Mark Pellington
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The Sixth Sense (1999)
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
influenced The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Themes Visuals
You'll be reminded of The Sixth Sense and The Others as the supernatural intervenes and you determine what's real and what's not…or possibly not.
With the blockbuster success of director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable ), it was inevitable that other, less original directors would watch his movies and say, "Hey!
The movie takes the same path that some of the more successful horror films of the past few years, such as The Sixth Sense and The Others, have taken.
It’s an atmospheric film, kind of like The Sixth Sense.
Farin er sama leið og í best heppnuðu draugamyndum síðari ára “The Sixth Sense” og “The Others”.
That no one calls his bluff, including a female police chief (Laura Linney) that recalls Frances McDormand’s Marge in Fargo, is baffling and frustrating.
Gere bounces back from the mawkish "Autumn in New York" to deliver a compelling and intense performance, though the talented Linney is poorly served by a role that blandly replicates Frances McDormand's "Fargo" character.
Although not quite as much fun as Marge Gunderson in "Fargo" and despite the occasionally uneven motivation, Linney also delivers a solid performance as the local cop who must deal with the bizarre occurrences.
Richard Gere reveals his favourite scary film to be "The Servant" and discusses how it inspired his work on "The Mothman Prophecies".
Pellington explores and builds upon MacLaine’s persona the way that John Ford did with John Wayne in The Searchers, or Clint Eastwood did with himself in Gran Torino: Her work in The Last Word recalls and comments upon films like The Apartment, Terms of Endearment and Postcards From the Edge—then goes deeper.
It’s a sub-genre with a high degree of difficulty and a very low degree of success—in fact, it’s only ever given us one decent movie, Clint Eastwood’s 2008 Gran Torino.
It contained a review of the film and while I would normally avoid reading anyone else's palaver, my eye zoomed in on the name "Nic Roeg" and the title, Don't Look Now wrapped in the text.
Blessed with veins of sublimely spooky Cajun occult running throughout the script by Ehren Kruger (Arlington Road, The Ring) -- the thrust of which are that the more Caroline believes, the more danger she's in from the spirits in the house -- The Skeleton Key also boasts a handful of creative twists, some pointing toward a hoax, others hinting at something far darker than just ghosts.
…jumbo, and that would be reason enough, perhaps, to hail Key as the fulfillment of the promise we've been hearing screenwriter Ehren Kruger ( The Ring Two , Reindeer Games ) has embodied for lo these many years, since his Arlington Road made a biggest splash than it deserved to.
Without giving too much away, I’ll make the offhand comment that screenwriter Kruger has essentially turned in a genrefied – and less satisfying – version of his previous “Arlington Road”; but a substandard Ehren Kruger script can still knock most horror scripts on their asses, to put it bluntly.
Blessed with veins of sublimely spooky Cajun occult running throughout the script by Ehren Kruger ( "Arlington Road," "The Ring" ) -- the thrust of which are that the more Caroline believes, the more she's in danger from the spirits in the house -- "The Skeleton Key" also boasts a handful of creative twists, some pointing toward a hoax, others hinting at something far darker than just ghosts.
With his scripts for Arlington Road and Scream 3, young, insanely prolific screenwriter Ehren Kruger established a reputation as a sort of cut-rate cinematic O. Henry, a glib, hard-working screenwriter specializing in superficially clever but ultimately annoying, unconvincing twist endings.
The Skeleton Key was written by Ehren Kruger (Arlington Road, Reindeer Games), who loves to throw third-act twists into his screenplays, regardless of whether they actually make narrative sense.
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Directed by Wes Anderson
influenced Henry Poole Is Here (2008)
Characters
In a role reminiscent of his turn as the depressed tennis pro in Wes Anderson ’s “The Royal Tenenbaums,” Luke Wilson proves once again that he’s at his best when allowed to flex his comic muscle in more serious fare.
You'll be reminded of The Sixth Sense and The Others as the supernatural intervenes and you determine what's real and what's not…or possibly not.
Reminiscent in that way of the excellent 2001 ghost movie throwback The Others , this is a dark, often depressing supernatural flick that forces you to be patient as you follow Klein’s search for the truth.
The movie takes the same path that some of the more successful horror films of the past few years, such as The Sixth Sense and The Others, have taken.
The Mothman Prophecies is one of the scariest movies to come out in years (The Others gives it 'stiff' competition), so if bone-chilling horror is your cup of tea, drink up!
Farin er sama leið og í best heppnuðu draugamyndum síðari ára “The Sixth Sense” og “The Others”.
Working with cinematographer Fred Murphy ("Stir of Echoes"), who knows how to bring out the intrinsic scare quotient in winter-naked trees with camera angles, and editor Brian Berdan ("Blue Velvet"), Pellington maintains a sense of dread without ever fully revealing the titular mothman.
On the Side: I knocked Ehren Kruger in the opening of the review, but in addition to apparently doing touch-ups on Williamson’s script for Scream 4 he also wrote The Ring and Arlington Road, two movies I really enjoy.
Knowing (2009)
Directed by Alex Proyas
influenced by Arlington Road (1999), The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Themes
It’s here that Knowing could achieve the pop-culture poetry of unexpected heroism in Unbreakable, and Cage could channel the paternal persistence of Jeff Bridges in Arlington Road (another great from Pellington).
An opening prologue in 1959 sets a tone of paranormal pathos and paranoia shared by Mark Pellington’s underrated The Mothman Prophecies, but it doesn’t last long.
Will Patton ("Gone in 60 Seconds," "Entrapment") is effective as the local resident who goes over the edge due to the strain of the repeated encounters and premonitions, while Debra Messing ("A Walk in the Clouds," TV's "Will & Grace") is good despite being removed - for the most part - rather early from the proceedings.
The bad news is that when it comes to flaws, The Mothman Prophecies seems to have lifted one too many from In Dreams .
While it might sound like a spoof of evangelicism akin to Brian Dannelly’s Saved! (2004), Henry Poole is Here is dreadfully earnest in delivering its message of Christian redemption—earnest and clichéd.
The latest big-screen knockoff, Mark Pellington's The Mothman Prophecies, is a disappointing simulacrum that also manages to ape The Silence of the Lambs' marketing campaign.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
influenced The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Plot
The film does have similarities to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" in that some sort of superior beings have apparently earmarked certain characters, who don't yet understand why or what is ultimately going to happen, to be conduits for their messages.
As in The Exorcist, slightly inhuman voices and tape recordings produce a hair-raising effect.
With the blockbuster success of director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable ), it was inevitable that other, less original directors would watch his movies and say, "Hey!
The film opens with a stunningly filmed hit in which both Bishop and cinematographer Eric Schmidt ("Henry Poole Is Here") use artful illusion to snare their prey (Schmidt's being the audience).
Screenwriter Ehren Kruger ("Arlington Road," "The Ring"), who had a hand in the second travesty of a script, has cleaned things up considerably, but there are still muddled bits and loose ends.