10 Horror Movies Where You Don't See The Monster

The Mothman Prophecies is a textbook example of less-is-more filmmaking, for though it was marketed as a more conventional, mainstream horror film, director Mark Pellington knows that a CGI beast can rarely compete with the audience's own imagination.

And so, while audiences and critics alike were left somewhat dismayed by the lack of an actual Mothman in the movie, Pellington's preference for character-driven chills makes the film infinitely more memorable as a result.

Rather than relying on chintzy effects, we never get more than a fleeting, ambiguous flash of the Mothman, the creature's terror conveyed instead through spoken accounts and extremely creepy drawings.

Though this approach understandably won't be for all tastes, Pellington did craft one of the more atmospheric and evocative big-budget horrors of the 2000s here, which is really more of an eerie meditation on grief and loss than a card-carrying monster movie.

The Mothman Prophecies is long overdue a re-evaluation, at least from those who can accept the absence of the titular antagonist.