The Mothman Prophecies (Special Edition) |  | Director: Mark Pellington
Actors: Nesbitt Blaisdell, Dan Callahan, Shane Callahan, David Eigenberg, Ron Emanuel
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $27.95
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Rating:  230 reviews
Sales Rank: 42077
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 99
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 2
Running Time: 119 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: D09326D
ISBN: 0767897633
UPC: 043396093263
EAN: 9780767897631
ASIN: B00008WJEK
Theatrical Release Date: January 25, 2002
Release Date: May 27, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A WIDOWED REPORTER IS DRAWN TO A SMALL WEST VIRGINIA TOWN WHERE HE BECOMES OBSESSED WITH A SERIES OF STRANGE EVENTS, INCLUDINGPSYCHIC VISIONS AND THE APPEARANCE OF BIZARRE ENTITIES.
Amazon.com
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
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 230
Now I want to read the book February 8, 2010
Bayouland Christmas (Lafayette, LA United States)
After reading the reviews, I bought the DVD. I enjoy good Science Fiction DVD's and this was subtle and kept me intrigued trying to figure out what the outcome would be. The book is always better than the movie, so that will be my next purchase.
 The paranormal meets the creature features January 7, 2010
Charles J. Garard Jr. PhD (Jilin City, China)
Although I am a professor of literature, I have often been a fan both of classic horror films and of studies in the paranormal. I have been known to write reviews of horror films and even to contribute an article to the Atlantic Paranormal Society publication about supposedly real creatures in Indonesia. I am an avid fan of the COAST TO COAST AM radio program and Psychic Radio from Detroit, heard here in China on AOL Radio. However, I have not, to this point, written my thoughts about THE MOTHMAN PROPHECY, a film that straddles the line between being an old-fashioned (non-violent) horror film that suggests more than it shows . . . and a film about psychic predictions that are extremely eerie when they are shown to be true.
If I had to list my favorite horror film of all time -- and that includes a broad spectrum of classics reaching from Hammer horror films to THE INNOCENTS and the Italian film BLACK SUNDAY-- I would place THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES at the top. It works successfully on a level that no other film I have seen quite approaches. If one wants suspense and ambiguities instead of blood-dripping gore (in a genre made popular by Dario Argento), if one wants to see characters (portrayed by Richard Gere and Laura Linney) who are as perplexed as we are because they keep encountering more questions than answers, one could do far worse than spending time with Mark Pellington's skillfully directed cinematic masterpiece. Each camera placement (from extreme close-ups of Richard Gere's ear to compelling aerial shots) is perfection. One would be hard-pressed to find a more suspenseful scene than the one where Gere talks on the phone to a mothman named Indrid Cold in his motel room. When Gere thinks he sees his dead wife in his motel room bed, I literally jumped in my theatre seat and almost lost all of the popcorn from the bag balanced on my lap. After seeing such films as EVIL DEAD, I was pretty sure that nothing in a horror film could still catch me off-guard and push the "surprise" button. I was wrong.
What makes this film a classic in suspense is the fact that not all of the frightening scenes are directly related to any mothman creature. If predictions that amazingly come true are compelling to those of us fascinated by psychics and their prophecies, perhaps it is because what we don't see that is more important than what we are shown. Pellington knows how to appeal to our sense of wonder, knowing that what we conjure up in our imaginations will remain with us longer than images of CGI monsters and men in creature suits. After seeing this film, I could not help comparing it to other similar films released at about the same time, such as SIGNS, DRAGONFLY, and Stephen King's DREAMCATCHER. While THE RING (the Canadian remake as opposed to the Japanese original) comes close with some frightening scenes, the others are luke-warm and flat by comparison with MOTHMAN. A close runner-up in the fright department is the Michael Keaton film WHITE NOISE, perhaps because this is based on actual paranormal research with EVPs, just as THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES is based on actual reported sightings in Point Pleasant WV and the real-life collapse of the Silver Bridge in the late 1960s.
According to John Keel's book based on his investigations and reports heard on COAST TO COAST AM (and even shown in the on-the-spot recorded investigations of the TV series PARANORMAL STATE), these mothman entities have been seen elsewhere in the world (even in Asia) and have occasionally been seen again in the Point Pleasant area. Perhaps not enough evidence yet exists to prove that these creatures actually share the planet with humans and animals (as a scene featuring venerable British actor Alan Bates suggests), the realization that down-to-earth West Virginia residents have reported seeing them adds a deft touch of verisimilitude to the proceedings.
Is Mothman Real if You Can't Touch Him? December 22, 2009
Kenneth A. Nelson (Pensacola, FL)
Usually not a fan of Sci-Fi, I was very pleased with this film in it's entirety. An age-old story set in today's world. Well made visuals and the music was a great compliment to the storyline. I enjoyed Richard Gere, but I hoped there would be more of Debra Messing and some more girth to Laura Linney's character.
I never jumped out of my seat screaming in horror, but I never left the room either. Maybe a scream or two would have gotten another star.
 Ding Dong! Death calling! December 8, 2009
Stephen Ressel (North Dakota, USA)
When this movie came out, I instantly knew they took the excellent, seminal Keel book, crumpled it up, and threw it in a corner of the room. The trailer alone captured none of the feel or items of the book. Seeing Richard Gere flagged it as a film trying desperately trying to claw at viewers attending movies to see familiar faces with expectations of romantic interest... and that's kind of what this film is: a romance, slice-o-life, drama, holiday, supernatural suspense story.
And, yes, it is as muddled as my description. It just tries to hard to be something which it shouldn't be. This was a film that either was translated perfectly from a very lack luster script, or it was an idea with a hundred hands influencing the making. I can't imagine a skilled script writer piecing this together from the book. The film was probably a real holiday fruitcake shoved full of little fruity bits of story and pap philosophy provided by a cartload of studio fruitcakes bent on influencing something and making it their own.
Final analysis: yawn.
Good points: it ends.
Bad points: none, aside from pacing and lack of story.
This could have been a 50 minute made for TV movie. Too much time was spent on pauses which, while necessary in proper context usually left out of many "suspense" films these days, were just over drawn and close to pointless. How could someone have read the book, which is filled with UFOs, cryptids, Men in Black, Government conspiracies, poltergeists, cattle mutilations, strange aliens, strange dopple gangers, weird psychotropic effects and expreiences, paranoia, strange and vaporous entities calling and visiting people, predictions of doom, and then a moment of disaster, and come away with a 2 hour film about a barely tangible thread about an angel of death? The book was written in a setting so rich and the story of John Keel's investigation is so crazy and amazing that a person would have to be fairly ignorant to not pull out so much of the underlying themes and obvious visuals to make a memorable movie.
If you love romantic suspense films that allow you to have sex in the middle without missing any plot when you return to viewing, this is the one to see!
If you want a film rich with intense and interesting events boiling over to seat searing finish making you reflect on life and how to live it, skip it.
 Very disappointing. November 28, 2009
Stephen J. Triesch (Shoreline WA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 230
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