"THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES"
Starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Will Patton, and Debra Messing
Directed by Mark Pellington
Running Time: 1 hour 59 minutes
Rated PG-13

"This is NOT the Blair Witch all over again! This is a true story that occurred in Pt. Pleasant, WV. I know. I'm from this area and know the people who lived through this. When you hear their voices crack and see the terror in their eyes after 30 years, you know it was real. This book, as well as "The Mothman Prophecies"… will give you the real story, not the Hollywood hype." (Heather Dobson, quoted from a book review on Amazon.com)

The Mothman is a legend that has occasionally surfaced throughout the centuries, and particularly a number of times in the twentieth; from the Crimean War to Chernobyl, China to Bermuda, tales of the Mothman are the typical fodder of television's "Unsolved Mysteries" or "Sightings", another Sasquatch/alien/demon/ghost/phantasm-type tale with nothing our culture considers "solid" evidence… and yet a stunning and often compelling array of frantic eyewitness testimony, bizarre circumstances, and puzzling documentation. Based on the book of the same name by John Keel—regarding a tragedy which occurred in Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1967—"The Mothman Prophecies" is a creepy film, and a breath of fresh air amongst standard movie fare; coming in with no sex and little bloodshed, this film hearkens back to the early days of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, mixed with the tension and pacing of a weekly X-File—all that's missing is the banter of optimism vs. skepticism of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Layered with just enough chills and mystery, "Prophecies" is not going to win any awards… but it entertains, and provides some fodder for Christian conversation as well.

Recreating the events of 1966-67 and placing it in a modern-day landscape, the film depicts television reporter John Klein (Gere), and the mysterious chain of events that draw him to Point Pleasant, West Virginia and the mysterious "Mothman". Obsessed with a picture drawn by his deceased wife, while she was in the hospital with a brain tumor—dark wings, glowing eyes—Klein finds himself inexplicably drawn to a small town where residents are seeing the same phenomenon. As he follows the stories and traces the legend, he discovers that these shadowy beings commonly appear, preceding or foreshadowing death or disaster. No one can put a finger on what they are, or what their motivation is, and yet they communicate to some degree with the residents (and Klein) in ways that hint at prophecy, yet remain ambiguous; the foreknowledge does practically nothing to help them deal with or avert calamity. Driven to the edge of sanity, Klein and those drawn into the Mothman's web are tormented by phone calls, bleeding ears, time-loss, and barely discernible predictions about the future.

Lovers of the "tidy wrap up" and "full disclosure" will be disappointed by the film's ending, which more or less throws up a big question mark as to who or what these moth-beings are, or what they represent. Websites devoted to the subject posit everything from aliens to Men-In-Black, and a professor in the film suggests that they are a "natural phenomenon" which precedes tragedy… simply a form of life or the" universe's process" that we are not capable of comprehending. One really can't slight the film or screenplay for being vague and unassuming here… to suppose an answer or solution that the book—based on true events—never realized would only be Hollywood at its worst. This ending doesn't satisfy, but the film is not supposed to; the film is supposed to make one inquisitive, make one hungry for answers, and make one ponder the mysteries of a world that we only pretend to have pinned down.

While not normally a Richard Gere fan, the man puts his heart into the role of John Klein and produces an above-average performance. Messing and Linney are also adequate, though no performance in the film truly stands out as phenomenal. Patton is most interesting, moving from angry to earnest and then despondent as his local country-boy character is run through the mental and physical ringer by the voices and images he experiences. The film is engaging enough to recommend for an evening's enjoyment and subsequent conversation, but ultimately not very memorable.

What IS interesting is post-film conversation possibilities; why is it that everyone is rushing to create urban legends and paranormal or alien phenomena, grasping at supernatural straws and eager to believe in mothmen, bigfoot, sea monsters and extra-terrestrials, all of which—evidentially—have LESS documentation, less reputation, less history, and fewer eyewitnesses than those that form the foundation of our Christian faith? It's funny to see online bulletin boards and chat rooms fraught with people who "don't believe Jesus rose from the dead" and yet are gullible enough to believe in mothmen and greys. These same people ridicule men of faith for stupid assumptions and lack of evidence, stick Darwin-fishes on their car, and listen to Art Bell.

Indeed, those purporting that "the mothman exists" link it more commonly with aliens… when a more likely explanation is, quite frankly, demons. Foreknowledge, divination, prophecies that ultimately just cause more stress and problems, rather than being useful… these things easily fall in line with the devil's modus operandi. I'm not charismatic enough to say that what many call "alien abduction" is without doubt demon possession and devilish manipulation, or that the mothman is "most certainly" a deceptive demon. We have enough wicked people out there willing to scam us, not to mention our own depraved minds, to create all this unnecessary drama in our lives. And yet, the believer has to ponder if these phenomena—being "visited" by dark creatures, being paralyzed by mysterious forces, losing time/ hearing voices/ being abducted/ being possessed are truly so far apart from one another, or from the very real spiritual oppression of which the Bible speaks plainly (and with extreme caution).

As a culture, we seem so ready to embrace supernatural or non-terrestrial notions in which the foundation is even weaker than most skeptics would suggest the BIBLE is. Still, we are ready—eager, desperate—to latch onto these deceptions, as if they are "fresh" and "new" and hence able to satisfy our questions about the universe. As Paul tells us in the book of Romans, we suppress the truth about God and exchange it for a lie; it would be so easy for our spiritual enemies to simply lend a helping hand, wouldn't it?

Like Hollywood and the media, they're just giving the public what they want.