The Mothman Prophecies is a psychological thriller rather than a horror film, and succeeds quite well as such. Like John Klein, we are gradually drawn into the Twilight Zone-like high strangeness of phantom entities and unexplained messages. What happens in Point Pleasant is so queer and irrational that when Klein begins to question his own sanity, we're with him. And it's even more effective knowing that this really happened to Keel. He was caught up in "a vortex of phenomena, and couldn't really tell one from the other," says Loren Coleman (author of a book on the subject, Mothman and Other Curious Encounters) in an article for IGN FilmForce. "It was a scary situation for John."
Making this story work is no simple feat. On the surface, the phenomena are so crazy -- so unbelievable -- that it can be instinctive to dismiss them or not take them seriously. "This is difficult territory," said director Pellington, "and it's really easy to veer into melodrama or wackiness. It's really kind of unbelievable so you have to go deeper, to a metaphysical, naturally surreal, enigmatic, mysterious emotional place with this material to make it work. Otherwise it's ridiculous."
Fortunately, Pellington does make it work. Many of the reviews for the film in the mainstream press have been generally favorable. It's understandable that film critics want to judge a film strictly on its merits as a work of cinema -- and they should -- but many did not even mention that it is based on real events, or they dismissed that point outright. To omit that many elements of The Mothman Prophecies really happened is to miss much of the meaning and resonance of the film. Because it really happened, The Mothman Prophecies becomes more than an edgy piece of entertainment -- it forces us to question the nature of our world, perhaps of reality, or at the very least the workings of the human mind.
What happened in Point Pleasant? Was there really a monster? Are all the other phenomena explainable? Was it just mass hysteria? Or did something more profound and ultimately more unnerving occur that we do not yet have the faculty to fully understand? Something happened. And we are left to ask questions to which we may never find the answers: how -- or more important: Why?
Note: Also see the documentary Eyes of the Mothman.
