I announced to a young woman, Mary, who it was she was expecting. On the other hand, I've turned rivers into blood, kings into cripples, cities to salt." As he says this, he tightly grips her hand, which begins to sizzle and smoke, and concludes, "So, I don't think that I have to explain myself to you."

Even more so than in the first film, Walken is able to bring some humanity and pathos to Gabriel. Like before, he tries to get other angels, like Danyael, to come over to his side, saying he's willing to overlook his having sex with Valerie and producing a Nephilim child. But after being rebuffed, and when Danyael later stops him from killing Valerie, Gabriel disgustedly refers to him as a "monkey wannabe," and after impaling him at the end of their fight, tells him, "Remember who did this to you." But it really comes

out during the third act, first when he meets Michael at the gate of Eden. He tells him, "Why fight? I'm not here to hurt you. We're family," and is genuinely hurt when Michael calls him a "walking tragedy" and compares him to Lucifer. He emotionally exclaims, "What have I done for you to speak to me that way?! How do you compare me to him?! Everything I've done has been for us. I don't want this. I don't want this! I want it back the way it was, when... when he loved us best." But, like before, he refuses to submit,

as Michael tells him, nor does he believe his threat about an extremely harsh punishment that could befall him. During the climax, he has a final confrontation with Danyael, mocking his apparent love for Valerie, telling him, "It's not that you slept with that monkey skinsuit that gets me. It's that you liked it." As he beats him down, he criticizes him for choosing mankind, and when Danyael declares he'd rather be human, Gabriel tears his heart out and comments, "That's too bad." At the end, when he finally has Valerie cornered, he's unable to accept that God has

actually been speaking with her and demands that she admit he's not with her. That's when she decides to use his loss of faith in God against him, saying he simply doesn't listen to God, and that she knows because she hears him. Clearly taken with this, Gabriel asks, "What's he saying?", and she walks up to him, whispers in his ear, "Jump," and then drops off the platform they're standing on while holding on to him, as he puts up no fight whatsoever. The two of them fall, with Gabriel being impaled, while Valerie survives due to her faith.

As he lies there impaled, Michael comes over to Gabriel, tells him, "There's your answer, brother," and removes the mark from his neck, declaring, "So you'll become what you loathe the most." The movie's final scene, set five years later, shows Gabriel living as a homeless person on the street, with little other than his horn, and receiving money from a woman he's apparently talked with quite frequently, having even told her that he was once an angel. He says to himself, "Phone's gonna ring. It's gonna be you-know-who. Everything's gonna be made right. Phone's gonna ring." And the movie ends on a shot that does allude to it not being over yet.

A really sad aspect of the movie's cast is that the late Brittany Murphy plays Gabriel's tortured undead servant, Izzy. What's even sadder is that her character commits suicide with her boyfriend, Julian, as the two of them feel this is the only way they can be together. But, after they drive straight into a brick wall, which they've spray-painted with graffiti proclaiming their love for each other, Gabriel resurrects her. When she comes to, she's absolutely gutted to find she's not with her beloved Julian in the afterlife, and to make it even worse, Gabriel has no patience for someone being emotional over this, as he drags her out of the wreck and makes her come with him. She does what he says, first by finding Valerie's name and address, and chasing after her in a car. But Izzy draws the line when Gabriel tries to make her run Valerie down, instead buckling up and slamming into the wall, which sends him through the windshield. While he's unconscious, she advises Valerie to get out, but that doesn't end Izzy's role as his servant. She finds she can't even kill herself, as he'll just bring her back, nor can she escape by tricking the police into gunning him down. During the third act, he gives her a dagger, ordering her to hunt down and kill Valerie, calling it, "The price of freedom," while he deals with Danyael. Though she does find Valerie, Izzy gives her the dagger to fight Gabriel with, while she herself tricks him into releasing her by jumping at him, causing him to impale against some shrapnel. Before she dies, she mockingly says that she'll tell Julian "hello" for him, but Gabriel growls, "You have no idea what you're in for," then puts her out permanently, suggesting that she and Julian will be eternally tortured in Hell for their suicides.

Just from looking at the images we've already seen up to now, it's obvious that The Prophecy II was much cheaper than the already modestly-budgeted first, as it has a dull, muted overall look, with a number of scenes that are rather murky (that sometimes makes the action and fight scenes a bit hard to follow). As I said in the introduction, that extends to the setting, which is confined almost entirely within the city of San Fernando and the nearby suburbs where Valerie lives. The result is a film that isn't nearly as appealing to the eye, although in some instances, they are able

to effectively make due with what they have. Among the more interesting places here are Thomas' room in the monastery, the walls of which are covered with writings and drawing pertaining to his visions, and a stained glass window that he prays in front of right before his fatal meeting with Gabriel; the monastery's grounds, which we see when Valerie comes to inquire about Thomas; the condemned building where Danyael meets up with Rafayel, and where they're attacked by two of Gabriel's subordinates; the very impressive interiors of the Trinity Church (actually

the First Congregational Church in Los Angeles), with the centerpiece being the large organ that Gabriel plays when he comes for Valerie; and the industrial wasteland that was once Eden, with its metal walkways, stairs, and scaffolding reminding me of the Acton Power Station used in Aliens and Batman. Also, the scene in the morgue looks exactly the way it did in the first film (although, I doubt it's the same set, since the first was shot almost entirely in Arizona). But, otherwise, the streets, alleyways, and

other such dime-a-dozen settings are clear signs of a much cheaper film, as is the surprising amount of reused footage. There are several moments, such as during the opening credits, Gabriel's arrival, and when Valerie reads Thomas' notes, where we see that shot of angels flying through the clouds from the first movie's climax, along with that shot of an angel's shadow falling to Earth. In fact, in the lead-up to Danyael and Rafayel getting attacked, they reuse the shots of Uziel arriving on Earth, only flipping the image and cutting before we see his face!

Despite the limited resources, Greg Spence and his cinematographer, Richard Clabaugh, did also try to come up with some memorable sequences, images, and camerawork. Gabriel's expulsion from Hell is a pretty cool setpiece, with flashing lightning, the ground in this parking lot cracking open to reveal an orange-red glow from beneath, with steam and smoke rising up, along with the sounds of tormented souls and flashes of pained faces (both recycled from the first movie), and the tarmac becoming soft and hot,  all before Gabriel finally pulls himself out, naked and

covered in dirt and grime. After the cracks seal themselves back up, he then lifts himself up and looks at the camera. The sex scene between Danyael and Valerie is shot in a memorably passionate manner, especially when he really goes for it after she says she accepts him, where it becomes very frenetic, inter-cut with images and shots of screaming angel faces that do get across what a significant moment it is. After it's done, there's a memorable shot of Danyael perched naked atop the headboard, looking down at Valerie, and bidding her farewell, before leaving

when her grandmother arrives. Speaking of Danyael, he's at the center of what has to be the movie's most effective use of its small means. When Valerie doesn't believe that he and Gabriel are angels, he proves it by removing his coat and spreading his wings, but we only see this through a shadow on the church's back wall. That visual, coupled with Valerie's shocked, tearful reaction, makes for a surprisingly beautiful moment. The climax at Eden is notably shot through a

lot of Dutch angles (though not nearly as egregiously as in Battlefield Earth), and there are some memorable images here as well, like the big wide establishing shot of the place, done through visual effects, and Valerie and Gabriel's slow-motion fall from the high, swinging platform (one of the few instances here where slow motion doesn't come off as melodramatic). And finally, at the very end, there's one final image of a face briefly appearing in the sky above the city during a flash of lightning, right before the credits begin.

I didn't realize it until I heard someone on the JoBlo Horror YouTube Channel describe it, but it's true: this film's story is shockingly similar to that of The Terminator. You have two characters from a different realm whose objective is a woman whose future child will have a major impact on a war that involves both of them; one is trying to protect her, while the other is out to kill her; much of the film is a chase movie, as the woman and her protector flee the villain; the protector also fathers the child, and dies before the movie is over; the climax takes place in an industrial,

factory-like setting; and the ending is set some time later, with the mother going on with her life, which now includes or will soon include her child, while also knowing it's not over yet. Besides that strange parallel, as I described in the introduction, it also borrows a lot of plot-points and scenes from the first movie, and in the end, aside from the fish-out-of-water humor with Gabriel, and the inclusion of more angels, including Michael, it doesn't add much to make it feel all that significantly different.

Fortunately, it doesn't have the same tonal problems as its predecessor, as the humor with Gabriel feels more natural, but it doesn't have its ambition, either. Even though I don't think he was entirely successful, Gregory Widen did have something to say and interesting concepts he wanted to explore with the first movie; this, on the other hand, was clearly just meant to cash in on the first's relative success.

The story also doesn't unfold as smoothly as before, this time coming off as scatter-brained, rushed, and unfocused. It starts right from the beginning, with Danyael suddenly slamming onto Valerie's windshield while she's driving to work and him being rushed to the emergency room, Thomas going almost insane with his proclamations about Gabriel returning to Earth, and Lucifer expelling Gabriel from Hell, all within the first ten minutes. From there, we very quickly go through Valerie having sex with Danyael right after he leaves the hospital, Danyael and Rafayel

getting attacked by two of Gabriel's minions and then Gabriel himself, Valerie learning she's pregnant, Gabriel recruiting Izzy as his new servant, Valerie being told that Danyael is a murder suspect (which doesn't go anywhere), Joseph warning Valerie not to get involved, and Valerie learning about Thomas and his writing about the war and the conception of a Nephilim child, all within less than the next thirty minutes. Once we get the big picture about the child and Gabriel first attempts to kill Valerie, things 

become more coherent, only for Danyael to bring up Michael the Archangel and how he might be able to protect Valerie, her sending him to her home to retrieve Thomas' notes (which also serves no purpose, other than for Gabriel to figure out where they are during the third act), the notion that Eden still exists in some form, and when they get there, Michael, as it turns out, can't do anything to help her. Yes, the first Prophecy did hit you with a lot of its plot-points in 

fairly rapid succession too, and things weren't initially clear there, either, but its slower pacing gave you more ample time and breathing room to take it all in, whereas here, it seems like they wanted to make it shorter (which it is, at just 83 minutes, as opposed to the first's 97) and faster-paced, with more action scenes. While I do appreciate that, since the first movie wasn't the most exciting, this is just dizzying, and can easily cause you to miss some things, even if you're paying close attention.

Although Danyael does appear to genuinely love Valerie, the first film's less than flattering depiction of angels is continued here, as they use Valerie as an unwitting pawn in her plot, as Simon did with Mary, and Michael is very indifferent about her or even mankind as a whole. Also, when Danyael meets with Rafayel after he's impregnated Valerie, the latter comments, "Took you long enough," a kind of crassness you would expect from Gabriel himself. Speaking of which, it's interesting how, even though he's been stuck in Hell for the past four years, there

are still angels who are loyal to him and have continued fighting on his behalf up in Heaven, likely because they know of the Nephilim that is to be born and end the war. And almost immediately after he's back in action, two of his goons promptly attack Danyael and Rafayel, but they're dispensed with about as easily as Uziel. That's another thing: while the "good" angels all look like normal, even handsome, human beings, Gabriel's minions are noticeably strange-looking and even seemingly

deformed. Finally, they have all of the powers and abilities they did in the first movie, although it seems like, even though they don't know how to drive and use modern technology, they are able to produce their wings, as Danyael does in the church, but can't fly with them, for some reason. Also, when Danyael goes to retrieve Thomas' notes at Valerie's house, he does something that seems to render himself invisible to the police officers on the scene... I think. One of the officers approaches him to make him go back behind 

the line, and he shushes him, like Gabriel does when he renders someone unconscious. I'm not sure what happens next, as the officer appears to stop moving completely, while the others in the background don't pay Danyael any attention. He does something similar when he saves Valerie at the church, as he runs amid the shootout with Gabriel without the officers seeming to notice him, but again, your guess as to what he did is as good as mine. And again, while Gabriel is unable to kill Valerie while she's on sacred ground there, that doesn't stop him from dragging her outside to try to kill her there.

Like the first, this isn't the goriest movie, although it does have moments. Again, you see some angels' hearts getting ripped out, one of the first of which is shown in a bit more graphic close-up this time around, and you also see a dead angel's eyeless, ripped open corpse in the morgue, before Gabriel destroys it. The makeup on Izzy and Julia after their suicide is fairly gnarly, although unlike Jerry, Izzy doesn't slowly decompose over the course of the movie; Danyael gets impaled on a bedpost by Gabriel during their first fight and has to remove himself;

Gabriel gets shot up by the police during a standoff at the church; Izzy is put out of her misery by being slammed through some shrapnel; and at the end, Gabriel himself ends up impaled through his side after his and Valerie's fall. There are also some pretty cool physical and visual effects here, such as when Lucifer, like before, turns into a bunch of crows when he disappears (who knows, that might've been another instance of recycling from the first movie); Hell opens up below that parking lot, with all those big,

orange-red cracks that appear and the tarmac becoming hot and mushy from the extreme heat; a shot of clouds moving across the sky above the city in some shots; the really cool wide-shot of Eden when we first see it, which looks like a nice combination of a matte painting and miniature work; a shot of angels flying in the sky above Gabriel when he's at Eden's gate (the matte-work there isn't the greatest, though); and the impression of a face in the sky above the city illuminated by lightning at the very end.

There is, indeed, a bit more action to be found here, though due to the budget, none of it is amazing; still, the first major sequence happening less than twenty minutes in. It's akin to the fight between Simon and Uziel in the first, only this time, it's a two-on-two scuffle, and goes on for a bit longer. Like Simon, Danyael senses danger approaching and jumps out a window to meet it in midair; in this case, it's the angel named Samayel (Glenn Danzig, who've I heard really hyped up his appearance here, despite how short it is).

The two of them grapple and fall to the alleyway below, awakening a homeless woman who's sleeping in a discarded bathtub. At the same time, Rafayel senses another angel and jumps through a boarded up doorway into another room. However, he's not as slick as Danyael, as his enemy grabs him and slams him up against a wall; outside, Samayel picks up and does the same thing to Danyael. But then, Rafayel's attacker randomly decides to flee, letting go of him and running up a flight of stairs. Rafayel follows  

after him and the two end up on the building's roof and rush to the edge. The one angel jumps across to another rooftop, but Rafayel catches him in midair and they tumble across that roof, then fall onto a lower level. They both get to their feet, Rafayel whips out a dagger, and easily slashes the angel deep across his torso, then holds him steady and, saying, "Goodbye, brother," rips his heart out. Down below, Danyael manages to overpower Samayel by pinning him down, smacking him left and right across the face, and ripping his heart out, much to the horror of

the homeless woman, who runs off. But just when it looks as though things are okay, Gabriel appears on the scene, grabs Rafayel from behind, breaks his back over his knee, and drops him onto the roof. Danyael flees the scene and Rafayel, after refusing to tell Gabriel what he wants to know, is himself killed.

Gabriel's disposal of his minions' bodies is a bit more elaborate, and destructive, than it was with Uziel. Just as the corpses are about to be driven away, the van's driver, Joe, first decides to sit in the front seat and eat his lunch. Gabriel comes out of the building in front of him, walks by, says, "Hey," to him through the rolled down passenger window, and walks around to the back. Whispering a prayer for both of his servants, he walks away, kissing his right index and middle finger, and gesturing towards the van. This leads to the bodies combusting in the back and proceeding to blow up the entire vehicle, killing Joe in the process.

Around the halfway point, Valerie comes home after reading Thomas Dagget's notes, only to find that her front door is open, and the TV is playing in the living room. Walking in, and leaving the notebook in her backseat, she finds that the house is almost completely dark, and when she calls for her grandmother, she gets no answer. Seeing a light switch off in the next room, she walks into her grandmother's bedroom and sees her lying atop the bedspread. She walks over to her bedside, tries to

shake her awake, and upon getting no response, turns the lamp on. She finds that her skin is deathly pale, and Gabriel makes his presence known, perched atop a nearby table. He closes the door, trapping Valerie, then grabs and slams her against the wall. Holding her there, he rips open her blouse and prepares to kill her, when Danyael bursts through the window and tackles him to the floor. Danyael yells for Valerie to get out, which she does, rushing out the front door and into the street, while the two angels begin battling and

tearing up the room. Gabriel manages to end the fight by impaling Danyael on the bedpost and then goes after Valerie. He walks out to the street, where Izzy is parked, and gets into the car with her; Danyael then manages to free himself from the impalement and jumps back out the window. Valerie climbs over a fence and into a back-alley, only to see Gabriel and Izzy come at her from the opposite direction. She runs down the alley, with Izzy flooring it, and is forced to jump another fence to avoid getting run over. She ends up in a yard with a vicious Rottweiler, which

comes at her, but his chain puts her just out of his reach. Izzy then backs the car through the fence, destroying a good chunk of it and a small building, giving Valerie the opportunity to flee. Izzy quickly resumes the chase and Valerie runs down another pathway, only to find she's reached a dead end, as she's unable to jump up and reach the top of the wall there. Sitting at the opposite end of the passage, Izzy finds herself conflicted about having to kill her, but Gabriel tells her, "Do it... for Julian. Or forever wish you had." Izzy then reluctantly buckles her seat-belt

and floors it, heading right at Valerie. Desperate, Valerie jumps and manages to grab onto some barbwire atop the wall, when Izzy slams into it, sending Gabriel through the windshield and onto the hood, rendering him unconscious. Valerie then steps down onto the hood, carefully steps over Gabriel, and looks at Izzy, who tells her, "I'd get the fuck out of here, if I were you." Hearing the sound of approaching police sirens, Valerie hops off the hood and runs away.

Later, Danyael leaves Valerie at Trinity Church while he goes back to her house to retrieve Thomas' notebook from her car. Unbeknownst to him, he triggers a silent alarm when he walks out the door, and Gabriel overhears its report on the walkie-talkie he took from the one officer. Impressed with the device, as well as commenting that Danyael took Valerie exactly where he himself would have, he makes Izzy accompany him there. At the church, Valerie paces back and forth nervously, when she 

hears the exterior door open and close. She runs to the doors that lead from the lobby to the main room, thinking it might be Danyael, only to stop and listen. Realizing it's not him, she quickly hides, as Gabriel enters; outside, Izzy sits on the steps with both the walkie-talkie and handgun. When Gabriel sits down at the organ and begins playing, Valerie, who's hiding between the pews closest to it on the right side, grabs a nearby candle-holder as a makeshift weapon. After he plays a little more and talks to her, she rises up  

and looks over the pew, only to see he's not at the organ. He then appears to her left, quickly disarms her, and throws her to the floor in the center of the aisle. The police arrive outside and pull their guns on Izzy, just as Danyael arrives across the street. Inside, Valerie is heard screaming as Gabriel pulls her across the floor and through the door by her hair, sending her tumbling down the steps. That's when Izzy takes the opportunity to put the gun in his hand, leading to him getting shot up by the police. Amid the hail of gunfire, Danyael runs in, scoops Valerie up in his

arms, and runs off with her, but drops Thomas' book in the process. Gabriel collapses and tumbles down the steps, but later awakens in the morgue and escapes with Izzy, as well as Thomas' notes, from which he deduces where Valerie and Danyael are going.

Gabriel and Izzy arrive at Eden's gate not long after Valerie and Danyael, the former having already met with Michael. Following their tense conversation, Michael allows Gabriel in to see if he can really get Valerie, like he claims. With that, as well as Michael's promise that none of the other angels will interfere, he flings the gate open and walks in, followed by Izzy. Seeing this, Valerie, who's been in Michael's loft this whole time, quickly runs for cover, while Danyael tells Michael that he's not going to let Gabriel kill her.

He then meets Valerie on a walkway and tries to lead her to safety, when he senses Gabriel's approach. He tells her to go on ahead, saying it's come down to her, and she walks off, right before Gabriel and Izzy show up. Gabriel gives Izzy a dagger and tells her to go find Valerie, while he stays behind to face Danyael. After challenging him to come at him, Danyael lunges at Gabriel, grabs him, slams against the wall, and starts smacking him back and forth across the face, while Izzy searches for Valerie. Shrugging off

Danyael's punches, Gabriel grabs his fist, flings him backwards, punches him repeatedly in the face, and throws him onto the floor, all while showing his contempt for his relationship with Valerie. Infuriating Gabriel when he says he'd rather be human, Danyael is killed when he gets his heart ripped out. Gabriel then goes to find Valerie, who runs into Izzy. Izzy then tricks Gabriel into killing her by jumping at him, causing him to instinctively impale her against some shrapnel. He continues his search, only for Valerie to ambush him, knocking him down by beating him with

a pipe, then takes out the dagger, which Izzy gave to her, and comes down at him with it, growling, "Fuck you." Gabriel catches her hands and throws her back, smacking her against some machinery and causing her to lose the dagger. She runs off, while he gets up and continues the pursuit, as Valerie finds herself trapped on the edge of a long drop. Gabriel corners her, commenting, "Well, it's time to go," but she insists that God would've let her die a long time ago if that's what he wished. She jumps onto a nearby hanging platform, Gabriel follows her, and she

manages to subdue him by telling her that, unlike him, she hears God's voice. That's when the two of them fall from the platform and Gabriel gets impaled, while Valerie is completely unharmed. Getting off of him, Valerie goes to where Danyael lies dead, while Michael turns Gabriel into a mortal.

David C. Williams does return from the first movie as composer, but there's not much to say about the sequel's score, as all of the really memorable music is recycled from the first (the opening credits are even set to Gloria Laus again). Said music is used very well, particularly the vocalizing from the first movie's climax which plays when Gabriel emerges from Hell, and there is a nicely quiet piece that plays during Valerie and Gabriel's fall at the end, but on the whole, this score is very unremarkable, especially in the action scenes, and there are no noteworthy songs on the soundtrack this time, either.

I wish I could say that, despite its faults, The Prophecy II is an entertaining sequel but, instead, it's just a rather lackluster follow-up to a movie that was already just kind of average. Like the first movie, it does benefit greatly from Christopher Walken, who has more to screentime here, as well as the performances of the other actors; the filmmakers make good use of their limited resources in some of the sets, locations, camerawork, and scenes; there are some good effects, both makeup and visual, to be

sure; and it does have a more consistent tone and isn't as slow as the first could be. But, on the bad side, the film doesn't do that much different from the first to make it feel unique, and even reuses shots from it, often more than once; its cheapness is plain as day, and is rather visually dull, more often than not; the story doesn't feel very special and is largely borrowed from an infinitely better movie; while there is more action, it's nothing to write home about; the music score, when it's not recycling themes from the first, is virtually forgettable; and the attempt to make it shorter and more fast-paced often results in it coming off as too scattershot and kinetic for its own good. In the end, I don't really know if I could recommend it to anyone other than diehard fans of Walken, as I doubt those who like the first will find much to enjoy.