This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Purely Joyful Movie!

A Disappointing Continuation

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

As a Pittsburgher, this movie is somewhat important, as it was filmed here and in nearby Kittanning, PA. Which is somewhat humorous, as Point Pleasant, WV isn't far at all. They could have just filmed it there. There's a mothman statue, after all.A lot of the script was changed, as this movie is based on the work of John Keel, the paranormal researcher who wrote the book The Mothman Prophecies. Pellington rejected numerous screenplays that were literal takes on Keel's work, instead wanting to explore the psychological damage that UFO witnesses endure. In the book, Keel went into deepest, darkest West Virginia to interview folks who had seen the huge winged beast called the mothman. At the same time, he began receiving strange phone calls, reports of mutilated pets, visits from men in black (in fact, Keel coined the term!) and it all ends with the collapse of the Silver Bridge across the Ohio River.Whereas the movie posits that the collapse was never solved, experts determined that an eye-bar in the suspension chain caused its failure. And in reality, 46 people died, not 36.The movie is therefore fictionalized, sharing the story of Washington Post columnist John Klein (Richard Gere) and his wife Mary (Debra Messing) being involved in a car wreck that leads to her dying of a brain tumor. Before she passes, he finds a notebook filled with pictures of a strange beast.Between time distortions and loops, strange phone calls, visitations from his dead wife and premonitions, this film does a good job of conveying the terror and confusion that the paranormal can unleash.My theory has always been that nuclear waste near Point Pleasant unleashed holes in the time/space continuum and the mothman, a fifth-dimensional creature, was unleashed on our 3D space - bringing weirdness in its wake.There's a great shot at the end of this film, where the cars drift to the bottom of the river and holiday gifts float and headlights stretch out into nothing. It's probably the eeriest scene I've seen in awhile. According to IMDB, Gene Warren III and five other model-makers, plus two production assistants, spent three full months to fabricate every piece of the bridge set from scratch. He estimates 20,000 individual pieces of steel went into the construction, in order for the ultra-photo-realistic 1/6th scale model suspension bridge to support all the model vehicles and ultimately collapse like a full-scale steel bridge into the water. It really shows - this practical effect looks perfect.I usually don't enjoy big budget films, much less ones that take so many liberties with their source material, but this one always wins me over. It's worth a watch.

When I read the title, I did not know about the real events that supposedly happened in Point Pleseant and I did not expect a movie from this kind, especially not with Richard Geere in the main role. So when the plot started to thicken up, I realised I was wrong. The movie feels weird, feels scary, looks special and unic and is unic. I was pretty scared while watching it without having a specific reason and that indicates that I am watching a good movie. The only thing that dissapointed me was the ending, altho I know that was the real deal in the occuring events. The scenery from the fall of the bridge was bad, the camera angles were bad, it just felt to artificial in a way. Still, an interestic movie to watch. 7/10

Mark Pellington's The Mothman Prophecies takes a harrowing look at a curious set of events that did indeed occur for real in the rural West Virginia area. Now, just how much of what we see in the film actually happened is eternally unclear, but I've read up on a lot of it and there's enough testimonials, independent of each other, to both justify the film and shiver your spine. A myriad of inexplicable phenomenon plagued those poor people for some time back then, including visions, eerie phone calls and a mysterious red eyed creature in the shape of a giant moth. Businessman Richard Gere and wife Debra Messing come face to face with what appears to be this entity one night on a lonely stretch of highway, causing a grisly car crash and leaving Messing in a dire psychological state. With the help of a local policewoman (Laura Linney), Gere unwisely tries to figure out this terrifying mystery by putting himself way closer to the occurrences than I would ever go, experiencing the stuff of nightmares along the way. Pellington comes from a music video background and as such he is incredibly adept at creating style and atmosphere (his opening credits for Arlington Road are almost as foreboding as anything in this film), two key elements in successfully telling a tale such as this. Gere wanders around in a daze most of the time, distraught over his wife's condition and obviously influenced by forces unknown. Whatever is out there remains blessedly unseen save for a few hurried glimpses, say, behind a tree or at a kitchen window momentarily, spurring heart attacks from both audience and the poor sods stuck in this brooding bad dream. Rounding out the cast is Alan Bates as the obligatory historian who has seen this all unfold previously in some far corner of the world, and an excellent Will Patton in a frightening turn as a rural farmer who comes who becomes tragically influenced these dark forces. No one plays disturbed quite like him, a jittery, resolute calm always playing around in his eyes, the perfect presence to set anyone on edge. The finale sort of emerges from the chrysalis of dark atmospherics into large scale disaster mode, a choice which didn't really work for me. I would have preferred to have it kept intimate and creepy right up until some kind of moody end, but they went with fireworks instead. Not enough to hurt the film of negate what came before though, it's just too good of a time in the haunted house to be dragged down by anything, really. Chilling stuff.

This is a tough one. I personally found the story really intriguing and even though it did not go in the expected direction, I really enjoyed the story, which was original and smart and interesting.Still, the film lost me. The shorts were badly dine, the cuts strange, there were"special effects" (the colour changed from time to time), and that all made it impossible to watch.who would show an intriguing scene from the monster's perspective? i most certainly would not, and they should not have done it here, repeatedly.It was sad to see how a brilliant script can be turned into an unwatchable film.So even though I would love to give this one a 10 - a 4 seems fair to me. I really hope that they will do a remake, for I believe that this could be one of the big horror films, if it only were done differently.