Horror films have made many stories surrounding the supernatural creatures that plague imaginations. The supernatural genre has a great many successful movies, one of which is The Mothman Prophecies. The 2002 film directed by Mark Pellington had mixed reviews when released, but ultimately became a cult classic. The supernatural mystery only received a 52% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but 86% of Google users have liked the film. This film was liked because of the real legend that sprouted the terrifying creature, the suspense, and the unsettling atmosphere leaving audiences chilled to the bone.
The thriller follows the story of columnist John Klein, played by Richard Gere, who loses his wife after she sees a vision of a large, dark, in-flight creature. Two years after her death, John finds himself in Point Pleasant, Virginia, after getting lost on the way to a potential story. When his car breaks down, and he goes to a house to ask for help, he is detained when the homeowner claims it is the third night in a row that John has asked for help. Talking to the locals, he discovers many strange occurrences, including several people seeing a large, red-eyed, moth-like humanoid. The officer who detained him tells him about a vision she has with an ominous message; they must work out what the creature is telling them.
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The Real Mothman Legend
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The film was loosely based on a book of the same name, written by John A. Keel. The book is a collection of investigations that Keel made into sightings of the large, winged creature dubbed the Mothman. The sightings primarily took place in the area of Point Pleasant, Virginia, in 1966 and 1967. Ultimately, he insinuated that the sightings were connected to the December 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River. While the book was met with skeptical reviews and attacks on Keel’s character, this did not change the witness accounts of the creature.
The locals of Point Pleasant still see the Mothman in recent times. There was even a picture that was taken in 2016 by a man who had recently moved to the area. Locals wholeheartedly believe the creature is real, though its intentions are not absolutely clear.
The Terrifying Creature
The film takes its creature design from witness accounts. The creature is said to have a large stature, even taller than an average man. It also has been seen with a wingspan of around ten feet. Its eyes glow red and is often seen in high places or in flight. The film remains true to the basic description, while adding more moth-like details, such as a hairy texture. The film did a good job of leaving most details to the imagination, by utilizing quick cuts and obscured blurs with red eyes. The film was reserved in showing the creature, and chose to hide him in moving images. Having an ominous creature hiding in plain sight and stalking the characters was a terrifying component.
The Race Against the Unknown
The movie was written to be more of a suspenseful mystery than a creature feature. Based on John Keel’s theory, connecting the Mothman sightings to the 1967 bridge collapse, the movie followed the columnist and police officer as they tried to decode the odd messages that the creature gave in his sightings. It gave one prophecy as a message of “99 will die” to a local. They discover that an airplane crashed in Denver, killing 99 passengers onboard. This gives the characters a race with life or death consequences of the officer’s message: “wake up, Number 37.”
While trying to stop a fatal tragedy, the characters have no sense of whether the supernatural entity lurking about, is a friend or foe. The threatening air surrounding the creature’s presence is almost suffocating, but added to the coming disaster, the characters are thrown into a race with missing variables. They have no way of knowing when or where the catastrophe will occur. The only clue they have, is that the officer will be involved with 36 other victims. This brings to life an atmosphere of tension and suspense, that audiences can feel weighing down on the characters.
The Unsettling Atmosphere
While the story gives the audience enough to feel uneasy, the look of the film also has a heavy and dark ambience. It was almost as if the entire film was being weighed down, making everyone feel as if they would be swallowed by the abyss at anytime. The restraint of special effects also reminded audiences that this was all taking place in a very real place, not in a fictional, fantasy world. It was like a sign that this could happen to anyone in the audience, at any time.
The Mothman Prophecies is not a typical horror film that utilizes jump scares, or a normal villain. Instead, it deals with a horror story based in realism. Some reviews of the film have brought up the slow pace and that the story poses more questions rather than answering them. While that may be frustrating to some, that was a part of the beauty of this film. The real-life investigation into Mothman left many unanswered questions. While Keel did his best to give a possible explanation into the sightings, it still poses questions as to what the creature is and why it would be giving out warnings. The pace of the film expressed the helplessness that the characters were experiencing, as they watched the clock ticking away. The agonizing feeling of knowing lives are at stake if they fail is conveyed through the slower pace.
Taking a story of a “real life” supernatural creature and making a mystery movie was a brilliant choice. Conveying the investigation of John Keel’s book into a real time mystery was a great storytelling method that gave new life to the story, rather than a stiff adaptation. Then, the dark visual style choices and the creeping pace were the perfect approach for bringing the audience into the distressing atmosphere. This makes The Mothman Prophecies a chilling film that is very different from what was being made throughout the 2000s, and why it is still giving audiences chills 20 years later.
