Hers (E).

No8: The Mothman Prophesies

Title: The Mothman Prophecies
Director: Mark Pellington
Written by: Richard Hatem (screenplay), John A Keel (novel)
Starring: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, David Eingenberg

A reporter is drawn to a small West Virginia town to investigate a series of strange events, including psychic visions and the appearance of bizarre entities.

Initial Thoughts:

Oooooh I was quite excited about this one.  Although I hate moths (or ‘hippogriffs’ as they are called in this household…by me…because I am a wimp….and yes even the small ones!).  The blurb on the back sounds very intriguing and I do love a little small-town mystery thriller so with film snacks at the ready I was looking forward to seeing what this one had in store for me!

After Thoughts:

What an immense disappointment this film is!  It is a shame because it has such incredible potential to be a fantastic film.  But I feel that a film titled ‘The Mothman Prophecies’ should not leave me with the question ‘well what/who the hell is the Mothman and what did he have to do with this film?!’.

It starts off well enough with a bit of intrigue when the peace of a happy couple is shattered after the wife sees a moth (bleurgh!!) and then proceeds to have a vision and crash her car.  Her injuries reveal a brain tumour in the shape of a moth (sneaky sneaky producers…not) and shortly after she dies.  Her husband (Gere) finds all these drawing of a creepy man in her notebook and that is pretty much that. 

He then drives out of town to somewhere (absolutely no fluffing idea where because the film explains itself as clearly as binary code) and his car breaks down somewhere along the way…. A town called Point Pleasant.  So he does what all sane, rational people would do and walks in the freezing cold to the nearest backwater house for help….and we find out that this is the third night in a row he has visited this house.  OOOOH INTRIGUE!  We then find out that where he has landed is hundreds of miles off his selected route and would have taken him hours to get to.  OOOH MORE INTRIGUE!  I am loving this film right now!

And then…it all goes wrong.  From what you can tell from the film some of the inhabitants of the town have been ‘terrorised’ by the ‘Mothman’ either in the form of apparitions or phone calls with weird noises (as is the case with the proprietor of the backwater house who we come to know as Gordon).  Gere finds himself caught up in the mystery and tries to solve it, essentially, while we get the odd explanation as to what is happening but really not very much seems to be clear and we kind of just plod along with the film munching our chocolate.  The Mothman keeps Gere interested by every so-often mimicking his dead wife and pulling him back into the web.  In the end it transpires (don’t ask me how or when!) that the appearance of the Mothman signifies an impending disastrous event and turns some people (like Gordon who at this point has sadly perished) into some sort of clairvoyants.  Their disaster duly happens and the local police chief, Connie – who keeps dreaming about the number 37 – is saved by Gere as it all falls into place (far, far too late yet somehow resulting in a miraculous save).   In the aftermath she hears that 36 people died, clearing up the fact that she should have been number 37.  And there the film ends. 

My biggest beef with this film is that you never find out who/what the Mothman is and why he is the cause/foreteller of tragedies.  And not in a cutesie, mysterious way either, more in like an ‘I couldn’t be bothered to put any more thought into the script’ way.  Like is he a ghost?  A demon?  A guardian angel?  A prophet?  An alien?  Does he bring about these tragedies for fun or is he there to warn people?  Does he want to hurt or help?

For example, one of my favorite parts of the film is when Gere is talking on the phone and he is by a mirror.  And suddenly his reflection is doing everything a few seconds BEFORE he does (not after).  Now Hubbo and I had to rewind this several times to make sure we were seeing what we thought we were but sure enough!  HOWEVER – he is never supposedly ‘possessed’ by this Mothman, these actions do not appear to lead up to anything so again we were left wondering was this intentional or a production glitch.  WHAT IS GOING ON?!

Far far too many questions remain unanswered for me to have gotten any enjoyment out of the film and I would quite happily give it away or trade it if any of you lot want it (even after the review!).