CatTales Review of The Mothman Prophecies

The Mothman Prophecies (2002)

you will mysteriously lose 2 hours and $7.50 on this dud

[1/10 · 6 February 2002]

There's a good 5 minute story buried in this subjectively shot movie that tries too hard and utterly fails to scare. I was filled with dread as the credits appeared over a meaningless running shot of office fluorescent lights and close-ups of everyday, irrelevant, inherently unscary objects. As the film progresses we get more irrelevant close-ups, disorienting angles, hand-held camera shots, rapid editing and fast drum-beat soundtrack. And more close-ups. Soon you'll be wishing you took some dramamine. The movie tries to make EVERYTHING scary, with the result that nothing seems scary. There are a few standard "jolts" when something appears out of nowhere - the usual filmic way of saying "Boo." But after a dozen times of the now-cliche camera zooming to and away from a character, the panicked look he's left with seems probably caused by a sudden camera in the face rather than a ghost. The creepiest-potential moment when Indrid Cole (aka Kindred Spirit?) phones our hero is dissipated by the excessive layering of visuals. Soon any plot or sense of realism is lost - what about our hero's job? what day or night is it? what does he do most of the time in Point Pleasant? why and how does his initial meeting with a young couple happen at night in the quarry instead of the day, and do they really mention all the sexual details we see as they relate their mothman encounter? All the irrelevent camera shots encourage the viewer to ponder irrelevent questions: Is that little guy in the sound lab making a music CD of his glass-lip rubbing? Do ethereal mothfolk really leave slime when hit by a car, and are there accident attorney mothpeople that represent them in mothcourt? To make something creepy or uncanny you need some realism to subvert, as one can see in "One step beyond" and "Xfiles." By becoming more and more erratic, this movie not only seems unbelievable but manages to undermine the credibility of the real events.