The Mothman Prophecies

The Mothman Prohpecies

2002

Dir: Mark Pellington
Screenplay: Richard Hatem

Based on the book by John A. Keel

The book The Mothman Prophecies is not so much a narrative as a sort of manifesto, chronicling John Keel's years of experience as a ufologist and general researcher of the 'paranormal' and positing numerous facets of Keel's overall theory regarding contactees and the like, which ties itself loosely to the events occurring in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, during '66-'67. It's interesting, not least of all as a study of Keel himself.

So I turn on the film and it suddenly becomes a story. It is a story because it is straightaway a tragic love story, which gives the protagonist John Klein (Richard Gere) (see what they did?) a reason for involving himself in the Mothman saga which is more palatable to movie viewers than Keel's search for answers.

Not me, however. I loved Itchy and Scratchy.

My overall verdict is that while this adaptation achieves an appealing atmosphere and ties together the Point Pleasant '66-'67 story into neat narrative form, in doing so it unfortunately loses the wider scope that makes the time so fascinating, namely the ufo sightings, which it completely leaves out, and the experiences of contactees who it seems achieved small fame in their time for incredible abduction and contact stories. The questions raised in Keel's book and the small town community beset by oddities so frequently during a certain period that they become commonplace is far more engaging, and it would've been nice to see that captured in film.

In many ways, Men In Black is a lot more faithful to Keel's writing!