Mothman

Basically this is really bad. No one needs to see this. Unless you are in love with Jewel Staite. Who? My thoughts exactly. But she's pretty and a pleasure to look at... and there are girls in bikinis in the first 10 minutes. There is one very brief scary part (about two seconds worth) and one almost scary part (about half a second) and that's about it... truly next to zero creepy factor, lame CGI and mediocre acting. Bottomline: this movie sucks. I know I should stay away from Made-for-Syfy Channel TV movies but they call to me every now and then so I can see what a truly crappy movie is.

3.2 / 10 stars

--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener

The film has a brief moment of promise, introducing a fair premise. Some teens accidentally cause a child's death, and conspire to cover up their dark secret. These guys live in Point Pleasant, WV, home of you-know-who. So the monster will dole out punishment?

The wheels come off quickly. Fast forward several years. A big city reporter, one of the teens visits town, and she is immediately invited to toast the kid she once helped kill (a reunion of all the killers). What? Toast somebody you killed? No comment is possible for such a ludicrous plot device. So let's just pretend the movie didn't do this, and move on.

Enter the stock village idiot. This was the best character, and decently acted (cliches and all). It was cool to listen to his insane ramblings explaining the creature's motives, its weird red eyes, its obsession with mirrors, and his own back story. Best of all was his habit of often firing a shot gun, especially since this guy was blind.

Pop quiz: when learning your presence in a town is causing the deaths, does she: A) Leave town, or B) Stay and fight? Take a wild guess. Using guns. Always works against legendary monsters, right?

But the last 20 minutes are beyond moronic. It's as if the original running time was too short, so a lame "twist" was hastily inserted to explain the profoundly stupid new ending they tacked on. A new director was found at the local pre-school playground, to shot the extra footage. "We thought you were dead!" "Yeah, so did I." Who wrote this, and have they been committed yet?

The Mothman already has more than a few skeptics on whether it exists or not. This movie won't help his status much.

In Point Pleasant, land of the legend The Mothman, a group of seven teenage friends accidentally kills the boy Jamie (Alex Hardee) in a prank by the river and they decide to cover up the incident simulating an accident.

Ten years later, the journalist of the Washington Weekly Katharine Grant (Jewel Staite), who was one of the seven teenagers that murdered Jamie, is assigned by her editor to return to her hometown to prepare a matter about the 10th Mothman Festival. She reunites with the other six friends that have stayed in the town and sooner they are murdered one by one by The Mothman. Katherine and her former boyfriend Derek (Connor Fox) seek help with an old blind man Frank Waverly (Jerry Leggio) that has been luring The Mothman for many years trying to save their lives from the punishment of the entity.

"Mothman" is a lame collection of clichés about a vigilante entity that punishes the sinners. The predictable plot is a mess, the CGI is very poor and the acting is reasonable but the cast has a very poor material to work. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Castigo Mortal" ("Mortal Punishment")

'Mothman' was yet another miserable 'original' film that SyFy decided to torture viewers with. Who at the SyFy Network is drinking the wrong Kool-Aid? They need to hire knowledgeable and intelligent decision makers when it comes to their line-up and production processes. The only thing redeemable about 'Mothman' is that the acting is above average for SyFy original features. The cast did a pretty good job with such a crazy, undeveloped storyline and script. The special effects were really pitiful - worse than the old dinosaur flicks from the 50's and 60's. With today's technology, someone with creativity and skill could have created much better effects with home computer equipment. I believe that any movie worth making is worth making right - as right as possible anyway. This starts with the writers of course. A solid plot, storyline and dialog really are the most important - special effects can enhance or destroy a film as well. Continuity is a major element in both, in order to eliminate possible holes and aid in believability. I guess the production company didn't have anyone who could provide continuity for the script or work-flow during filming and editing. Oh well. And why the heck did 'SciFi' change their name to 'SyFy'? Ridiculous!

Mothman starts out... essentially it's like another one of those ridiculously common ghost movies. Characters become targeted, some die mysteriously and survivors must discover how to survive.

The monster itself tends to emerge from whatever reflective surfaces are available to murder victims.

The protagonist is visiting and reporting on the town. Killing her first wouldn't raise any suspicions so naturally the monster goes around killing the permanent citizens first.

But things reach their lowest when the monster starts rampaging, ignoring the previously-established rules completely. This scene doesn't make sense in the context of the previous events and is likely caused by a rewrite. Another problem is the main cast; many were murdered without making any impression.