For some reason when I would search for some of the more obscure Troma pickups to get, The Digital Prophet was that kept standing out as something I wanted to seek out. Well, I finally got around to actually buying it and as usual, time for a review.
The film follows two detectives, Meg Jordan(Schnele Wilson) and Victor Salinas(Blake Bahner), who have a serial killer on their hands. The only link between the victims is that they were all found with their arms crossed over their chest. A nosy reporter (don't all detective stories have one?) eventually discovers that all of the victims have been chatting in the CyeCom fantasy chat room and goes to print with his discovery. He then tells Jordan and Salinas that he has discovered something else, but when they arrive at his home, he's been murdered, just like the other victims. They are left with no other leads, until a woman named Neumann(Annie Haslett) stops by the station and tells them she had chatted with the victims on CyeCom. She also informs them that all of the victims read a comic book called CyberThoughts. CyberThoughts is a comic book about a race of super-humans who have integrated with a master computer called MICAH, which Neumann seems to follow religiously. Discovering that the author of CyberThoughts is right in town, they pay a visit to his comic shop. The book's creator, Andy Coberman(Jeffery Combs), is not exactly fond of cooperating with the police, as he doesn't take any responsibility for how his readers respond to his work. But little do Jordan and Salinas know that Andy is well aware of who the cyberstalker is: Neumann, whose obsession with the book leads her to kidnap Jordan with intentions of converting her to her cult of computer fascination, as she has become a member of the fictious computer race and is killing people to satisfy MICAH. The Digital Prophet was shot in 1996 and it shows. The internet was still fairly new to many people, causing the film to seem dated and a bit hokey. However, the portrayal of the internet is meant to be fictious and certainly doesn't come off as hokey as the other cyberthrillers of the time, such as Hackers. The film was shot on 35mm, resulting in some very nice image quality, then dumped to video for editing and effects. The video effects are fairly distinguishable from the 35mm footage and seem to give it the look of a Canadian PBS production(the film was shot in Texas, for the record). Okay, so the film has its limitations. As you can tell from most Troma releases, that doesn't mean it's bad. Actually, The Digital Prophet is a pretty good film, offering some pretty cool ideas to the table. The acting ranges from somewhat mediocre to exceptional, especially from horror movie celebrity Jeffery Combs. Though his character doesn't have a lot of onscreen time, he certainly gives a great performance. The 3D animated shots of the film are very low-budget looking, but feel somewhat appropriate for the setting of the film. During a few scenes, there some interesting uses of cutaway shots that thought was pretty neat. While The Digital Prophet is certainly not required viewing for any Tromite, it's not a bad little film. It kind of seems like a late-night movie you'd see on Sci-Fi Channel or some premium network: not exactly something you'd want to invest a lot of money in tracking down, but entertaining nevertheless. It's worth the price of a rental alone to see Jeffery Combs's performance. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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