10 Best Films Based On Urban Legends

Rumours about the Mothman of Point Pleasant have been so popular in Virginia that a statue of the mythical creature has been erected. First reported in The Point Pleasant Register below the alarming headline: "Couple Sees Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something" (It's rare today to see headlines that use ellipses these days, eh?), the Mothman came to greater attention in 1970 when UFOlogist and potential conman Gray Baker reported it in 1970.

But it wasn't until 1975 that John Keel's book The Mothman Prophecies linked sightings of the creature approximately around the time of catastrophe - most specifically the tragic collapse of The Silver Bridge over the Ohio river. Though over 100 people have quietly mentioned their sightings according to Jan Harold Brunvand, many were too afraid to make an official report and their veracity is beyond questionable.

What's most frightening is that the Mothman origins are entirely unknown, impossible to even speculate upon. At least Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster can be credited to some sort of missing link to the past. The Mothman has been accredited to UFOs, demonology, cryptozoology, military testing gone awry and everything in between.

Mark Pellington's film adaptation of Keel's book is a widely fictionalized account of his investigation, climaxing with the bridge collapse. In between, Keel (Richard Gere) receives the expected omens in such a story, creepy phone calls included. But don't go looking for truth or evidence of the supernatural, it's just a supremely silly, inconclusive thriler.