Stars:
Richard Gere,
David Eigenberg,
Bob Tracey,
Laura Linney,
Debra Messing,
Will Patton
Director:
Mark Pellington
Summary: John Klein and his wife Mary are just returning home, after finding the house of their dreams, when Mary swerves to avoid a caped, winged figure and crashes the car. She receives injuries from which she later dies in hospital. Two years on John finds himself in a small town where the local cop receives reported sightings of a mothlike creature taller than a man...
Driving South to Richmond, Washington Post reporter John Klein (Richard Gere) finds himself unexpectedly way off course--in the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia--knocking on the door of Gordon and Denise Smallwood (Tom Patton and Lucinda Jenney). Gordon is irate. This is the third night in a row that Klein has knocked on his door at 2 a.m. When Sgt. Connie Parker (Laura Linney) arrives to investigate, Klein discovers this is just one of many strange events occurring in the town. With Parker's help, Klein investigates. Soon, he becomes convinced that some catastrophe is about to occur.
In THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES, scriptwriter Richard Hatem and director Mark Pellington play upon the strange events that reportedly occurred in Point Pleasant in the mid-1960s. As in ARLINGTON ROAD, Pellington makes great use of a restless, prowling camera and ominous sound effects provided by sound editor Kelly Cabral, sound mixer Pud Cusack (she also worked on ARLINGTON ROAD), and sound designer Claude Letessier. Pellington gets fine performances from Gere, Linney, Patton, Alan Bates as a paranormal investigator, and Debra Messing--striking in the too-small role of Klein's wife--before he produces a spectacular final sequence.