Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23592 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-10-21
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 119 minutes

Amazon.co.uk 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

Special Features
16:9 Wide Screen
DVD 9
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1
Animated Intro
Animated Audio Menus
Behind The Scenes
Documentary
Cast And Crew Interviews
Trailers

Synopsis
Driving South to Richmond, Washington Post reporter John Klein (Richard Gere) finds himself unexpectedly way off course--in the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia--knocking on the door of Gordon and Denise Smallwood (Tom Patton and Lucinda Jenney). Gordon is irate. This is the third night in a row that Klein has knocked on his door at 2 a.m. When Sgt. Connie Parker (Laura Linney) arrives to investigate, Klein discovers this is just one of many strange events occurring in the town. With Parker's help, Klein investigates. Soon, he becomes convinced that some catastrophe is about to occur.
In THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES, scriptwriter Richard Hatem and director Mark Pellington play upon the strange events that reportedly occurred in Point Pleasant in the mid-1960s. As in ARLINGTON ROAD, Pellington makes great use of a restless, prowling camera and ominous sound effects provided by sound editor Kelly Cabral, sound mixer Pud Cusack (she also worked on ARLINGTON ROAD), and sound designer Claude Letessier. Pellington gets fine performances from Gere, Linney, Patton, Alan Bates as a paranormal investigator, and Debra Messing--striking in the too-small role of Klein's wife--before he produces a spectacular final sequence.

Customer Reviews

Want a good nights sleep? Don't watch this first!
I don't think I've ever been quite so disturbed by a film as I have this one... I'm not sure if it's because I watched it when overtired and late at night, but wow... nothing has ever quite made me feel so paranoid!

The Mothman Prophecies follows Richard Gere as a reporter, who, after his wifes death in a mysterious car accident, suddenly finds himself dragged into the middle of strange goings-on in the town of Point Pleasent, Ohio. Locals are reporting stories of a giant winged man-creature to the police Chief, played by (I think) Laura Linney, their sightings causing ripples of fear throughout the community.

Richard Gere's character recognises the drawing of the creature made by one witness as that of something his wife scrawled in her hospital bed before she died, and before long finds himself communicating with it and being dragged into its insanity.

What's great about this film is that it never really shows you the mysterious Mothman. It's appearance is recounted by Gere's encounters with the locals, most distrubingly with a guy named George who unravels before his eyes as the monster prophecises various disasters.

Some may complain that the film is slow, but I think it drags you in with it's forboding atmosphere, great script and well drawn characters. It does sag a little near the middle-end, but it more than makes up for it in an amazing finalé that is a little too horrific for words.

The editing is incredibly clever, as is the cinematography and use of subliminal images. You do get the feeling that the filmmaker is paying tribute to Kubrick at some points, but it's satisfying to know that he didn't just make some bog-standard creature-feature out of what is a very well crafted plot.

The sound design is also amazingly well done... playing with your perceptions and, in the case of the voice and sounds of the Mothman himself, incredibly disturbing. I may never pick the phone up late at night again.

What is incredible is that this film is based on a book of the same name by a reporter called John Keel, which in turn is centred on real events that occured in 1966 in Point Pleasent. The 40-or-so minute documentary which comes bundled as an extra on the DVD, if a little over-americanised, is genuinely disturbing through the amount of witnesses, vintage news reportage and the fact that the events lead up to a disaster mirrored in the film itself.

Other than that, there are some bog-standard biogs, interviews and HBO Making Of's which I feel it could do without. To sum up - a clever, tense film with characters you can care for and a mysterious creature you hope you will never meet...

Unfortunately, for the survivors of the inhabitants of Point Pleasent, Ohio, they did - and apparently, many more people will...

Classy, suspensful chiller.
This is a fabulous film. It's based on the true story of a "moth-man" creature seen in various sightings around the world, as a pre-cursor to disaster events. This moth-man appears before the disaster, presenting rather clouded and confusing messages to those he visits. It transpires that these messages are in fact prophecies of the impending disaster.
Richard Gere is very well cast here as the innocent guy caught up in the mystery after his wife dies after a car crash. In the seconds before the crash, his wife "sees" this awful creature lundge at the car. She dies some days later, after doctors discover a brain tumour - which would not have been discovered had it not have been for the crash caused by the moth-man.
Two years later, Richard's character is drawn into the mystery when he takes a drive in his car, only to end up hundreds of miles away from his intended destination in about a quarter of the time it should have taken to get there! He soon learns of sightings of this wierd being whom he recognises as that seen by his wife before her death.
What follows is Richard's attempts to quantify his experiences which are interlinked with an increasing number of sightings in a small American town he is drawn to.
I won't say any more as it will ruin the many twists and turns.
Suffice it to say it's a very well made film with some chilling moments (similar in effect to that famous twist at the end of Sixth Sense). It keeps you on your seat's edge guessing at precisely what is going on and why.
You are still left with questions at the end, but they retain the mystery surrounding what is a true phenomenan.
The final scenes on a river bridge are superb and just when you think you know where the film's going, it takes yet another twist.
Fine acting, a deep and fascinating story line and cleverly directed suspense scenes make this one NOT to miss.

be afraid - the mothman cometh
mark pellington's film has many strengths - a surreal atmosphere evoked by sound and light, strong performances from the cast, superb editing and a spine tingling score... but perhaps its strongest point is the films restraint. the film scares well but it doesn't use sudden loud noises, cats jumping into frame or quick editing to do so. instead, pellington builds a sense of dread from the off - something in this world isn't quite right.
richard gere is quite effective in a stoic role - indeed he reigns in a performance free of his usual facial ticks. laura linney is as good as she ever is (which is fine by me) even if her role is a little under written. in a tiny role as gere's wife, debra messing is surprisingly good and will patton gives a strong reading of a man tortured by visions of disaster.
a terrificly subtle movie that lingers in the mind - perhaps one of the best horror movies of the last few years.