Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
chilling, eerie, and wonderfully done, January 23, 2002
I caught this film at a sneak preview (the film won't be out until 3 days from now in my area), and I got to tell you I was very impressed. I have seen almost every horro/supernatural film, and I like to say I can predict them all very easily.
The movie challenged me. I had no clue what was going to happen. Richard Gere and Laura Linney (who were so great together in "Primal Fear"), have great chemistry on screen, and it was a joy to see the two of them together again. Richard Gere plays a Washington Post journalist who, after getting in an accident with his wife, finds his life turned upside down. Winding up in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, he encounters a man who claims (well, I don't want to ruin the surprise). Staying in town to research the strange claims that the locals have made, he finds an ally in local cop (Linney) who explains that for the past couple of months, "strange things have been happening", with even the most upstanding citizen claiming to have seen "something". The film puts you off kilter with its eerie shots, dark nights, and even the ringing of the telephone is enough to put your nerves on edge, because you know something strange is going on, but what is it? The climax of the film was very intense, and I found myself with my knees drawn up to my chin (thank God for stadium seating). If you want to see a different type of thriller that focuses more on story and atmosphere than blood and gore, then go see "The Mothman Prophecies"
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48 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An unconventional and disquieting modern horror film, July 23, 2002
Certainly "The Mothman Prophecies" reminds me more of "The Blair Witch Project" than any other film I have seen. Both films become almost oppressive in their use of cinematic cues that something is about to happen (a feeling propelled mainly by the ominipresent eerie music in "Mothman") and you are not quite sure what the hell happens in either movie. Director Mark Pellington definitely does a nice job of putting the audience into the perspective of the protagonist, John Klein (Richard Gere) as he tries to unravel this mystery.The hook for this film is a car accident in which a sudden mothlike image startles Klein's wife, Mary (Debra Messing). The resulting accident is not fatal, but leads to the discovery of a brain tumor that proves to be. Klein is haunted by not only Mary's death, but her dying wish that he be happy and her frantic question, "Didn't you see it?" After her death he discovers she has drawn pages of disturbing mothlike images. We then jump ahead two years to the line. Klein, a political reporter for the Washington Post (and therefore a cynical skeptic by occupation if not temperment) leaves at 1 a.m. for Richmond. But at 2:30 he finds his car breaking down near a house in Point Pleasant, West Virginia--400 miles away--with no memory of how he got there. Curiouser and curiouser, when he knock on the door of Gordon Smallwood (Will Patton), he is threatened with a shotgun and told this is the third night in a row he has come knocking on the door. The sinker is Connie Mills (Laura Linney), the local cop who saves Klein from Gordon and who admits that strange things have been happening in this neck of the woods for quite some time, usually having something to do with disturbing mothlike images. You might think that there is an inevitable romance to be had here between Klein and Connie, but whatever attraction exists between the two is nothing in the face of the growing mystery. One of the reasons "The Mothman Prophecies" creates such a sense of disquiet in the audience is that we are not sure exactly how to read the film. Should we be thinking straightforward gothic horror or something more along the lines of science fiction? Eventually I came to the conclusion that part of the dynamic of this film was that we were not supposed to figure it out; indeed, you cannot. I watched the film a second time specifically to try and make pieces fit (no, did not read the book, but am interested in doing so given the comments of other reviewers), and I could not do it. Nor could I really lay out the powers of the Mothman in a way that would be particularly helpful. Indeed, I became so wary in this film that I was unwilling to believe phone calls were from the characters we heard unless we actually saw the person talking to Klein on the other end of the connection. Gere's character is trying to proceed in good old journalistic fashion, but is constantly left befuddled by the people he talks to and the events he witnesses. Linney provides the stability in the film, not just to Gere's character but to the entire situation. The emotional heart of the film is Patton, as the local guy caught up in events beyond his wildest imagaintion, although Lucinda Jenney, playing his wife Denise, provides wonderful support (her scene in the hall of the hospital where she offers her husband total support is the small acting gem in the film). "The Mothman Prophecies" is not a conventional horror film, and I suspect that those who have the most trouble with it will be those least satisfied by unconventional films. Ultimately, this is a film (and a story) where the questions are more important that the answers. The fact that those answers are virtually nonexistent only underscores the point that we are not supposed to know what is going on. Actually, there is something to be said for a film that reduces both its main characters and audience alike to asking themselves "What just happened?" and "What does it mean?"
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32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not the true story, June 22, 2002
If you read The Mothman Prophecies you may be disappointed in this movie. While it has some elements of John Keel's story, it is a total departure from what supposedly really happened. I first heard about the Mothman in some obscure UFO rag in the 1970s. It is an interesting story of a town visited by a giant flying creature, the real Men-in-Black, and an alien (Indrid Cold) over a period of time. All this strangness culminates in a bridge collapse that killed a number of people. Afterward, life returned to normal for this small town in West Virginia. John Keel heard of the sightings at the time they were occurring and visited the town and befriended a number of people who witnessed the various phenomena. There were many strange things going on indeed, phones ringing with mechanical voices on the other end, UFOs being seen, cars being chased at 100 MPH by a huge winged creature and strange looking men in black suits asking people weird questions. Keel himself experienced some of the weirdness when a phone started ringing that was not plugged in. He also on numerous occasions heard someone banging on the wall, even though there was no one there. The movie, with a present day timeline (VS the 1960s) casts Richard Gere as Keel's character. So right off from the start the movie strays from the "real" story. There are some elements that are supposedly true. The Mothman was seen by numerous people on roofs and in yards like in the movie. Gere sees a strange light in the sky and has "missing" time. There were strange lights seen in the sky during the Mothman time period. Indrid Cold, an "alien" appeared to at least one individual in the real story. In the movie he is calling Keel and almost is used like a fusion of the real story of Indrid Cold and the MIB seen all over town. The movie has good acting and you do get this feeling of something weird is going on. It definately has a creepy atmosphere, probably due to most scenes being shoot in winter with overcast skies or at night. I have to say that without a doubt this DVD has one of the best Dolby Digital 5.1 sound tracks of any DVD I have seen (including the Matix, ID4 and Armageddon). I had seen this at the movies and when I got the DVD I watched it in broad daylight, with the volume turned up a notch, and the first scene with the Mothman/car crash still made me jump out of my seat. If you know the story and realize that this movie only touches on a few aspects of it you most likely enjoy it. If you have no clue to what the "real" story is but like creepy movies, I think you'll enjoy this movie too.
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