Obviously Mark Pellington, the director of the new movie “The Mothman Prophecies,” must love “The X-Files” because his movie seems like a two-hour season finale of the popular Fox TV show. The movie starts off with a happy middle-aged suburban couple, Richard Gere and Debra Messing, house hunting and excited to finally be settling down to raise a family.

Then tragedy strikes; Gere’s wife gets into a car accident after “seeing something” in the road. The doctors run some tests and find that she has cancer. Gere then begins to wonder what his wife actually saw the night of the accident. Years later while on a business trip he ends up in a town called Point Pleasant in West Virginia where things start to get weird.

After discovering that the people living in the town have started to see the same thing his wife saw Gere decides that he better stick around to figure out what is going on and hopefully bring closure to his wife’s death. After interviewing many of the towns’ people and befriending the town sheriff, things begin to pick up.

The “creature” that everyone has been seeing makes friends with one of the locals who is also one of Gere’s new buddies. The more research that Gere does the more the creature is in contact with him, so he decides that it is time to consult the Mothman expert who helps Gere figure out what is best to do from this point on. (Funny how there is an expert on every subject – even Mothmen.)

Although the story line was cheesy and simple, the movie did keep my attention until almost the very end. There were “twists and turns” throughout the movie and at a couple of points everyone in the theater did jump. My only problem with the movie is that it seems like it was made for TV.

The plot was simple, the end wasn’t developed enough, and every time something was too farfetched to explain, the event was blamed on the Mothman. So if you have $8 and you love “The X-Files” then go ahead and see “The Mothman Prophecies.” You may get a few thrills.

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