‘The first prophecy’: diabolical religiosity

Richard Donner released ‘The Prophecy’ in 1976, a respected horror classic that is remembered for its tone, its iconic moments, Jerry Goldsmith’s music and the cold childish face of the Antichrist (what a wise casting choice). He originated three sequels, some series and, in 2006, a forgettable ‘remake’. The arrival of a prequel was fearsome, and not in the desired sense, especially if it ended up being like the recent sequel to ‘The Exorcist’. However, ‘The First Prophecy’ gives off a surprising care and strength. Director Arkasha Stevenson’s treatment, full of formal details, and her capacity for composition awaken the appreciation of the demanding fan, reception wrapped in the stimulus of finding risky and in some ways groundbreaking ideas if the commercial profile of the film is taken into account. In the presentation of what happened before Damien’s birth and its adaptation by the ambassador embodied by Gregory Peck, creative criteria have been weighed, and it shows.

The protagonist, a young American who moves to Rome in 1971 to become a nun, is wonderfully described, thanks to what actress Nell Tiger Free expresses. The darkness that he perceives in the female orphanage is clothed in the suggestive allusion to the evil that lives within the institutions, in this case the Church, with the nuance that it arises from an unhealthy religiosity. The channeled interest means that it does not matter that one intuits where the story is going to go (which takes another great classic as inspiration), and even more so when what is captured includes a tribute to the masterful ‘The Possession’, by Andrzej Zulawski.

The film adopts its own style while its structure exhibits the referential base, manifested in the prologue, the suicide, the warnings of the priest (Father Brennan again) and of course in the final connections, accompanied by the opening of a variant.