Saw this very interesting film last weekend with friends. I'm STILL kicking around some things from it, so it obviously made an impression. It is based around supposedly-true events in West Virginia. DON'T WORRY, I'm not going to divulge much, if any, of the storyline 'cuz I don't want to spoil it for those of you wanting to see it.
Here's the plot outline from IMDB: A reporter is drawn to a small West Virginia town to investigate a series of strange events, including psychic visions and the appearance of bizarre entities.
Prophecies was directed by Mark Pellington who's earlier works include: Arlington Road, Going All The Way and a 1992 music video for U2, Achtung Baby. It stars Richard Gere, Laura Linney and Will Patton along with a couple of nice little bits from Alan Bates.
Visually, it's fairly well done - no major flaws. There are many dark scenes (night time and in small hotel rooms), some of which are very dark without much detail and some of which are almost lush with textures. Also, in some of the daylight shots the colors are slightly washed out, but based on the storyline I feel that this was the director's intent. There are some series of shots that are very fast, very choppy in content (think music video) and this was definitely the director's intent. It puts a "visual stamp" on certain happenings in the film that need to be distinguished from the more normally paced remainder of the film.
Audio-wise, there was some use of the surrounds, but not as much as in many action/horror movies shown these days. One caveat: the theater where we saw this was not equipped with a good sound system, so that affected the presentation.
I enjoyed the performances by the principles in this film. Richard Gere pulls you into his world as it spins out of control and into possible insanity. Some good spine-tingly chills will show up at points! Laura Linney sometimes comes across as a little too nice as a local policewoman, but she doesn't detract from the film. Will Patton (the more I see him, the more I like him) is excellent as a normal workingclass man caught up events far beyond his understanding. His ability to be "just a guy" is an excellent counterpoint to Gere's inherent air of elegance. Also, Debra Messing from Will & Grace plays Gere's wife in a fairly small role. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth she shows - which isn't evident in her sitcom (hey, it's a sitcom, okay?
).On to the movie: It's not a "real" horror movie. It's not a sci-fi flick. It's not a slasher either. If anything, I'd call it a supernatural thriller, and it works well in that framework. There's no gore, but a few scenes contain intense moments of violence. I hate spoiling someones' trip to the movies so for this film especially, I can't really go into any of the happenings as I don't want to give anything away.
I do recommend seeing this film. It's chilling and left me searching the 'net for followup info. As far as a rating, oh, on a 1 to 10 scale with 10 being the best, I'd give it a strong 7. Four of us saw this together (two couples) and all four said that we enjoyed it, with all of us saying that we'd like to watch it again so that we could focus on more of the details in this rather interesting story.
As always, this is just my 2 cents. Your mileage may vary. . .
David - HTGuide flunky
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