Based on the book of the same name, The Mothman Prophecies is an updated fictionalisation of a number of inexplicable yet apparently true events that occurred during the late 1960s in the small American town of Point Pleasant.
Under the steady hand of Arlington Road director Mark Pellington, Richard Gere plays John Klein, a reporter for the Washington Post, whose life is thrown into turmoil after his beloved wife dies of a brain tumour soon after a mysterious car accident. While collecting her things from the hospital, Klein comes across masses of pictures depicting a bizarre looking winged creature with glowing red eyes that she'd drawn shortly before her death. Strange to say the least, but Klein attempts to move on with his life and does begin to put the past behind him.
That is until one-night, two years later, when he finds himself stranded near the small town of Point Pleasant, 400 miles astray from where he'd intended to be. Even more curiously, he soon learns from the local police sergeant, Connie Parker (Laura Linney), that the good people of Point Pleasant have been filing outlandish reports of encounters with a strange winged creature with glowing red eyes identical to that which Klein's wife drew before her death.
From here on in, you'd be well advised to take a few deep breaths because you're about to be taken on one hell of an unsettling rollercoaster ride of emotions. The Mothman Prophecies may well be the scariest, most disconcerting film you're likely to see this year. Like the great horror films of Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur, this one relies heavily on the double-act's famous maxim: 'The less you see, the more you fear'. Subsequently, unlike most run-of-the-mill Hollywood flicks, Pellington's film doesn't need to rely on cheap scares, loud bangs, dodgy monsters in latex suits, over expensive CGI or camp screams of agonising terror to create a palpable atmosphere of uncomfortable uncertainty. Instead, the mere absence of any one focal point of terror means that one expects it everywhere.
Furthermore, thanks to great performances from Gere, Linney and a very disturbed looking Bill Patton together with the flawless direction of Pellington, which includes some wonderfully innovative camera trickery, this film is able to take an already chilling story to the next level. Oozing with fear and anxiety, Pellington's movie certainly knows all the right strings to pull, is not afraid to pull them, and they stay pulled long after you've left the cinema.
Reviewed by Simon Jones
Reader comments about The Mothman Prophecies
Ray (Email address withheld) writes:
A bit slow but very promising first half of the movie, in which the tension and curiousity is build up to a high level, is followed by a very dissapointing second half. Full of unfinished story-lines and missed opportunities to make the story coherent.
Mariya A. (Email address withheld) writes:
This film was really gripping, but what i really want to know is that how much of it was actually factual? Amazing movie! and very well made.
Valvona (Email address withheld) writes:
It was a really good film but until I am proven otherwise, I do not belive in the legend! It would be hard to play the part of an old scared man but Richard Gere does it well!
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