The Mothman Prophecies

The Mothman Prophecies (2002)

Directed by: Mark Pellington
Written by: Richard Hatem "based" on the book by John A. Keel
Starring: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Will Patton, David Eigenberg, Debra Messing, Tom Stoviak, Lucinda Jenney, Dan Callahan, Christin Frame, Alan Bates, Betsy Zajko, Mark Pellington

So this is allegedly based on a true story - or on a book about something that actually happened, which, as far as I can tell, has little to do with this movie. I know a lot of people were really pissed off about that, but hey, I don't care. Maybe there was a Mothman talking about impending disaster in Point Pleasant, I don't know. Why not?

The movie doesn't really have anything to do with anything. It's pretty much just a bunch of really freaky stuff that happens, okay, it builds up to the 'tragedy on the river Ohio', but it's pretty well done.

The style of filmmaking, which gets used a lot these days, it nifty, the music is good, and hey, it's creepy as hell.

I couldn't help but compare it to the movies of today, though. The ones I've been to see recently, anyway. It just struck me that this movie had a bunch of those shots that aren't really of anything, but at least this one lingered on them for long enough for you to really contemplate them thoroughly, whereas in other, more modern, movies, they cut between them so fast your brain hurts.

And the Mothman itself - Indrid Cold or whatever - is kind of spooky. I didn't get it exactly, but it was spooky. Weird phone calls freak me out, I'm sorry (like the obscene calls in Black Christmas - freaky shit, man). Maybe that's why I never answer the phone...

Anyway (enough about my weird paranoid fears), I'm not crazy about Richard Gere. He's alright and everything, he just bothers me for some reason. Maybe it's because he's a Buddhist, I don't know. I'm sure my Buddhist allies will get me back for that. I'll deal with it when I get to it.

But yeah, this movie was mostly just atmosphere. Atmosphere to the max. There's very little pay off really. I guess there is, but it wasn't really scary.

I rather enjoyed it though. It was distressing enough without being totally terrifying.

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