Grief takes many forms, none stranger than this preposterous but compelling and oddly moving paranormal thriller directed by Mark Pellington (Arlington Road). Adapted from the 1975 book by John A. Keel relating allegedly true events in the '60s, the film updates the story to the present day as Washington Post investigative reporter John Klein (Richard Gere) takes time off from his pseudo-Carl Bernstein beat to buy a house for himself and his young bride. Then there's an accident, a brain tumor, and she dies. Inconsolable, John is struck by drawings his wife has left in her diary of winged beings that look like demons or Rorschach blots; he is more amazed a couple of years later when he finds himself in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, with no memory of how he got there, besieged not only by sightings of a "Mothman" like the one sketched by his wife but also by talking sink drains, bizarre phone calls, sibyl-like prophecies, and a creepy entity called Indrid Cold.

Bringing John back to earth is Point Pleasant sheriff Connie Parker (Laura Linney), and the two team up as an ad hoc Scully and Mulder investigating a world that's turning into a David Lynch movie without the black humor. Are they dealing with Jungian projections, extraterrestrials, visitors from Hell? Or delusions more horrible than the loss these are an attempt to deny? Pellington overplays the stylistic manipulations, and the teasing loose ends and uncanny red herrings prove capricious, malignant, and absurd. Like tragedy itself. At the Hoyts Providence 16 and Showcase cinemas.