The Mothman Prophecies

I picked up a copy of the DVD of The Mothman Prophecies (2002) on the bargain bin at a local video store.  The only thing I knew about the Mothman was what I had seen on a documentary on The Travel Channel about how some kids in Point Pleasant, West Virginia in the late sixties kept seeing a man with moth like wings right before a bridge over the Ohio River collapsed and killed a bunch of people.

Richard Geer and Laura Linney ponder reports of Mothman

Unfortunately, the only sighting of Mothman in this movie is the shadowy images which come to people’s minds.  Richard Geer’s wife (Debra Messing), who is dying of a brain tumor, saw the shadowy image of Mothman just before having a car crash.  While lying in the hospital dying, she keeps drawing pictures of the demon looking Mothman.

This movie is mostly a psychological drama.  The stuff that you don’t see is a lot scarier than what you do see.  Richard Geer plays John Klein, a Washington Post reporter who’s beloved wife has just died.  Strangely drawn to the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, Klein is drawn into the mysterious goings on.  People in Point Pleasant hear and see weird stuff just before something bad happens.  Klein talks to people who have seen and heard the entity and talks to the entity himself.  In fact the entity calls him on the phone and keeps calling after the phone has been unplugged.  A local eccentric (Will Patton) hears the entity talking to him and telling him what will happen in the future.  It eventually drives him crazy and he goes out in the cold and dies from exposure. Klein seeks out a para-normal expert (Alan Bates) who tells him that he is dealing with beings who live on another plane of existence who can see the future.  The expert tells Klein that he can’t change the future and the entities will drive him to his death and to quit talking to them. 

Klein becomes involved with a police woman Connie Mills (Laura Linney) who sees and talks to Klein’s dead wife and has a recurring dream in which she is drowning and told “don’t worry number 67.”  Later, it becomes apparent that this was a reference to the fact 66 people died in the bridge collapse and she was supposed to be number 67 but is saved when Klein decides to stop talking to the entities, who are taking the form of his dead wife, and return to Point Pleasant to be with Connie.

The Mothman Prophecies is a creepy movie.  The thing that makes it the most creepy is the eerie musical score.  Geer and Linney put in good performances and are convincing in their roles as people who are caught up by the weird and supernatural and don’t know what to do. 

All in all, The Mothman Prophecies was worth the dollar that I paid for it.  Three out of Five Vampire Bats.