THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES
Rating: 4.5/5
Review by THE MOVIE ADDICT (http://www.themovieaddict.com)
What could have easily been a standard, simplistic "shock" horror film is elevated to heights of genre excellency by director Mark Pellington, whose first film, "Arlington Road," was evidently only a sign of things to come. "The Mothman Prophecies" is one of the great horror films of our time - matching the eerie tones of isolation and psychological deterioration from "The Shining" and delivering intelligent thrills instead of cheap scare tactics. It's a daring move for a film called "The Mothman Prophecies" not to actually feature any visuals of the titular creature, but that's exactly the case here - the film falls back upon old-fashioned chills rather than modern-day thrills. Of the decade so far I would rank it as one of the finest of its genre without hesitation.
The film purports to be based on a true story, and although numerous facts are twisted (not least of all that the actual events depicted in the film took place forty years ago and the protagonist of the film, strictly speaking, never really existed), it will easily appeal to those "Mothman buffs" out there as well as it will to regular audiences. The movie has some nice in-joke references (such as the fact that one character's name, Leek, is "Keel" spelled backwards - the name of the author of the book "Mothman" is based upon) and Pellington clearly did his research prior to filming.
The movie stars Richard Gere as a Washington reporter who loses his wife (Debra Messing) in a freak car crash. Two years pass and after a long day of work in the office and perpetual unrest, he sets out for a quiet drive to Baltimore. A couple hours later he finds himself hundreds of miles away in Point Pleasant, West Virginia - a town experiencing bizarre happenings that somehow relate to the passing of his wife. People are seeing strange things: men in black, demonic beings and a strange winged creature with blood red eyes.
"The Mothman Prophecies" lets everything up to the viewer's imagination - when the reporter gets a telephone call from a man named "Indrid Cold" who seems to have infinite knowledge and an alien voice, Pellington doesn't draw conclusions. Is Indrid the Mothman? Is Indrid from another world? We don't know - making the proceedings all the more eerie.
Some Mothman enthusiasts have claimed the film really doesn't focus enough solely on the Mothman, and tries to turn into a supernatural thriller rather than a documentary-style production on what actually happened in Point Pleasant in 1967. But to be fair, trying to compile all of the insane legends of the town's history into a single film would be disastrous. There exist many other odd events that occurred within the town during the time period of the Mothman sightings, but some of them are downright silly (such as author John A. Keel's alleged contact with extra-terrestrials and the theory that the Mothman is an escaped alien test subject the government had captured). Pellington takes the high road and lays the basics out on the table, and let's viewers draw their own conclusions.
Perhaps the most intriguing thing about this film is the fact that Pellington does, in fact, turn his film into a psychological thriller rather than a true horror film. Except for the sloppy ending (which stinks of Hollywood interference), this is a dark, edgy, realistic and un-nerving movie. Like Kubrick's "The Shining," it puts you inside the mind of a man driven to the brink of insanity - in this case, fueled by the death of a loved one and pure obsession. There's an interesting twist towards the end of the film that provides some poignant reflection for Gere's character, when he is confronted with the possibility of speaking to his dead wife through the aid of Indrid Cold. But he's left with a big question: what if it's not really his wife? "How do you want to remember your wife?" another character asks him. It's a very effective scene.
Gere delivers a fine, surprisingly powerful performance as a grieving man - the character is loosely based on Keel, but there are a lot of dramatic additions, such as the internal conflict involving the death of his wife and his spiritual link with the Mothman himself. But these are not distracting threads - it provides a strong connection between Gere and the Mothman/Indrid Cold. This connection really drives the psychological tension of the film.
Directorially this is a very promising example of Pellington's visual finesse behind the camera. Evoking Hitchcock, Kubrick, Polanski and other great artists, Pellington becomes, in many ways, the true star of this picture. The fragmented visuals accompanied by the creepy score by Tomandandy results in one of the finest horror-thrillers in recent memory - a film that works on many levels and, despite some flaws (mainly towards the finale), is a perfect example of why directors are just as vital to a film as the story itself. A criminally underrated film that will hopefully grow in stature and recognition over time.
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