The Mothman Prophecies

Rating:
Summary: Bigtime goosebumps
Review: I was not expecting much from this movie and I think that expectations can make or break a movie, but I loved everything about this.

The cinemaphotography and soundtrack are outstanding and really work together to create a very unnerving experience. Simple shots of the winter landscape were used to great effect.

I agree that the conclusion is weak but to me the rest of the movie was so good that it outweighed the ending. There are also a lot of unanswered questions but I think that adds to the chilling experience.

A first class scare!

Rating:
Summary: & my prophecy is...
Review: Doom to the watcher of this movie. Ok, the mothman's prophecies all came true, but what was his connection with Gere's dead wife? What promised to be a suspense at the begininng turned out to be dragging & annoying & POINTLESS. If ever there was a pont the makers were trying to make, it got lost somewhere in the middle. I do not recommend this film at all. Please don't buy the DVD or VCD or whatever copy is available at the market...don't rent it even. If you do not follow my advice, I predict you will have such a terrible time watching it. You might even turn into a mothman yourself. That's my own prophecy!!!

Rating:
Summary: I don't think I'll get some sleep for a whole week...
Review: Man, this is the scariest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. After the movie ended I was totally scared and couldn't do anything about it. First of all, I watched this movie with a friend of mine in my house, and after the movie was over my friend picked up the phone to call his dad to pick him up, but the phone made this weird noise, and how we got scared! (because in the movie there are some parts when the mothman calls some people, and when they answer the phone makes weird noises). But it was just a problem with the phone, I think... the phone was okay after my friend tried again.

Anyway, this movie is a well done "horror" movie, But for your own good, do not watch this movie alone in the dark. You'll be sorry if you will. What really scary about the movie, is that it's based on true events. It makes you think about the reality, and if there are some things that the human eyes can't see. It makes you think if creatures like that really exists and they're watching us all the time, but we can't see them, just like we can't see lots of other things with our human eyes. And who knows, maybe the goverment really hides things like that, and other things as well, as "top secret".

If you like being scared and you like these kind of movies, then don't miss this movie, but for you're own good, please watch it with a friend or a few. Now excuse me please, while I'll try to get some sleep...... nah, impossible...

Rating:
Summary: leave the lights on
Review: If you view this movie in the dark, be sure to leave the lights on after for awhile, as you will be a little disoriented and distracted. "The Mothman Prophecies" is a well-made thriller with all the key elements to tweak your subconscious in the same way a Stephen King novel does. Richard Gere does a good job in his role as a searcher who finds much more than he bargains for after his wife is killed in an auto accident. Recommended for those who like thrillers!

Rating:
Summary: This movie leaves the even the educated guessing
Review: Originally what drew me to the movie was the cast. I was looking forward to seeing Richard Gere and Laura Linney together again; I had enjoyed Primal Fear immensely. Before watching the movie I had even seen the making of it on one of the cable movie channels and felt I knew what to expect from a surreal cinematic interpretation of true events.

I finished the movie very dissapointed. Most of the plot questions had been answered but I felt as though there were too many instances where scenes and characters where added to the story for the sake of confusion or misdirection. I think the director tried too hard to show the terror of the experience.
For an event based on real events, it deserved more directorial focus. The acting was superb as expected, but the actors where not given a script in which they could truly shine.

My recommendation for this movie is for a rainy day when you have nothing better to do. When you do decide to watch this film however, be prepared for a film that doesn't wrap up in a pretty little package.

Rating:
Summary: "The Moth is Symbolic of the Oppressed Human Soul."
Review: If you enjoy suspense centered around the paranormal, this film is likely one you'll enjoy.

First - 3 notions helpful for considering this film's premise:

1. Joseph Campbell ("Power of Myth," vol. vi) speaks of forces "too powerful for the forms of time and space," which therefore "come through as monsters." Campbell remarks elsewhere - quoting Buddhist scripture - that, "When the Angel of Death approaches you it is terror; when it reaches you - it is Bliss."

2. Jung speaks of a "collective unconscious" connecting us all on some primal level, and how "repressed" contents of the psyche may come to be perceived externally and "demonically" when they inevitably "spill out."

3. Electricity, electro-magnetism - what have you - is a "force" physicists understand to have a certain "infinity" about it: electromagnetic waves "go on forever."

Now... I enjoyed this film a lot. I did not find it "creepy," but rather scintillating, tightly edited, well scripted, well acted, enjoyable and illuminated with unique visual effects. I want to speak first of the visuals, then the story (in a way that won't spoil it for you if you do decide to watch the film), then close with a brief assessment.

THE VISUALS

The film is heavily visual, opening surreally with what appear to be foreshortened - therefore "V-shaped" - hall lights folding back upon themselves, juxtaposed with an aerial view (the first of many) of the city where Gere works, then followed by a view of a commercial Christmas angel in a department store. As the tale proceeds, we suddenly are introduced to a chilling image of a V-shaped "Moth" obviously resonant of the images just mentioned. From here on out the film starts pouring it on, continuously expanding the range of emotional valences of this ubiquitous V shape until almost *everything* you look at in this film starts looking like a moth.

This relentless technique of imposing a strongly centered but outbranching non-verbal imagery - the wings of a moth - upon the verbal action of the film, coupled with camera angles which start cropping up and creeping in from all sides, causes the film to take on a "decentered three dimensionality." A similar technique is employed with sounds - particularly creakings and respiration.

Not quite "imagery" in the standard sense, what you start to experience is a psychological assault from all sides as the cascading "unfoldings" of the V shape become connected with other shapes such as arches and circles and spheres. By the film's climax - again - just about every shape or sound has become immediately evocative of the seemingly ubiquitous and eldritch Mothman.

Now, the story itself...

THE STORY

A distinct advantage of a contemporary setting is a sense of immediacy is obtained, vital to "pull you in." Were it otherwise, the film would have a dud-docudrama feeling about it. Here, everything feels familiar...

Similarly, another strength of the film lies in its refusal to draw conclusions for the viewer about what is happening. No one in the story knows and therefore neither do you. The film *suggests.* It is a specious critique that the film leaves unanswered questions because much fiction does: Shakespeare's plays - the tragedies, particularly - being a prime example.

The film suggests the Mothman phenomenon might be a manifestation of the unconscious - the "Deep Deep Unconscious" - as it appears in several different persona (and purportedly throughout the world). Events begin taking on a surreal character as even time and space are warped about the happenings of Pleasant Point.

However, the moth-like figure appeared to Gere's wife far away from Pleasant Point, which apparently argues circumstantially against the ET hypothesis.

But is the Mothman benign? She saw the figure before her death, but did it *cause* her death? Apparently not - we are reassured by the neuropathologist - her MRI scan revealing a rare glioblastoma clearly [?] predating the traumatic epiphany of Mothman.

Perhaps the Mothman suggests nothing so much as an "Angel of Death," which figure also is ubiquitous throughout world literature and culture? The parapsychologist Dr. Leek remarks Mothman appears differently to different people, foreshadowing catastrophe. It is suggestive, then, is it not, that to the man who had lost everything, Gordon, the Mothman was perceived as human and benign; but to Gere's wife - who had everything to live for - Mothman appeared horrific: much as death would appear to us all under similar circumstances?

However, the burns and bleeding several people suffered, the telephonic recording of the entity's inhumanly high-frequency voice, the light and pyrotechnics associated with its appearance - these suggest an affinity of the creature with electricity; (there are frequent intentional camera effects which regenerate the V imagery around electrical lights and fixtures).

Lastly, the entity's self-professed name ("kINDRED oLD") reinforces Dr. Leek's notion of such beings having always existed here on Earth. Is the Mothman our "oppressed" psyche, or "oLD" creatures "oppressed" by our mere presence and inevitable sufferings, or are we merely "oppressed" by them?

PARTING THOUGHT

I felt throughout watching that a great deal of salutary aesthetic discipline was exercised by director Mark Pellington in not allowing this film to descend to the level of "shlock shock." I do not, however, recommend watching this film with an impressionable child. If your child is going to see this film eventually, though, my recommendation is watching it together with long and frequent breaks!

Overall, this movie requires no blinking and time to watch before the sun goes down. It's mildly electrifying - even "haunting," perhaps - and stays with you. (Oddly enough, my stereo receiver started acting up as soon as the videotape ended... Go figure.)

Rating:
Summary: creepy, and interesting, see it
Review: I wasnt expecting alot when i saw it, when u hear its about a moth like thing it doesnt really creep u out yet. the movie ended up being very good i liked it alot it is one of my fav this year, and i HIGHLY recomend it.the acting was very good and fit wut the movie needed, the story line was very good also.dont get me wrong the movie was real creepy but i thought it could of been alot creepier with how evil the creature looked and sounded.the movie didnt give u alot of answers to wut that thing wanted or was trying to tell them but it said it was true events so i guess ur able to reasearch on it cause it leaves u thinking about it alot, u should see it even if thrillers rnt ur kind of movies.

Rating:
Summary: And the point of the movie was?
Review: What were the mothmen trying to tell him?; Well, we never find out and the entire purpose of the movie is lost half way through. Richard Gere does a decent job with a convaluted script that appears to have been written in old greek rather then in English. I did not get it and the ending seemed hurried. Not Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: UFOs and Weirdos offer small thrill
Review: Richard Gere stars in this psychological thriller based on the editorial novel by John Keel depicting the bizarre and uncanny events in the small town of Point Pleasant West Virginia. Klein (Gere) is the star reporter for the Washington Post, he has a new wife, is about to buy a new home, and life is looking good, or so he thinks. On the way back from purchesing their new home, a freak image appears out of nowhere sending the couple crashing into the snowy embankment. Klein can't understand what happened, as a few weeks later his wife suddenly and mysteriously dies of a rare brain tumor. Later he finds himself on a new assignment on the way to Pennsylvania to interview a political candidate when oddly enough, he arrives in Point Pleasant. The film does offer sometimes very frightening and disturbing images of the "mothman" as it is called by its viewees, but altogether it seems to be lacking a fundamental element that makes a good story-a point. Just like the novel its based on, The Mothman Prophecies is simply a loose collection of harrowing events that take the viewer on a wild (and weird) ride through Point Pleasant- and thats it. The weird happenings don't add up in the end, and the film doesn't even attempt to give any form of explanation- it simply leaves you hanging. Some people would argue that the whole point of the film is simply because it does not have one, but I argue- you need a basic solution to any film. One that lacks a solution does not make for a very interesting story. That is because whatever it is you have to say through your film is not confirmed, it is simply lost. The ending is a pretentious letdown, boring, under developed, and seems like the writers were just too lazy to come up with anything interesting that might have served as a viable explination to the film's intriguing beginning mysteries.

Rating:
Summary: Eerie supernatural thriller
Review: This is one eerie, creepy supernatural thriller. The screenplay is very tight, full of intrigue and suspense at every turn. The presentation by director Mark Pellington is nothing short of superb. From a visual standpoint, Pellington heightens both the suspense and paranormal feel with some of the best camerawork I have seen in some time. Each shot is meticulously planned for maximum effect and the editing is phenomenal. He mixes tight shots with odd perspective shots, extreme close-ups and vistas, zooming in, zooming out, and giving the viewer a visual workout that never lets up.

This is a story that teeters on the line between believable and incredible as an entire town seems to be receiving supernatural warnings of an impending disaster. Not only is it well told, but well acted.

Richard Gere seems determined to break his own mold as an actor, taking chances that keep paying off. Long considered a lightweight pretty-boy with limited breadth, Gere continues to surprise me with his growth as an actor. I was impressed by the mature performance he gave in "Autumn in New York", shedding his impassive macho image for a more vulnerable character. This role is an even bigger departure from his standard fare and a better performance. He gives us a strong and believable performance of a man totally obsessed with understanding the strange events in Point Pleasant and how they might relate to the death of his wife. If he keeps this up, he is going to start appearing on awards lists.

Will Patton also presents us with a phenomenal supporting performance as Gordon, the man fixated on the mothman. Patton is a fine actor who often plays villainous or offbeat characters. Here he renders a character that is paranoid to the point of distraction as he is slowly driven insane by the voices he hears.

Laura Linney is a throw-in playing a minor role, but she has a couple of compelling scenes with Gere that continue to show her talent.

This is a world apart from your standard hack and slash horror flick. It is intelligently presented and well performed. I rated it a 9/10. It makes you wonder, what really happened in Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1967?