Picture a “Bigfoot” warning people of impending disasters. That’s the “Mothman”. Now you may try to write this all off, but it’s based on true events you know. Back in 1966, a number of people in a town called Point Pleasant, West Virginia reported seeing and hearing from this eight foot tall creature which looked like a man and a moth combined. Some time later, a bridge in town collapsed and killed a few dozen people. The people that saw “Mothman” swear he foretold that catastrophe.

Now here’s what Hollywood has done with the story. Richard Gere plays a Washington Post reporter who is drawn to the town following the death of his wife. The opening of this movie is mostly a snoozer as we are introduced to the happy couple and she hears voices and sees “Mothman” and it’s all done so neatly and quickly it’s clear it didn’t really happen this way. But things pick up when Gere finds himself in Point Pleasant on the doorstep of guy named Gordon, played by Will Patton.

This is where I got drawn in. Gere doesn’t know why he’s here and Gordon has seen him at his door three nights in a row. He’s ready to shoot him. Enter Laura Linney as the local sheriff. Her character’s name is Connie Parker. She believes Gordon and she believes Gere because other people in town have been reporting some pretty strange stuff lately. And West Virginia, well, what can I say? It seems like a creepy place to begin with. I like this, I like this a lot. Usually in these kind of movies, only one person sees the weird things. But in Point Pleasant, a collection of otherwise normal people is spooked by the “Mothman”. This is good, very good and was probably true.

The movie focuses on Gere and Gordon and their encounters with the creature. Gordon seems to see the thing a lot, while Gere seems to get the phone calls from the “Mothman”. Okay, sure. I was following along and still very interested but Hollywood interfered too much. It isn’t just the bridge collapse that “Mothman” foretells, but also plane crashes and earthquakes. I’m sure it happened that way! I guess it has to be that way or else you’ll be bored, right? Which brings me to the ending, which I won’t give away but let’s just say I know it didn’t happen that way.

This was the first time in quite a while I can remember being able to figure out exactly what did happen in real life and what was made up by the script writers. And I did not read the book. You will be able to as well if you just use some logic and good sense. That pulled the “Mothman” down a couple of notches for me. I give it a “6.0”. If you’re going to give me “based on true events”, don’t insult me with over-the-top fictional events.