The Mothman Prophecies (film)

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The Mothman Prophecies is a supernatural 2002 horror film directed by Mark Pellington, and starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney. Based on a 1975 book of the same name by parapsychologist and author of Fortean John Keel, the scenario was written by Richard Hatem.

The following story is John Klein (Gere), a reporter who examines the legend of Mothman. After a long detour, he does not remember, he found himself in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where there were sightings of unusual creatures and other unexplained phenomena. Many of the visions reminded him of his dead wife. As he becomes increasingly interested in mysterious forces at work, he hopes they can reconnect him with his wife, while the local sheriff (Linney) becomes worried about his obsession.

The film claims to be based on real events that occurred between November 1966 and December 1967 in Point Pleasant, as described by Keel. It was shot in Pittsburgh and Kittanning, Pennsylvania and was released for mixed reviews.

Video The Mothman Prophecies (film)

Plot

Washington Post Columnist John Klein and his wife Mary were involved in an accident when Mary turned to avoid a flying black figure. John survived the accident unscathed, but Mary was hospitalized. After Mary died of an unrelated brain tumor, John discovers a mysterious picture of the creature he created before the night of the accident.

Two years later, John got lost in West Virginia and somehow found himself in Point Pleasant, hundreds of miles from his route. Driving in the middle of the night, his car was damaged; and he walked to the nearest house for help. The owner, Gordon Smallwood, reacts strongly to John's appearance and holds him at gunpoint. Local police officer Connie Mills calmed the situation while Gordon explained that this was the third night in a row that John had knocked on his door asking to use the phone, which was very confusing to John. John stayed at a local motel and considered how he got to a place very far from where he came from.

Officer Mills mentioned to John that a lot of strange things had happened in the last few weeks and people reported seeing big winged creatures like giant moths with red eyes. He also told John about the strange dream he had, where the words "Bangun, Number 37" were spoken to him. Speaking to Gordon one day, he revealed to John that he had heard voices from his sink that told him that, in Denver, "99 would die". While discussing the day's events at a local restaurant, John noticed that the news showed a story of a plane crash in Denver that killed 99 passengers in it. The next night, Gordon frantically explained that he had filled the voices in his head, a man called Indrid Cold.

That night, Gordon called John and said that he was standing with someone called Indrid Cold. While John made Cold on the line, Officer Mills checked Gordon. Cold answer to John's question, including one he could not possibly know the answer, convinced John that Cold was a supernatural being. This episode initiated a series of supernatural calls to John's motel room. One tells him that there will be a great tragedy on the Ohio River. Later, John receives a call from Gordon and rushes to his house to check it out. He found Gordon outside, dying of exposure.

John became obsessed with the creature, dubbed Mothman. He meets with an expert in this field, Alexander Leek, who explains his nature and does not encourage John to get involved any further. However, when John learned of the Governor's plans to tour a chemical plant located on the Ohio River the next day, he became convinced that the tragedy would happen there. Officer Mills and the governor ignored his warning, and nothing happened during the tour. Soon after, John receives a mysterious message instructing him to wait for a call from his dead wife, Mary, back to Georgetown, and he returns home.

On Christmas Eve, Officer Mills called and convinced him to ignore the phone call from "Mary", returned to Point Pleasant, and joined him. Despite his sadness, John agrees. When John reaches the Silver Bridge, the traffic lights are jammed causing traffic jams. When John walks over to the bridge to investigate, bolts and buffers from the tension of the bridge. The bridge is separate, and John realizes that the tragedy prophesied in the Ohio River is about the bridge. When the bridge collapsed, Officer Mills's car fell into the water. John jumps after him and pulls him out of the river and into a safe place. When the two sit behind the ambulance, they see that 36 people have been killed, making Connie "number 37" from his dream. The cause of the collapse of the bridge has never been fully determined. Although Mothman has been seen in other parts of the world, it is never seen again in Point Pleasant.

Maps The Mothman Prophecies (film)

Cast

• Richard Gere as John Klein
• Laura Linney as Connie Mills
• Will Patton as Gordon Smallwood
• Debra Messing as Mary Klein
• Lucinda Jenney as Denise Smallwood
• Alan Bates as Alexander Leek
• David Eigenberg as Ed Fleischman
• Bob Tracey as Cyrus Bills
• Mark Pellington as Indrid Cold "The Mothman" (sound)

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Themes and interpretations

Writer Paul Meehan judged the film's description of Mothman to be "the puzzling mish-mosh of science fiction and demonology" and likened it to the X-Files Television series, despite preserving Keel's "unspeakable hysteria". said that "Aliens eats rare prophetic sayings in UFO literature".

In contrast to Meehan, author Jason Horsley states The Mothman Prophecies "perhaps the most effective depiction of demon forces at work" in US theaters. Horsley judged his approach to the legend of Mothman as describing the "schizophrenic nature of reality", fulfilling the purpose of "revelation" in a horror film, as he "abolished the comfortable veneer of the consensus reality to uncover the gap of irrationality." Horsley argues the Mothman film comes from a foreign dimension, but without "physical existence", it is also a mind product of Point Pleasant residents, based on "formless and impersonal energy". The Mothman, identified by Horsley as a "messenger of the Id", is depicted in the film as electrically or gravitational.

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Production

Carl Franklin was originally attached to Richard Hatem's specific script before Mark Pellington was hired. Pellington rejected many screenwriters as Keel's literal interpretation of the book, and hopes to explore the psychological drama in UFO witnesses.

In fact, 46 people died in the collapse of the Silver Bridge, not 36 as depicted in the film. The film claim at the end of the credit of the collapse of the Silver Bridge never explained is wrong; the incident was found to be caused by a bar-eye failure in the suspension chain in 1971, long before the publication of the book on which the film was based, let alone the film.

Filming

Aside from some of the opening scenes that were filmed in Washington, D.C., most of the films were filmed in the Pittsburgh and Kittanning areas of Pennsylvania. The Gere scene sits on a park bench on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. Montages street was filmed on Pennsylvania Route 28, and the Chicago scene was really shot in downtown Pittsburgh Mellon Square and the Trinity Churchyard neighborhood as well as the entrance to the Duquesne Club. The "Chemical Plant" featured in the film is actually a power plant owned by Reliant Energy in Elrama, Pennsylvania. The Avalon Motor Inn is in Eighty Four, Pennsylvania, although indoor sights are built as separate devices, as the inn's atmosphere can not accommodate production. The Point Pleasant scene was shot in Kittanning, Pennsylvania. The hospital scene was filmed in St. Frances Medical Center is now home to Pittsburgh Children's Hospital. The collapse of the Silver Bridge was actually filmed at the Kittanning Citizen Bridge in downtown Kittanning. The scene shot at Gordon Smallwood's home was filmed in Washington County on Pennsylvania Route 917. Allegheny County Airport in Pittsburgh serves as a backdrop for the airfield scene. In spite of this relocation, some police officers from Point Pleasant emerged as additions.

Music

The musical score of the film is composed by the creative lab of Tomomandandy. On January 22, 2002, Lakeshore Records released a two-disc-soundtrack edition.

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Release

After the film was released theatrically on January 25, 2002, author Brad Steiger observed that Point Pleasant became the focal point for his promotion. Television and poster marketing emphasizes that the claim is "based on real events", although the supernatural premise and Pellington's account recognition are framed as fictitious narratives.

In 2002, a 1-region edition of the film was released on DVD in May 2003. Specific features include audio commentary by Pellington, a documentary entitled Search for the Mothman , and the featurette "Day by Day : A Director's Trip - The Road In ". In Region 2, a published DVD also includes Search for the Mothman as well as interviews with Gere, Linney and Patton.

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Reception

Critical response

Among the main critics in the US, the film received mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 53% of the 137 sample critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 5.5 out of 10. At Metacritic, which sets the weighted average of 100 critic's reviews, The Mothman Prophecies > received a score of 52 based on 32 reviews. In 2003, the film won the Best Sound Editing award: Music in a Feature Film from the Motion Picture Sound Editor community.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave him two stars out of four, calling him unfocused, but praising the direction by Mark Pellington "whose camera command, pacing and overall effect is excellent, deserves a better scenario. "The New York Times critic Elvis Mitchell judged it" silent and smooth "but" little more than a dozen of the genre of winter-sluggish genre. " Stephen Hunter dismissed it as "all rumors: This is a cameraman on the brink of collapse and a weird music to look for a composer", and jokingly sees it "Like being robbed at gang by actor crew A very craving method ". In Variety , Robert Koehler claims "wandering from the sustainable atmosphere into a silly detour". For The Guardian, Bob Rickard defends it as "a smart and creative exploration of a slick world, like the dream of those who are 'too close'.

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Source of the article : Wikipedia