Guest review by Sonya Harvey
Eyes of the Mothman attempts to explain the mystery surrounding the infamous winged birdman that terrorized the small religious community of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, a story known as The Mothman Prophesies.
The Hollywood movie, featuring Richard Gere as an inquiring reporter (loosely based on the real-life author John Keel who dove head-first into UFO conspiracies) and Laura Linney as a police officer responding to strange middle-of-the-night phone calls (loosely based on the real on-scene journalist during the night terrors of Mothman), attempts to piece together the fateful events that took place in Point Pleasant from 1966-1967 that resulted in the death of 46 people.
In spite of the Hollywood hype, this new documentary actually works to break apart the historical events, piece by piece, and in an attempt to cover all possible angles of the still-unsolved mystery, it at least succeeds in formulating every feasible explanation one could fathom — apart from Mothman being a distant cousin of Mothra that is.
It begins with the Curse of Chief Cornstalk. (Say what? We can’t make this stuff up, folks.) See, there was this famed battle that took place in Point Pleasant, and as the story goes, Cornstalk and the English newcomers were in peace negations’ after the battle between the two groups led to a draw.
Unfortunately for Cornstalk, some of the Native Americans weren’t too keen on the so-called peace talks and they ambushed two newbies enjoying an afternoon hunt. This led to Cornstalk being murdered point blank by the Englishmen who held him in contempt. It’s said Cornstalk’s last words were to utter a curse over Point Pleasant and anyone who calls it home. At least that’s what the locals would have you believe. (Remember the Silver Bridge collapse of 1966, anyone?)
Preposterous? Maybe, but how about the chemical mutations set upon the land where the McClintic Wildlife Preserve now stands. Sure, it once housed multiple TNT and bomb-making warfare bunkers put into play during WWII, through the chemical leaks didn’t come about until the 1980s when teenagers and thrill-seekers rummaged the land as their own personal playground. Needless to say it should come as no surprise that the scientific community, in an attempt to explain the unnatural or unknown, coined newspaper headlines that read: Mothman is nothing more than mutated Sandhill Crane. Really? A mutated Sandhill Crane? You don’t say?
Even weirder still it the appearance of the Men In Black and apossibly sub-human who simply referred to himself as Indrid Cold. Granted, UFOs were bound to play apart in the story of a winged birdman flying through the skies, but the story of local resident Woodrow Derenberger and his meeting with Cold is the weirdest explanation yet, and as it turns out, the story can be corroborated.
You see, Cold, dressed in a head-to-toe black suit with big weird bug eyes and a smile streaked across his face, spoke to Derenberger using telepathy and told him of fateful events that would later come true. When more locals swore UFOs could been seen hovering over their barns and reported missing dogs, more Men In Black would show up, not asking questions, but rather telling the towns folk to keep their mouth shut about what they’d seen.
Still, no one could explain the sight of a seven-foot-tall birdman with grayish skin, big red menacing eyes and wings that spanned ten feet, who could fly straight up into the air without so much as a single flutter, and odder still, no one could explain why the witnesses were plagued with symptoms like swollen pinkeye, sleeplessness and reoccurring nightmares.
Yeah, maybe it was the Curse of Cornstalk, or a mutated Sandhill Crane or UFOs, but we can assure you that it definitely wasn’t a distant cousin of Mothra.
Extras:
* Bonus interviews
* Behind-the-scenes featurette
* Psychic Walk Through
* Audio commentary
Bottom line: While it’s a very intriguing and in-depth history of Point Pleasant and the theories behind the Mothman sightings, Eyes of the Mothman leaves the viewer with way more questions then they probably ever had in the first place.
Eyes of the Mothman
Virgil Films, 155 minutes, not rated
DVD: $29.99
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/dvd/2011/02/new-mothman-documentary-raises-more-questions-than-answers/
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