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Mothman & Popular Culture: Books, Films, TV, Merchandising, etc.

I quite agree.The movie was alright,but the book is much,much better.As I wrote awhile back on another thread,I first started reading it on a dark night in New York City in '76.Despite being on a destroyer with a full crew,Iwas still somewhat,shall we say,unnerved.
 
I first read 'The Mothman Prophecies' about 20 years ago, long since lost my original copy, and today bought the latest version.

My memory's crap and I was wondering if anyone can point out any differences between the original and the new, the cover of which seems to dwell a bit to much on the film.
 
Me too! What are the differences?

The bit at the beginning, I thought, wasn't meant to imply that the residents were at fever-pitch and therefore what happened may or may not have actually happened, more that Keel was expressly AWARE that this sort of thing COULD and DID happen and MIGHT have been blown out of proportion by the unreliable and amateur reporters and researchers he mentions thus making the material HE believed reliable all the more convincing.

Well, that's the way I read it anyway. :D

Anyway, please please try and remember what the original was like as the new version I read a month ago FREAKED ME OUT and I mean so much that I regressed and didn't want to turn the lights out and lay frozen in terror whenever I awoke naturally at 3.00am ish on Wednesdays!!!!!! If the stuff he left out is scarier I may be forced to trail through second-hand book stalls for it but if it's just more of the same then I can handle not knowing it! I have a hideously inquiring mind and if I could batter it into submission I would, believe me...:eek:
 
I can't fin the track. Maybe you can be more precise on where to find it? Thanks.
 
Re: mothman solved?

dr wu23 said:
Actually, the Man In Black said he was from Lanulos, not Mothman who never spoke to anyone.

Actually, it was Indrid Cold who claimed to be from Lanulos . . . Mr. Apol never said where he was from if memory serves . . . Mr. Brown claimed to be from Ohio.


-Fitz
 
I watched the mothman prophecies movie on friday and it didnt scare me. I think they shouldof had more sightings and incidents rather than making the creature so creepy-like. The movie was weird and not scary. I'm just saying a more realistic mothman with a number of seperate incidents, murders, vivid sightings, would have made a more suspensfull movie. Sorry if this didnt go here.
 
Human_84 said:
I watched the mothman prophecies movie on friday and it didnt scare me. I think they shouldof had more sightings and incidents rather than making the creature so creepy-like. The movie was weird and not scary. I'm just saying a more realistic mothman with a number of seperate incidents, murders, vivid sightings, would have made a more suspensfull movie. Sorry if this didnt go here.

the ending was utter sh!te, personally I thought not showing the mothman too clearly itself added to the creepiness, perhaps the director should've tried that with Richard Gere too ;)
 
jima said:
Human_84 said:
I watched the mothman prophecies movie on friday and it didnt scare me. I think they shouldof had more sightings and incidents rather than making the creature so creepy-like. The movie was weird and not scary. I'm just saying a more realistic mothman with a number of seperate incidents, murders, vivid sightings, would have made a more suspensfull movie. Sorry if this didnt go here.

the ending was utter sh!te, personally I thought not showing the mothman too clearly itself added to the creepiness, perhaps the director should've tried that with Richard Gere too ;)

**spoilers, dont read if you wanna see this movie still**

Some things about the movie (if this is out of place u can delete it)...

The man with the combover died, from the cold! cmon people seriously.

People were backed up in traffic over a bridge which was falling apart and they didnt wanna run the red light in fear of breaking the law and didnt even worry about dying?!! riiiiight.

The combover guy claimed to have seen richard geers character at his house 2 previous nights before (which added nothing but confusion to the storey) and then the cop didn't seem to mind that a 12 gauge shotgun was being pointed at the dudes head in the bathtub by a crazy guy!? what kinda copper is that.

Gear's wife in the movie had a tumor, only after going into the hospital from the car crash. How is that even remotely interesting? It woulda worked out better if she died from the crash, then she woulda died more directly from the mothman and hence gear's intrest in the whole thing which he would of never had in his situation as-is.

How was it that gear's character got to play such a large role in the investigation of this thing? He was basically a random guy, and he got all those photos for his own posession and listened to all the witnesses storeys and for what reason? Cuz he wanted to know? Cmonnn.

The movie in itself was good, I actually did like it. But those few things did nottttttt make any sense to me.
 
The combover guy claimed to have seen richard geers character at his house 2 previous nights before (which added nothing but confusion to the storey) and then the cop didn't seem to mind that a 12 gauge shotgun was being pointed at the dudes head in the bathtub by a crazy guy!? what kinda copper is that.

as far as I remember the cop came out to investigate cause they combover guy's wife phoned and said Gere was an intruder.

Gear's wife in the movie had a tumor, only after going into the hospital from the car crash. How is that even remotely interesting? It woulda worked out better if she died from the crash, then she woulda died more directly from the mothman and hence gear's intrest in the whole thing which he would of never had in his situation as-is

I thought that bit worked quite well, as I understand it the Mothman's supposed to be a sign of impending tradgedy of some sort, rather than a creature that goes round killing people directly. the drawings in the hospital were also a useful way of linking the story to when Gere ended up in point pleasant ...


How was it that gear's character got to play such a large role in the investigation of this thing? He was basically a random guy, and he got all those photos for his own posession and listened to all the witnesses storeys and for what reason? Cuz he wanted to know? Cmonnn.

he was a journalist/newsperson of some sort, if you went out for a drive one night and ended up a few hundred miles away from where you expected, and then had a guy pointing a gun at you saying you'd been to his house a few times before (when you know you haven't), wouldn't you be a little curious?
 
jima said:
The combover guy claimed to have seen richard geers character at his house 2 previous nights before (which added nothing but confusion to the storey) and then the cop didn't seem to mind that a 12 gauge shotgun was being pointed at the dudes head in the bathtub by a crazy guy!? what kinda copper is that.

as far as I remember the cop came out to investigate cause they combover guy's wife phoned and said Gere was an intruder.

^ ^ But still, the cop didnt care that the gun was in his mouth. She acted like it normal, even tho she admitted she had never had a problem with that combover guy before.

Gear's wife in the movie had a tumor, only after going into the hospital from the car crash. How is that even remotely interesting? It woulda worked out better if she died from the crash, then she woulda died more directly from the mothman and hence gear's intrest in the whole thing which he would of never had in his situation as-is

I thought that bit worked quite well, as I understand it the Mothman's supposed to be a sign of impending tradgedy of some sort, rather than a creature that goes round killing people directly. the drawings in the hospital were also a useful way of linking the story to when Gere ended up in point pleasant ...

^ ^ You do have a good point here.

How was it that gear's character got to play such a large role in the investigation of this thing? He was basically a random guy, and he got all those photos for his own posession and listened to all the witnesses storeys and for what reason? Cuz he wanted to know? Cmonnn.

he was a journalist/newsperson of some sort, if you went out for a drive one night and ended up a few hundred miles away from where you expected, and then had a guy pointing a gun at you saying you'd been to his house a few times before (when you know you haven't), wouldn't you be a little curious?

^ ^ But then suddenly he is "the man" ? ? ? I've seen a ufo but that doesnt make me a famous investigator.
 
Human_84 said:
^ ^ But then suddenly he is "the man" ? ? ? I've seen a ufo but that doesnt make me a famous investigator.

as i understood it, the film was concentrating on how he had a couple of weird experiences and over the course of the film gradually becomes more obsessed by it and tries to find out whats happening & why it's happening, with a dodgy romantic subplot thrown in for no good reason. Only thing is, that idea wasn't really treated as well as it could've been
 
BBC 1 tonight:

The Mothman Prophecies

Sun 5 Jun, 10:15 pm - 12:05 am 110mins

Two years after losing his wife, political journalist John Klein mysteriously finds himself in a small US town where people are acting very strangely indeed. He teams up with local cop Connie Parker and discovers that frightened townsfolk have seen a shadowy 'mothman' creature which closely resembles pictures his wife drew just before her death. As Klein struggles to find rational solutions to irrational events, and is disturbed by visions of his dead wife, the threat of impending disaster steadily grows.

Contains some strong language and some violent scenes. [Mark Pellington, 2002]

John Klein ...... Richard Gere
Ed Fleischman ...... David Eigenberg
Connie Parker ...... Laura Linney
Gordon Smallwood ...... Will Patton
Washington Post Reporter ...... Ron Emanuel
Cyrus Bills ...... Bob Tracey
Mary Klein ...... Debra Messing
Brian ...... Tom Stoviak
Dr McElroy ...... Yvonne Erickson
 
Saw that last night.Have to say i thought it was pretty good. It had the gf hiding behind the cushion! :D
 
sjoh9 said:
Saw that last night.Have to say i thought it was pretty good. It had the gf hiding behind the cushion! :D

Yeah I hadn't seen it until last night but it was creepy and effective.
 
It was pretty good, but could have been better, don't you think?

Why not go at least a little into the Men In Black?
 
It was actually a far better film than I expected. Great atmosphere - caught that broody small-town claustrophobia which writers like Peter Straub do so well. Made you feel that a whole town and its inhabitants could quietly slip off the radar of reality without the rest of the world so much as skipping a beat.

Having said that I find that in this genre there are plenty of films that do really well on atmosphere but not so well on the content or the internal logic.
 
Fitz said:
It was pretty good, but could have been better, don't you think?

Why not go at least a little into the Men In Black?

Agreed about the men in black, not a great deal of time on spent on them.
 
I saw this last night, and it was definitely the worst film I've seen in a while. It managed to have really interesting ideas, and piss of them with its channel five documentary directorial style. A real disappointment.
 
Source
Mothman Festival: Capitalizing on mystery
Organizers hope to keep expanding Point Pleasant event


By Nicole Young
The Herald-Dispatch

POINT PLEASANT, W.Va. -- Whether a horrifying monster or a really good hoax, the legend of the Mothman has been tacked on to this small West Virginia town since the 1960s. Now in its fourth year, the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant has continued to capitalize on the rich history and mystery of the Mothman himself.

With a goal of jump-starting the town's economy, the festival was originally a way to capitalize on the "Mecca of history and genealogy," in the area, said Hilda Austin, executive director for the Mason County Area Chamber of Commerce.

Now, people from as far as New York, Canada and even England came to the town this weekend with one thing in mind -- to learn about and maybe even catch a glimpse of the legendary Mothman and his "glowing red eyes," she said.

The movie, "The Mothman Prophecies" (released in 2002 and starring Richard Gere and Debra Messing) brought a lot of attention to the town and allowed the first festival to be thrown together at the last minute, said organizer and Mothman author Jeff Wamsley. From there, the festival has grown each year. Organizers hope to expand the festival in the coming years, possibly with a parade and more speakers.

The festival draws young and old alike with memorabilia from the movie to a hay ride of the of the area where the Mothman was first sighted to the authors and speakers on the Mothman.

"Locals are surprised at the success of the festival," he said. "They are so used to the whole story, so used to the attention, but we are gaining more local support."

Many visitors to Point Pleasant for the festival keep coming back because they enjoy the laidback atmosphere and friendliness of the people, Austin said.

"We just wanted to do something different because we care," she said. "There are a lot of skeptics in the area, but also a lot of true believers."

Sisters Melanie Dudding and Kathy Jeffers of Pomeroy, Ohio, along with mother Shirley Simmons, returned to the festival out of intrigue. The sisters remember hearing the story of the Mothman growing up.

"I remember as a child, it frightened me to death," Dudding said. "We are all interested in things like this, and we really want to see the Mothman but never have. It seems like only people who really don't want to see him do, but we really want to see him."
 
Finally saw the film earlier. Not bad. Not great but quite watchable. X-files influenced, certainly, but at least it didn't try to 'explain all': rather it asked questions and gave hints.

Wasn't the twin red light motif overplayed though? Every other shot!

Caveat: i haven't read Keel's book.
 
Long time lurker, first time poster. I live in upstate New York, USA. What follows is (I hope) not too long or too boring. This happened to me in the autumn of 1974.

I had just begun college and returned home every weekend to get home cooked meals and my laundry done. It was a Friday night, and I decided that I would travel from my rural home to the nearby city to browse the books at the mall. I had just finished supper along with the dishes and was ready to take off, but decided to hold off until my father left for bowling so that I could talk for a bit with my parents. We were in conversation about minor things when the phone rang. I answered.

Strangely, a noise was all that was present on the line. No dial tone, no fast busy. The noise sounded like someone hung the receiver in a hollow drum and then banged on the side. I tried to get someone to answer, but no good. I held the receiver up so that my parents could hear, and they were as puzzled about the noise as I. I tried hanging up, then picking up the receiver, but nothing got rid of the noise. I finally shrugged and hung up. The phone rang again. I picked it up, and the same noise was there. After a bit, I hung up and that was all. No more call backs from the metal drum.

That evening I drove to town, browsed the book stand, and found a book that piqued my interest. I had long been interested in books about UFOs and strange happenings. The book I discovered was The Mothman Prophecies, by John Keel.

The next day I had read through the book far enough to get to the descriptions of strange phone calls and noises over the phone.

Needless to say the odd coincidence frightened me, even though I’m certain that it can all be explained logically. Anyone else have any personal experiences reading The Mothman Prophecies that frightened them?
 
I was reading the Mothman prophecies and Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" at the same time and both were making reference to "coincidences" and synchronicity. I remember reading some of the Mothman Prophecies wherein there was some character (?Lia) who I think was an alien entity and then pciking up Foucault's Pendulum to start reading about a character of the same name! (I think it was the main characters wife/girlfriend)! Not exactly :eek!!!!: I know, more subtle than Indrid Cold ringing me to tell me what colour underpants I'm wearing, but strange all the same!
 
In Dread Cold

I've never been able to escape the suspicion that "Indrid Cold" actually means "In Dread Cold."
 
Re: In Dread Cold

OldTimeRadio said:
I've never been able to escape the suspicion that "Indrid Cold" actually means "In Dread Cold."
Me, too. It's a nice little ghostly touch.
 
The opening scenes of the original Mothman are classic:

1 - Beelzebub Visits West Virginia

Fingers of lightning tore holes in the black skies as an angry cloudburst drenched the surrealistic landscape. It was 3 A.M. on a cold, wet morning in late November 1967. and the little houses scattered along the dirt road winding through the hills of West Virginia were all dark. Some seemed unoccupied and in the final stages of decay. Others were unpainted, neglected, forlorn. The whole setting was like the opening scene of a Grade B horror film from the 1930s.

Along the road there came a stranger in a land where strangers were rare and suspect. He walked up to the door of a crumbling farmhouse and hammered. After a long moment a light blinked on somewhere in the house and a young woman appeared, drawing a cheap mail-order bathrobe tightly about her. She opened the door a crack and her sleep-swollen face winced with fear as she stared at the apparition on her doorstep. He was over six feet tall and dressed entirely in black. He wore a black suit, black tie, black hat, and black overcoat, with impractical black dress shoes covered with mud. His face, barely visible in the darkness, sported a neatly trimmed mustache and goatee. The flashes of lightning behind him added an eerie effect.

"May I use your phone?" He asked in a deep baritone, his voice lacking the familiar West Virginia accent. The girl gulped silently and backed away.

"My husband ..." She mumbled. "Talk to my husband."

She closed the door quickly and backed away into the darkness. Minutes passed. Then she returned accompanied by a rugged young man hastily buckling his trousers in place. He, too, turned pale at the sight of the stranger.

"We ain't got a phone here," he grunted through the crack in the door just before he slammed it. The couple retreated murmuring to themselves and the tall stranger faded into the night.

Beards were a very rare sight in West Virginia in 1967. Men in formal suits and ties were even rarer in those back hills of the Ohio valley. And bearded, black-garbed strangers on foot in the rain had never been seen there before.

In the days that followed the young couple told their friends about the apparition. Obviously, they concluded, he had been a fearful omen of some sort. Perhaps he had been the devil himself!

Three weeks later these two people were dead, among the victims of the worst tragedy ever to strike that section of West Virginia. They were driving across the Silver Bridge. which spanned the Ohio River, when it suddenly collapsed.

Their friends remembered. They remembered the story of the bearded stranger in the night. It had, indeed, been a sinister omen. One that confirmed their religious beliefs and superstitions. So a new legend was born. Beelzebub had visited West Virginia on the eve of a terrible tragedy.

If you look around on alt.binaries.e-books it turns up regularly.
 
The 1991 IllumiNet print is my favourite version. It has some great cover art by Frank Frazetta. Getting quite hard to find now. I managed to acquire two copies somehow - one to read, one to keep safely on the bookshelf.

A good site to try for Keel's books, or any books for that matter, is Abebooks.com.
 
Well, I see Loren Coleman has been inspired by the recent TV broadcasts of the Mothman Film to post a remarkably silly entry in his blog:

Will Mothman Deaths Return?

I see he's now added the "mysterious" deaths of Jim Keith and Jennifer Barrett Pellington (wife of Mothman Prophecies director Mark Pellington) to his Mothman Death List.

In fact, there was nothing 'mysterious' about Jim Keith's death - it has been quite adequately explained. While undergoing surgery on his broken knee, a blood clot was released from his leg and entered his lung. In real life, surgery sometimes goes wrong.

As for Jennifer Barrett-Pellington - the actual cause of her death has not been revealed, but according to her husband she died of complications following an unspecified "rare infection". As far as I can tell from his comments, he does not consider his wife's death "mysterious", and if he chooses to keep the specific nature of her final illness private, then that is undoubtedly his right.
 
I really enjoyed this film. I also really enjoyed the soundtrack.
 
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