Mark Pellington’s ‘The Mothman Prophecies’ (2002): A Cryptozoological Mystery – Retro Review

The Mothman is my favorite legendary creature. If you aren’t aware of The Mothman, here is a description courtesy of mythology.net:

It was the year 1966 when a strange creature surfaced in the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. This creature was described as being at least 7 feet tall, with a humanoid body and a wingspan at least 10 feet in length. Its distinguishing feature? Two red glowing eyes that terrified anyone who saw them. For the next year, this strange moth-like creature continued to terrorize the residents of Point Pleasant. Thus, the legend of The Mothman was born.

The Mothman was seen throughout Point Pleasant, West Virginia throughout 1966-1967, the last time on the Silver Bridge on December 15, 1967. The bridge later collapsed, and 46 people lost their lives as their cars plummeted into the river. Witnesses have spotted The Mothman in many worldwide catastrophic events since including Chernobyl and the Twin Towers before 9/11.

Ironically, I didn’t know much about this creature until I saw The Mothman Prophecies, released on January 25, 2002. After seeing this film, which is loosely based on John A. Keels book of the same title, I was hooked. I read the book, which I highly recommend, by the way. Now a visit to Point Pleasant is on my bucket list.

Let’s take a look back at this film, including some fun trivia!

Synopsis:

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.

Mark Pellington’s The Mothman Prophecies stars Richard Gere as John Klein, a Washington Post reporter. He and his wife, Mary (Debra Messing), a perfectly happy couple, buy a house and on the drive back from purchasing their home, they are involved in a car accident. Mary sees something that terrifies her, but John doesn’t see it. She is diagnosed with a brain tumor and dies a couple of weeks later. All she left was sketches of this tall dark creature with red eyes.

Fast forward to two years later, where John is dealing with the grief of losing his wife by submerging himself in work. He goes for a drive one night and ends up Point Pleasant, WV. He arrives at the home of Gordon Smallwood (Will Patton), although he has no idea how or why he ended up there. He finds out that he has been to Gordon and his wife, Denise’s (Lucinda Jenney), home the past three nights at the same time. Each time John has knocked on the door and asked to use the phone.

Gordon becomes irate with John, which leads to him calling the town sheriff, Connie Mills (Laura Linney). Connie talks with John about the situation and shares with him some strange events that have been happening, introducing him to The Mothman legend. John becomes obsessed with the creature, and strange things continue to happen. All of this leads up to a bridge collapsing. After the collapse, the weird events cease.

The Mothman Prophecies (2002) trivia courtesy of IMDB.

• This movie is based on actual events that occurred between November 1966 and December 1967 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
• The name of the expert on paranormal activity is Leek, the reverse of paranormal expert and author of the novel on which this movie was based, John A. Keel.
• Director cameo (Mark Pellington): The bartender, also the voice of Indrid Cold during the phone call.
• The scene where Indrid Cold is seen for the first time in full wasn’t done with CGI. Bill Laing was simply shot in blurred vision.
• The clock radio in John Klein’s (Richard Gere) motel room reads: 6:14. It’s a Biblical reference to John Chapter 6 verse 14, which reads, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”
• The news station, WOWK 13, shown during the Charleston scenes is the actual news station for the Charleston-Huntington area.
• The Mothman’s face appears six times in this movie. The first is when he flies into Mary’s (Debra Messing) face. The second is at the end of the scene where John (Richard Gere) is talking with the woman who saw Indrid through the window, the camera zooms out, and the scorch mark at the trees back left by The Mothman has his face. The third is when the young couple describe the incident at the factory site, when The Mothman moves off the car. The fourth is in the beginning of the zoom out from Mary’s photograph after John had smashed the phone. The Mothman’s face and shape appears in Mary’s pupil. The fifth is when he is seen in the mirror on the door that John slams. The sixth and final time is when the cable slams into the car windshield.

The film is powered by performances. Every character is well played by the actors. The film is intense, and I found that the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end at various parts of the runtime. I believe that Richard Hatem and Mark Pellington, along with the cast, brought John A. Keel’s book to life. It is still one of my favorite films, and I revisit it often. It is a great blend of scary and bizarre and still holds up after 20 years.