The Mothman Prophecies is a 2002 film directed by Mark Pellington, adapted from the 1976 book of the same name by parapsychologist and Fortean John Keel.
Richard Gere plays John Klein, a hot-shot Washington, D.C. reporter whose life suddenly takes a different turn after he and his wife, Mary, (Debra Messing) are involved in a car accident. Although she suffers a non-fatal head injury, Mary's CAT scans show that she has a brain tumor diagnosed as glioblastoma. Shortly after her death, John discovers an assortment of cryptic drawings that she had made of a strange creature.
Two years later, while driving to Richmond, Virginia, John becomes lost and inexplicably finds himself almost five hours off-course, arriving in the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. He soon becomes entangled in the personal stories of some of the residents, and in a chain of mysterious events, whereby local townspeople report strange supernatural encounters, along with weird lights and phone calls. With the help of the town sheriff (Laura Linney), John begins to investigate the encounters and determines that the common link is an apparently supernatural creature known as the Mothman, whose appearances seem to foretell disastrous events. Things take a decidedly personal and frightening turn when he realizes the eerie connections between his wife’s drawings, eyewitness accounts of the Mothman, and phone calls from an other-worldly, seemingly malevolent entity named Indrid Cold.
The Mothman becomes a personal obsession for Klein. He meets a Mothman expert, Alexander Leek (Alan Bates), who convinces him that there may be a tragedy in store for the small town.
Rating
The movie received an MPAA rating of PG-13 for terror, some sexuality, and language.
Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics. Roger Ebert gave it two stars out of four, accusing it of being 'unfocused' and 'meandering'.
Differences from the book
The film adaptation of The Mothman Prophecies concentrates more on the personal stories and personalities of the characters and less on the investigation of UFOs and other strange phenomena upon which much of the book was based. It also is set in the modern-day rather than the 1960s, which is when the real-life sightings of the entity occurred.
Most of the book’s characters have also been re-imagined. All have been renamed and in some cases, several characters have been merged into one or altered in some other way. Several have been removed entirely, such as the newspaper editor Mary Hyre, although her death somewhat mirrors that of one of the movie’s characters.
Of the book’s more mysterious entities, the Men in Black, or “MIBs,” have been removed; Indrid Cold, a relatively benign being in the book, is something more sinister in the film; and the Mothman itself rarely appears in the film. Instead, it is used to evoke subtle notes of supernatural horror for the filmgoer, versus functioning as the central, mysterious and provocative character as in the book.
In reality, 46 people died in the collapse of the Silver Bridge, not 36. Moreover, the claim at the end credits of the movie that the collapse of the Silver Bridge was never explained is incorrect. It was found to be caused by the failure of an eye-bar in a suspension chain. [2]
Production
Aside from a few opening scenes filmed in Washington, D.C., the entire movie was filmed in the areas of Pittsburgh and Kittanning in Pennsylvania. The scenes of Gere sitting on a park bench are on the University of Pittsburgh campus, the road montages are filmed on Pennsylvania Route 28, and the Chicago scenes are completely shot in downtown Pittsburgh’s Mellon Square and Trinity Churchyard environs as well as the entrance to the Duquesne Club. However, the Point Pleasant scenes were shot in Kittanning, Pennsylvania. The collapse of the Silver Bridge at the end of the film was actually filmed at the Kittanning Citizens Bridge in downtown Kittanning. In addition, the scenes shot at Mr. Smallwood’s house were filmed in Washington County on Pennsylvania Route 917. Pittsburgh’s Allegheny County Airport serves as the backdrop for the airfield scenes. Despite this relocation, several police officers from Point Pleasant appeared as extras in the film. [3] The first appearance of Indrid Cold was not a digital shot, and was done by blurring the camera.[citation needed] The film’s shooting script had named five screenwriters: Richard Hatem, Becky Johnston, Alison Cross, Ernest Marrero, and Lewis Klahr. Lewis Klahr, better known as a collagist and experimental film-maker, was the final writer on the script. However, only Hatem (who wrote the first draft of the script) received credit on the finished film.[4] The budget was cut by $2,000,000 before filming began. [5]
Trivia
- In the movie, Gordon Smallwood—who had been haunted by the mysterious Indrid Cold—was based on a real person by the name of Woodrow Derenberger. Derenberger was the man who reported that he had met Indrid Cold in reality.
- Professor Alexander Leek—who gave John Klein an insight to the Mothman in the movie—has the last name "Keel" spelled backwards. This is the last name of John A. Keel, the author of the book which inspired the film.
- The film is based on actual events that occurred between November 1966 and December 1967 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
- Director Mark Pellington plays the voice of Indrid Cold during the phone call.
- The clock radio in John Klein's 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 Mothman is hidden at various points in the movie for only a couple frames, including the wire on the bridge and in the reflection of the mirror on the door Richard Gere slams. A dark spectral shape can also be noted flying around the highest right-hand sided point of the bridge when the section with the police car collapses.
See also
References
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