The Mothman of Point Pleasant

The Mothman is the gold standard of monster stories. Its extensive and detailed legend includes not just nighttime encounters with an unidentified creature of some sort, but it also includes UFO sightings, Men in Black, Native American curses, and even a mutated sandhill crane. But what makes the Mothman so alluring is that opposed to many monster legends... people actually saw the thing. Something was actually there. Over 100 witnesses claim to have encountered a flying humanoid weirdo of a creature.

The Mothman is also not a new story. It began in 1966 and has been retold in numerous mediums, from John Keel's seminal Mothman Prophecies to the movie of the same name; documentaries, novels, video games, and even comic books have all attempted at relaying the chillingly true tale of the Mothman.

I am personally an enormous Mothman fan. While I am a researcher of the weird and wonderful, I do not consider myself a researcher into the Mothman phenomenon. That story has been told and retold in numerous ways. I honestly feel that I couldn't contribute anything productive to the study, but I've hungrily consumed any and all Mothman related media I could get my paws on and still greedily want more. Now, though, I think I have found something that might hold off that hunger for a little while: The Mothman of Point Pleasant.

I was fortunate enough to be allowed to view a pre-release review copy of the movie, courtesy of Seth Breedlove, the movie's director. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect before I watched the movie. I am a fan of Small Town Monster's work but the previous movies they had done were all focused on smaller scale Bigfoot sighting flaps. I was skeptical of whether or not they would be able to cover the vast information connected to the Mothman. After viewing, I can thankfully say that they passed with flying colors.

The movie opens with some shots of the TNT area, where numerous sightings were reported, with Lyle Blackburn's creepy, Texas-twanged narration. I immediately got chills and knew I was in for one heck of a ride. Mothman covered the history of the Mothman phenomenon chronologically, from the Battle of Point Pleasant to the Silver Bridge collapse, and all the cryptid goodness in between. Breedlove and crew leave no stone unturned in their examination of the creature, interviewing key witnesses, well-known authorities on the events, and even just some of Point Pleasant's natives from the time of the events.

I actually did learn of a few cases I hadn't heard before and enjoyed hearing some familiar cases being told in a visual way. As much as I loved the great information and tales, I honestly think that the highlight of the movie was easily the visuals. Seth and company employed the use of aerial drones for awesome landscape shots, used numerous gorgeous photos of the TNT igloos and the area that surrounds them, and absolutely stunning digital animation. Honestly, my jaw dropped when I saw the animation segments, which showed the visuals of a story as the witness described what happened.

I cannot recommend this movie enough. If you have even a passing interest in the Mothman or strange stories, you will love The Mothman of Point Pleasant.

Well... If you've read the Keel book and seen the Gere film, you probably know everything this doc has to offer. Sure, you get a few more specific first hand stories, including audio and video from some deceased witnesses. Plus you get more than enough footage of the Mothman "Museum" and its curator (calling it a "museum" is a lonnnnng stretch, as it's a novelty shop full of tee shirts and goofy throw-away Mothman nick-nacks, etc) to help those in need of more help. (As if you needed any help, because there's a very amateur narrator butting in throughout).

There's absolutely zero dissection of what the Mothman phenomena possibly is, and this is a huge misstep. There surely are a lot of theories, but none of those get the slightest mention.

Oh! The animations here are actually REALLY good! I was surprised! Well done! But, it looks like they blew their budget on the animations and renting a drone for constant flyover footage (that utterly served no purpose). In the end, this felt like something that Hollywood would buy and tack on to a DVD release of the Gere film. Save your time and money and read Keel's book.

If you are the sort of person who believes that various cryptozoological creatures exist, such as Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster, then "The Mothman of Point Pleasant" will be a very different experience compared to that of a skeptic, like me. So, as you read my review, please keep this in mind...I already had a mindset that the whole thing is a hoax. I remember various stories in the Washington, DC area as I grew up in the 1960s of similar stories, such as the Bunnyman, UFOs and the Goatman. It was a popular period for cryptids.

The film is a historical documentary about the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia and their Mothman story. Using a creepy-voiced narrator and equally creepy music and sound effects, the story interviews many locals as well as showing film clips and photos all related to the Mothman. Whether you believe all this or not, the quality of the production is quite good...better than I would have expected for such a topic. And, it didn't draw a lot of conclusions and just let folks talk...which was an excellent decision.



By the way, today the town of Point Pleasant embraces the whole Mothman story. In September, they have a Mothman Festival--complete with costumes, rides and a parade. They also erected a Mothman statue some time ago!

This was a documentary that I decided to check out at work. The reason was that this is listed as also being in horror. Also, I've seen a good number of co-writer/director Seth Breedlove and his production company of Small Town Monsters. To add to it as well, I have family from West Virginia. My father was on the Silver Bridge when he was younger. They've also been to Point Pleasant and to the museum there.

What I like about Breedlove's documentaries is that he just reports the stories that people relay. I do appreciate that he's not trying to influence the viewer, outside of just making these documentaries. This interviews people or their relatives to share the stories of people who encounter this Mothman. What is also intriguing, having seen The Mothman Prophecies, is getting the story of Idris Cold. People also saw strange lights and talked to 'men in black'. How much of this is connected to this cryptid? We may never know. These last ones definitely could be government related though.

I'll say that this is one of the earlier Breedlove docs and it's good to see this was well-made. The technology for doing re-enactments isn't as good. There is still charm here. I do love that he does what he can instead of just seeing these people who are interviewed. He tries to bring to life what they're saying to add excitement. This looks like his 3rd documentary that he made chronologically and it still looks good. The professional was there even early into making these.

I will then just end this out by saying that if you're interested in the Mothman of Point Pleasant, this is a good one to start with. We are getting less investigation into it and more just presenting facts as well as retelling stories. I do think this would be a good companion to ones that probably go more in-depth for sure.

My Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Plot

Learn the terrifying, true story about thirteen months that changed history! In November of 1966 a car full of kids encountered a creature unlike anything they'd ever seen before. In the weeks and months to follow, the monster (now known as The Mothman) was sighted again and again on country roads and around the state of West Virginia.

Cast

Made by Seth Breedlove, a man with a penchant for the absurd. From Mothman, to Aliens to Sasquatch he's done a documentary for each.

Verdict

The Mothman of Point Pleasant is the same as it's sequel The Mothman Prophecy (2020) as if one of these wasn't enough. Namely it's full of interviews with people who claim to have seen "Something", a lot of speculation, a history lesson and some credits.

You see the moment this "Documentary" began I was hit with an advert. No, I mean there's actually an advert as part of the documentary instantly after the credits. Bad start! Never seen something so absurdly unprofessional.

And then it begins and it's everything you'd expect from a documentary about something wholly fictional. Local yokels ranting about what they saw but never caught it on camera, local "Experts" who also can't provide anything but alleged background and references to Hollywood movies that feature this fictional creature.

Seriously, do you not have anything better to do?

Rants

The Mothman doesn't exist Ghosts aren't a thing Sasquatch is fictional Aliens aren't probing butts

Do I need to continue? Grow up and engage with reality.

Breakdown

Fascinating creature Boring Accomplishes nothing Fiction dressed as fact.