Mothman



In Point Pleasant, West Virginia, a group of seven high school seniors are celebrating their upcoming graduation by doing a little camping next to the river that runs by the old mill, the location where the local legend of the Mothman reportedly got its start. But, they have a bit of a party crasher, as Richard’s younger brother Jamie also decided to tag along on their little get together. To punish him for daring to want to spend time with his older brother, the group decides to play a prank on him, by continually tugging him under the water when they do a little late night swimming. But the prank turns fatal when they dunk the boy one too many times, and he legitimately drowns. Panicked and convinced that his death will ruin their lives, they decide to cover up the death by claiming that Jamie hit his head and drowned, bashing his head with a rock to legitimize their tale.

Ten years later, Katherine, the one member of their party who was so horrified by their actions that she moved away, is brought back to Point Pleasant after her editor sends her there to do a story about the Mothman festival. Katherine really doesn’t want to be there, and her old friends aren’t exactly thrilled to see her either. But everyone gets even less excited when they realize that every member of their little “camping trip” is slowly getting picked off, one by one, by the very local legend that they used to mock.


Not so much mocking now, is there sport?

Okay, so I didn’t realize this before, but there are actually a LOT of Mothman movies out there. Like, way more than I expected. The only film I knew about beforehand was The Mothman Prophecies from 2002. Which I did watch back then, by the way. But I don’t remember anything about it, so I guess it didn’t leave much of an impression. So my only real criteria for picking out this last film was to pick something that, uh, wasn’t that movie. But, once again, I need to learn to be a tad more discerning when it comes to picking which films I watch. Because like the unlucky nitwit that I am, I picked the one film out of the bunch that aired on the flippin’ SYFY channel. *cue uncontrolled weeping here* Thankfully though, this one wasn’t too bad. Making it kind of a… mid-range level SYFY movie, if you will. Meaning it doesn’t wholly suck, but it’s still not very good either.


Well who could have foreseen something bad coming from this!

Okay! Cryptid background time! The Mothman is, incidentally, not supposed to be a giant moth, but is reportedly a humanoid, avian-like creature with large wings and glowing red eyes that was seen around the Point Pleasant area in the mid 1960s. Why then, is it called Mothman if it more resembles a bird? Apparently you can blame Batman for that. Yes, the comic book character. His cheesy Bang! Pow! Splat! show was so popular at the time that he, and his gallery of various villains, were on the forefront of everyone’s mind around that time. Including the villain Killer Moth, even though he was never once featured on the show. But I guess that little technicality didn’t matter, and his name somehow got connected to the incident anyway, and… uh… Look, I didn’t even exist back then, so I have no understanding how this shit went down. Point is, the bird looking thing (which was in all probability a very confused and lost Sandhill Crane that landed near some cars and accidentally freaked everybody out) is now called Mothman. As for what it’s known for, it’s basically just this big, unknown thing that some claim is related to other paranormal events that occurred around the same time, like strange lights, UFO sightings, and the appearance of the mysterious “men in black”, and may or may not be linked to the Silver Bridge collapse in 1967 (but of course those sightings were all reported well after the collapse,  so…), and… um… That’s about it, actually. For the most part it’s really just known for showing up and freaking people out and not much else.


Kind of a weird motive, but okay…

Now, what does all of that have to do with this movie? Unsurprisingly, diddly squat. Here our Mothman is given a surprisingly robust backstory in an attempt to give him an origin. One that includes a betrayed Native American (again!) getting abused and murdered by some white assholes (again!!), and then shapeshifting into a monster to get his revenge (AGAIN!!!). Except this time, he doesn’t just get revenge on his killers. Instead he takes it upon himself to get revenge on ALL the murdering ass-hats who try to get away with their crimes. Hence the reason why he’s attacking Katherine and company. He just doesn’t like selfish dicks not being brought to justice, is all…or some shit.


Thanks for killing me, you ass-clowns. I hope the guilt eats you before the Mothman does.

So they kinda turned Mothman into some sort of avenging spirit. Which…Okay, I can roll with that. I’m all for sniveling, murdering cowards, getting their comeuppance, after all. But again, this is a SYFY movie, so that means that they also forgot to iron out all the details. Like, the Mothman’s whole shtick in this film is that he can get to you through mirrors (because his body was placed in a mirror-lined coffin…why?). All right…. kinda weird, but neat, concept, I guess. Except it’s clearly not JUST mirrors, as he also shows up in other reflective surfaces, like the side of that one dude’s shiny trailer (is that an Airstream? Sweet!). But apparently this doesn’t work for EVERY reflective surface, like glass? Or even other shiny metals, like, say, the barrel of that one guy’s shotgun? And then that one old guy claims the Mothman can’t get you if you don’t see him, which is why he gouged his own eyes out. Except that guy gets nom-nomed by the end, so… I guess I’m just wondering what the parameters we’re working with are here? Cause I’m starting to suspect the filmmakers themselves weren’t quite sure either. In fact, I suspect that a lot of story elements may have ended up on the cutting room floor, because there’s this whole plot point involving a knife made out of a bone (a femur?), and it’s implied that it’s a surviving human bone from the Mothman, and it seems it’s simultaneously the only thing that can let him out of his mirror prison AND kill him. But I’m making conjecture on all of that, because the film doesn’t bother elaborating on what the hell is going on with the bone knife AT ALL. The characters are just given it and sort of expected to figure most of it out for themselves. So, while most of the story is a pretty standard revenge plot, there are some Mothman sized holes in it.


So we cut ourselves with this and the old man said that’ll do…something? Okay, sure, why not.

Now, as for the Mothman himself, he’s… Kinda crappy, I’m sorry to say. Which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, because, again, SYFY movie. So expect a very wonky, and weird looking CGI beast to stare at every time it pops up on screen. I’m not sure how else to describe it, other than to say it looks like someone took one of those really rough sketches you’ll find online that someone made of the Mothman – you know, one of those shadowy looking things? –, and then tried to animate it…. While also giving it a perpetually open mouth that looks like it’s trying to unhinge its jaw all the way down to its sternum. It’s, well, odd, to say the least. Although, I can’t say it doesn’t look like most of the drawings people have made over the years, so I kind of feel the need to give the film partial credit for this one. Because, by god, that DOES look like those sketches and descriptions, so bully for the filmmakers for getting the look right. That’s more than can be said for a lot of these cryptid films. Well, except for the whole ridiculously open jaw thing. That’s still an odd choice.


Could you go back into the furnace? You don’t look like you’re done baking yet.

Surprisingly, one tiny thread that helps hold this otherwise silly movie together, is that the acting doesn’t totally suck. I know, I know. I’m shocked, too. Yes, some of it is kinda cringy, as it doesn’t look like six of those seven “kids” ever went on to do anything of substance, so you shouldn’t expect too much there. But hey, at least most of them all die pretty early, so you don’t have to listen to them for too long. Thankfully though, two of the people you do spend the most time with are Jerry Leggio, who has been in a ton of TV and film dating back to the 60s, and Jewel Staite, who sci-fi fans may recognize from Firefly and Stargate: Atlantis. Meaning they gave the main roles to tolerable people who knew what they were doing. Are they great here? Gods, no. This is a cheesy SYFY movie. I’m sure they were mostly phoning it in. But they were at least putting some effort in, which is more than I can say for a lot of SYFY movies, and that helps make the film much more tolerable.


“Kill the bastard, Katherine!” The dude says, as he stays WAY the fuck behind her and makes her do all the work. So chivalrous.

Normally I’d expect myself to say that I hated the crappy CGI nightmare that is Mothman. Because, goodness, is that monstrosity downright HIDEOUS. But, surprisingly, I did not. Does that mean it was good? No. Perish the thought. It’s still a lousy SYFY movie featuring a simple plot and a bunch of dumb people making highly questionable decisions (if the monster was tied to the town, why couldn’t these fools just… I don’t know, leave?). But, it was also pretty entertaining in parts, had a couple good actors, AND actually had some decent cinematography to boot (I’m stunned). So, no, I didn’t hate it. It’s still not very good but it’s… Okay? Tolerable? Decent? Watchable? Better than your average crappy SYFY flick? Yes. Feel free to pick any one of those. Just remember, it’s still a cheep-y SYFY movie, so it’s only “okay” or “tolerable” in a “this nonsense is pretty corny” kind of way. If you actually want, I don’t know, a good cryptid movie to watch or something, you’re gonna wanna go find something else.

Mothman is available on a variety of streaming services.

Mothman is also available on DVD.

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