Debra Messing Movie:

				Salesrank: 128558
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		MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
Described by director Mark Pellington as "a psychological mystery with naturally surreal overtones," The Mothman Prophecies begins like an ambitious episode of The X-Files. Richard Gere brings adequate torment, portent, and ambiguity to his role as a Washington Post reporter and grieving widower plagued by a mysterious, unseen urban legend known as the Mothman. Pellington develops subtle doom and gloom that's as effective as the paranoid streak he brought to Arlington Road. As the Mothman terrifies a West Virginia town, he remains an enigma, glimpsed almost subliminally. This--along with a magnificently creepy soundtrack--amplifies the movie's surreal overtones while keeping everything else (unsettling phone calls, prophesied disasters, suggestions of the afterlife) completely unexplained. With Laura Linney and Debra Messing in underdeveloped roles, The Mothman Prophecies feels a bit underdeveloped itself (and ends in desperate need of Mulder and Scully). But if you like your weirdness open-ended, this moody thriller's worth a look. --Jeff Shannon

The Mothman Prophecies [Region 2] Reviews:
Very disappointing.
2009-11-28 - I had read the book The Mothman Prophecies before seeing the film, and was looking forward to a spine-tingling thriller. What I saw was a watered-down romance with almost none of the spookiness that characterized the novel.

The novel contained numerous scenes that would have made for excellent film - late-night encounters in abandoned military bunkers, lovers' lanes, and other remote areas, where the Mothman is seen in all his preternatural horror. Basically none of that ends up in the film, nor - except for one brief, ambiguous flash - do we ever see Mothman. Nor do we see or hear much the various "men-in-black" individuals who feature prominently in the book.

The movie would have been better if it were based on the real-life expereinces of John Keel, and told from his perspective, rather than from that of a made-up Washington Post journalist (Richard Gere) with no background in paranormal research.

Keel's book started out with a 3:00 am scene where he - returning from a paranormal conference, in the middle of a driving rainstorm - wanders from house to house in rural West Virginia trying to get someone to let him use a phone so he can call a tow truck for his disabled car. A voice-over of this experience, in which Keel skillfully describes how legends are born, would have made a strikingly visual, and eerie, introduction to the Mothman story. I can visualize it, but the film-makers couldn't. Read the book for sure, but you're taking your chances with this disappointing film.

Creepy, enigmatic and dark
2009-10-25 - I First saw this film in the theater, it is a very well crafted and atmospheric film. It diverges wildly from the book of the same name, but still has its merits. The acting is excellent, the story line is a little hard to follow, but this movie is more about creating mood and it excels in that. The DVD quality is just the best. I personally have been creeped out by mothman since childhood while reading about the phenomenon in a sci fi comic book while on a twilight road trip in West Virginia. The movie elicits the same level of creepiness. Highly recomended. See if you can catch a cloaked ET like entity in one of the hotel scenes reflected in a mirror.

You Might Want To Carry Lots Of Mothballs In Your Pocket!...
2009-09-04 - I avoided THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES for years due to my aversion to anything involving Richard Gere. I finally watched it after a trustworthy friend told me how good it was. Well, Gere or no Gere, TMP is excellent. The Mothman is a mysterious entity (Alien? ghost? Angel? Demon??) that haunts the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. We are only shown glimpses or blurred images of the creature. This actually helps to keep the mood at a constant level of creepiness and building dread. We're never 100% certain about what we're witnessing, just like the main characters themselves. Gere is believably shaken in his role. He is a man suffering from great loss, driven by the need to know WHY. His journey into paranormal terror, mystery, and madness is cold and unsettling. The answers he seeks lead him into a dark world of shadows and portents. A displaced, alternate reality, superimposed over the mundane. He ultimately realizes that his quest has drawn him into something far beyond his understanding. Something bleak and disturbing. Something like impending doom, caught for a second in his peripheral vision. Watch this one, and you'll swear that you see it too...

Will Leave You Cold
2009-08-10 - It took me years to see The Mothman Prophecies. I was in the midst of a switch from VCR tapes to DVD player and The Mothman Prophecies was an unfortunate victim of the transition, a tape with no player for it. I promptly forgot about it, but Netflix didn't.

In a somewhat eerie parallel, I recently started prepping the Dark*Matter adventure "The Killing Jar" for my D20 Modern conspiracy game. The Killing Jar has quite a bit of information about the Mothman and provided a helpful backdrop to The Mothman Prophecies.

What's interesting is that this movie actually makes a lot more sense than the book of the same name by John A. Keel. Keel covers a wide range of paranormal phenomena, from UFOs to Men in Black, from ghosts to the bizarre Mothman. The Mothman itself even has a name, Indrid Cold, and isn't afraid to make phone calls late at night.

And that's what's so unsettling about The Mothman Prophecies. The film flagrantly violates movie tropes by having its apparition not only adopt a name but make dire prophecies at length over the phone.

John Klein (Richard Gere) is the perfect foil for an exploration of the beyond, a haunted man who cannot move on after the death of his wife. Klein has an entire conversation with Cold, testing its knowledge of the present and the future. He even tapes the phone call.

But Cold's paranormal abilities extend well beyond phone calls. It can adopt other peoples' voices, both dead and alive. Ghosts show up in the flesh. It can leave messages for you at the front desk. And you can tape it all you want - vocal analysis will show it's an actual voice. Your voice. Only you didn't make the call.

If you know anything about the original Mothman Prophecies, you know how all this ends. But that's beside the point. The Mothman Prophecies is largely about grief and recovery. But it's also about the burden of the future, knowing that there is an inevitable conclusion to all things that we simply cannot control. Death brings that knowledge into terrible perspective.

Unfortunately, the movie drags. And drags. The eerie sounds are a bit overplayed; in some cases, silence would have been more effective than the relentless sound effects. The aural assault may have been more effective in the theater, but on television it's just annoying.

That doesn't detract from Mothman's overall sense of dread. If you have an interest in paranormal procedurals, watch The Mothman Prophecies. It will leave you Cold. And that's a good thing.


Great Suspense
2009-03-22 - This gets high marks for suspense alone. It is a very tense movie, guaranteed to keep the first-time viewer glued to his/her seat. It might even raise a few hairs on the back of your neck!

Dramatic music also helped with the suspense. In addition, we get some fine acting performances from Richard Gere, Laura Linney and Will Patton.

Don't be fooled, however, with the "based on a true story" tag line. It might be "based" but that could mean only a very, very small part of this film was actual; the rest presented for dramatic purposes. From what I've read, this is the case here.

Nonetheless, it's very interesting, has good visuals and decent sound and some genuine creepy moments. For those looking to curl up on the couch with a good thriller, give this movie a look.