Mothman Prophecies (2002)

Average rating

(63%)

Starring:	Richard Gere \| David Eigenberg \| Bob Tracey \| Laura Linney \| Debra Messing \| Will Patton
Director:	Mark Pellington
Studio:	LIONS GATE HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time:	113 mins
Genres:	Thriller
Languages:	English
Hearing-impaired:	English
Released:	August 19, 2002
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Driving South to Richmond, Washington Post reporter John Klein (Richard Gere) finds himself unexpectedly way off course--in the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia--knocking on the door of Gordon and Denise Smallwood (Tom Patton and Lucinda Jenney). Gordon is irate. This is the third night in a row that Klein has knocked on his door at 2 a.m. When Sgt. Connie Parker (Laura Linney) arrives to investigate, Klein discovers this is just one of many strange events occurring in the town. With Parker's help, Klein investigates. Soon, he becomes convinced that some catastrophe is about to occur.
In THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES, scriptwriter Richard Hatem and director Mark Pellington play upon the strange events that reportedly occurred in Point Pleasant in the mid-1960s. As in ARLINGTON ROAD, Pellington makes great use of a restless, prowling camera and ominous sound effects provided by sound editor Kelly Cabral, sound mixer Pud Cusack (she also worked on ARLINGTON ROAD), and sound designer Claude Letessier. Pellington gets fine performances from Gere, Linney, Patton, Alan Bates as a paranormal investigator, and Debra Messing--striking in the too-small role of Klein's wife--before he produces a spectacular final sequence.

Screenshots

Rating of 4 stars out of 5

The presence of Richard Gere in this paranormal thriller (based on “true” events) may suggest a rather mainstream approach to the material. Yet this eerie and engrossing movie is far from conventional, combining off-kilter camera work and spooky sound mixing with enough narrative ambiguity to fill several David Lynch movies. Gere plays a political reporter who one night inexplicably drives hundreds of miles out of his way to a small West Virginia town. He discovers that the confused inhabitants — including Laura Linney and Will Patton — are plagued by strange visitations from a large winged creature that seem to foreshadow disaster. Gere's attempts to connect these surreal events with a personal tragedy form the emotional backbone of the story, while the now familiar X Files-like encounters are composed with flair and imagination by director Mark Pellington (Arlington Road). Although many questions are ultimately left unanswered, this is a well-crafted and grown-up chiller with a stunning climactic payoff.

Highest rated reviews

10 out of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Stick with it!

A Customer from Beds, england, 9th June, 2004

Takes a bit of getting into this film but the feel changes totally after the first 20 minutes so stick with it! A truly eerie little film based (albeit loosely) on true events, but still enough to get you thinking and make the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up. I did however find the pace a little slow .
The hour documentary on the DVD is very informative and ideal for those left curious about the real myth of the Mothman.
I'm not a big Richard Gere fan but he acts his socks off in this one - well worth a go!

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