Good movie but grossly overrated

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

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.

Here's a flawed but effective and mildly horrific horror yarn that takes the modern subtle approach to horror rather than filling the screen with in-your-face blood and guts. Therefore it's all the better for it, chilling the viewer with brief shock appearances of a mysterious creature, bizarre and disturbing phone calls in the middle of the night, and all sorts of supernatural shenanigans occurring which our characters cannot explain. The film is well-made in all aspects with camera-work that only occasionally veers into flashy pretentiousness. That we never really see the creature behind the chaos is one of the film's strongest aspects, it keeps you in the dark and therefore never fails to send a slight chill down your spine. Some JEEPERS CREEPERS-style rubbery monster just wouldn't have had the same impact and would have detracted from the movie's realism, which is of course the reason it remains frightening, because it feels true. The movie is horrific throughout and has a number of scary moments which thankfully don't take the form of a sudden loud noise to shock you as in WHAT LIES BENEATH. Instead the shadowy, barely-lit sets, the forbidding and chilly town in which the film is set, and the wealth of odd inexplicable events which occur are designed to throw you off balance. Literally you don't know what to expect and that's where the fun lies.The flaws lies in the film's script and plotting which tends to be all over the place at times. This is a mood-focused rather than plot-orientated movie so some moments do tend to drag a little, especially in the second half, giving an episodic feel to the production which works against it and sent some viewers in my cinema off to sleep! Thankfully things work out for a tense set-piece finale which is one of the most suspenseful I've seen in quite some time and literally had me on the edge of my cinema seat. Once Alan Bates' character is introduced to explain the plot a fine sense of foreboding and impending doom is worked up which nicely carries the film throughout and retained my interest. Although the movie does well not to lay explanations for everything out on a plate at the end, pandering to the dumbest viewer, some of what happens is too confusing and needs clarifying a little further.Another strong highlight is the cast of seasoned performers who acquit themselves well with the various roles. These guys have us caring for the people involved and keep us watching. First of all we have Richard Gere, well cast as the Washington Post reporter whose inner sadness comes from the tragic death of his wife, which occurs in the first fifteen minutes of the movie and lets us know that we're in for a heavy journey. Gere is charismatic and darned likable - more than I've ever seen him before actually - as the slightly neurotic Mulder-style investigator and his pivotal role makes the film for me. Excellent support comes from Laura Linney as the warm-hearted town sheriff and especially Will Patton, who excels here as the town oddball who becomes the focus of the town's manifestations. Finally, Alan Bates is on hand to lend some gravitas as a slightly kooky professor who knows more about the events than he initially lets on; although it's an easy part to play, Bates has fun with it and that wears off. Despite being flawed and somewhat unsatisfying (hard to put my finger on what exactly was wrong with it, other than I was left feeling a little disappointed in what had not happened, that somehow we had been led down the garden path), THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES is a step ahead of most modern teen slasher fare and deserves kudos for its old-fashioned approach to the horror genre. It may be clichéd and a little predictable but the cast keeps you engaged throughout and I was never less than interested in what was happening.

This is the worst thing ever made by anyone. It makes absolutely no sense, it has a tone that is all over the place, it confuses audience and irritates the viewers by relentlessly trying to create a sense of mood, which never leads to anything in terms of drama or plot. It's just mood. And then my mood turns to agitated, then angry. I couldn't watch this nonsense until the end.But here is what makes things a lot worse: it is a butchery of the actual story it was based on. How on earth do you take a true story about a monster that stalks people at night and turn it into a dull, low-energy moody pile of **** where the highlight of the story are these nonsensical phone calls? How do you turn this incredible true story into something so boring? Why was the story changed? It just boggles the mind. I think whoever wrote this is mentally ill.Zero stars for this. I hate this film with a passion. My blood pressure jumps when I just think of this monstrosity of a film.

"The Mothman Prophecies" is often very interesting and even frightening, it just misses the boat on what could have been a really great thriller because of some pacing issues and an ending that's a little nutty. Richard Gere stars as newspaper columnist John Klein who early in the film gets into a car accident while his wife is driving. Mary (Debra Messing) swerves to avoid a creature and ends up dying shortly after of a brain tumor. Was it the strange black-winged, red-eyed creature that caused this? Two years later, Klein inexplicably finds himself in the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia when his car breaks down. In the town he finds dozens of reports of people who have seen this "mothman" and he decides to investigate. He teams up with local police officer Connie Mills (Laura Linney) as they document sightings, injuries, hallucinations and finally, strange prophecies foretelling deaths. Klein gets increasingly involved in the cases.This movie has a really solid first half. There's just enough sort-of explainable weirdness going on that you believe this is based on a true story and that Klein would stick around to see what is going on. As he uncovers some clues that may explain what happened to his wife, you start getting a bad feeling about the whole thing. Then we've got the creepy reports from people who have seen the creature, a strong message from an expert that warns him to stay away that further peak your curiosity and that increasing dread as you realize this guy is in way over your head. As I said before, it gets downright creepy and frightening when you finally start to learn about this strange "Indrid Cold" character. The unexplainable but kind of mundane stuff just keeps pilling up until you know something really bad is going to happen. Then the second half, the movie really switches gears and doesn't work nearly as well. It's like the director couldn't make up his mind as to whether he wanted to make a thriller that built itself up slowly, setting itself up for some big, but sparse scares, or a nutty supernatural monster movie about a possibly benevolent, possibly maleficent force that we as humans have no way of understanding. It ends up just being a bit of both and not paying off for either camp.Some of the problems in this movie are truly hard to describe because they have to do with the jarring switch in tone and atmosphere of the story. There's a scene where we see a face in a mirror within Klein's apartment. It should be a big jump scare but because of the tone of the scene and the way it was shot, it's more of a weird surprise that only creeps you out if you're fast-forwarding through the film (which is how it got me all creeped out). The movie begins so smart and towards the end, we get yet another movie where the characters in the film have never seen or ready any story where ghosts, monsters or aliens are involved. Klein hears about a prophecy concerning a great tragedy on the Ohio River and like a fool basically runs around screaming, blabbering about doomsday and not even coming up with a clever story to explain why he is acting so weird.Despite the missteps along the way, it could have all been wrapped up neatly with a tight ending. One that doesn't explain too much, leaves enough to the imagination to play with your head and make you wonder if the mothman is still out there kind of thing. In a way, the film actually does have an ending like this that works really well and leaves itself ambiguous without feeling like it's a cop-out non-ending. It's a very creepy moment where Klein is waiting for a phone call. I couldn't make up my mind about what I wanted to see. Did I want him to do the smart thing and tear the phone from its wall, throw it in the trash can and run away with his fingers plugging his ears? Did I want him to answer the phone, regardless of the consequences? Unfortunately, that scene, the film keeps on going. We get a scene with a lot of cool special effects that goes on for way too long, doesn't belong at all in this movie and unfortunately features horrendous sound editing. You know those three stock screams you hear a lot in movies? We're talking about the Wilhelm scream, the Howie scream and that third overused one that only belongs in a movie if it's a joke. Yes, they are all present in the climax and it really hurts the film.Overall, "The Mothman Prophecies" isn't really that bad, it's just underwhelming. In the end it becomes another one of those spooky, supernatural movies that stayed pretty faithful to the truth except for a few glaring parts that were totally blown out of proportion to make a standard Hollywood story. It's a nice way to spend two hours though so as a rental or if it's playing on TV I recommend it, partially because what it does right it really does well and also because there's enough believable stuff going on here that if you watch it with someone else it will be a lot of fun to discuss. (Widescreen version on DVD, November 17, 2013)