In the town, the local paper mill director, Bethel Isely blames the Native Americans, dubbed Opies (short for "original people") for the missing lumberjacks and rescue team.

The Opies instead blame Katahdin, a vengeful spirit of the forest that has been awakened by the activities of the loggers, which Isely describes as "larger than a dragon with the eyes of a cat".

The Vernes see several signs of environmental damage: a salmon large enough to devour a duck; a deranged, vicious raccoon; plant roots growing on the surface; and a bullfrog-sized tadpole.

Although Isely insists the mill has excellent safety protocols, Verne notices that Maggie's boots have mercury deposits - a mutagen that causes birth defects, it is used in logging as a fungicide and does not show up in water purity tests because it sinks to the bottom.

That night, the Nelson family, who have set up a camp in the woods, are killed by Katahdin, which appears as a large bear with one of its sides containing horribly mutated skin.

Forced to spend the night in the woods due to inclement weather, they nurse the cub back to health inside one of Hector's tepees.

This included a longer close-up of a man's headless corpse and a shot of Katahdin graphically disemboweling Isely (both deemed "gratuitous"), a flashback to the night where Rob and Maggie have sex (deleted for time), and extensions of several scenes, including a longer tour of the paper mill and Rob fishing, which showed him falling asleep and later waking up in the sun.

[7] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film "epically trivial" and "a feeble attempt to recycle the sort of formula movie one expects from American International Pictures.

"[8] Variety called it "a frightening monster movie that people could laugh at for generations to come, complete with your basic big scary thing, cardboard characters and a story so stupid it's irresistible.

"[9] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the monsters were "not particularly effective" on the screen and that the film "never approaches the chill factor of 'Alien', for example.

"[10] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "essentially an indoctrination course in liberal guilt, shabbily disguised as a monster melodrama.

'"[11] Tim Pulleine of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that "once the narrative gets properly under way, the ecological sub-text virtually drops out of sight.

John Frankenheimer tries hard to generate tension during the scenes with the mutant bear pursuing the cast near the end, but much of the story is predictable and boring".

[14] Patrick Naugle from DVD Verdict wrote, "In an age of self-referential and cynical Scream horror movies and Silence of the Lambs knock offs, Prophecy has a certain something that just can't be denied.