Mothman | Prophesize This - Page 5

If you look carefully during the scene when Gere steps outside the police station, you’ll see that the woman in question is a rather tired looking Debra Messing, back from the dead somehow, wandering lost and solemn around this small town. She is walking down the sidewalk, head down, hands in he pockets, looking like anyone on their worst day; she passes through the crowd, undetected by Gere who rushes back into the police station to Connie to ask what she wanted.

Linney tells Gere, that she left a message which is: “Tell John I’m sorry for ruining everything.” And that’s it and it just happens to be a slight variation on almost the same thing Mary said to her husband from her hospital bed just before she died (“I’m sorry for ruining everything.”) Though John rushes out to see if he can find his dearly departed, it is to no avail. This is just another of many odd coincidences that seem to be racking up now faster and furiouser, building as they will continue to throughout the film.

After some quick investigatory work, John Klein discovers that the locals in this small town have all been seeing the same moth, winged creature that his own wife was seeing before she died. She had left a notebook full of odd drawings (the kind you’ve seen in The Ring, only this time, the drawings are of moth type creatures but use the same dark black and rich red grease pencil to same effect.) The hospital attendant tells Klein, she was drawing “angels” but these do not look like angels – unless your conception of angels is that of the evil angel – the one who is cast down by God and sent to Hell and winds up being called Satan instead of Seraphim. No – these are moth men and the locals have been drawing eerily similar portraits of what they have seen.

The ancients believed that the moth was the carrier or symbol of the soul. In ancient Egypt, the moth or Isis or Osiris (also symbolized by the butterfly) as she was then called, was drawn on many cartouches and symbolized the soul’s journey to the other world or in the case of the butterfly, a happier connotation of the soul’s flight and life after death. The moth was also recognized as the forbearer or omen of a death or disaster to come – as in this film, though in Mothman, it seems to be both.

In all cases, the mothman’s intention is not to harm to cause harm, but really often to warn (if you can ascribe intentionality or emotion, though that would be to humanize perhaps too much). The moth is also a messenger who simply speaks of what will be but what we cannot stop or prevent. Most interestingly, the moth has been the symbol for bridges, dreams, reincarnation, and an omen of sickness, among many other things (anyone interested should check this out here. )

Article Author: Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti is a published writer in both the United States and Europe. She is widely known for her music commentary, particularly her writings about Bob Dylan about whom she runs a highly-trafficked site. …

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