Culture
‘Embracing Our Own Bogeyman’: ‘Return of the Mothman’ Film in the Works
By: Emily Votaw
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In the nearly two decades since the release of Mark Pellington’s The Mothman Prophecies film, the Mothman of Point Pleasant, WV has become one of the most recognizable cryptids the world over. Alongside Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster, what was once a terrifying folktale (supported by mystifying media coverage) crafted in the foothills of Appalachia 53 years ago has truly become a cultural phenomenon.
Immediately following the release of the 2002 Richard Gere-starring film, Point Pleasant held its first Mothman Festival – a tradition that has only grown over the course of its 18 years of existence. 2020 will mark the first year that the festival will not take place in Point Pleasant in September due to the COVID-19 crisis, but that doesn’t mean that the area’s passion for our very own cryptid has diminished.
Vandalia Filmworx Foundation is an independent movie studio dedicated to telling the true and often neglected stories of West Virginia. Early in 2020, Vandalia Filmworx Foundation released their first feature length film, River of Hope, which tells the true story of West Virginia State University, the state’s first historically black college, built on land owned by Mary Barnes Cabell, a former slave. Following River of Hope’s release, Vandalia filmmaker and West Virginian Calvin Grimm and his team began preparing to work on a film that would highlight another West Virginian story: that of the Mothman of Point Pleasant.
“River of Hope dealt with very serious subject matter, and we wanted to explore more of a folklore type story — and it’s hard to talk about West Virginia lore at all without the Mothman coming up,” said Grimm.
Grimm and his team debated as to the best way to tell the story of the Mothman: should they retell the classic story of the Mothman, the one that parapsychologist and Fortean author John Keel documented over 50 years ago? Did they want to set their film in the present day, with the Mothman returning after decades of no sightings in the region? The team also struggled with how they should depict the creature overall.
“One of my biggest criticisms of – and I won’t mention any movies that may or may not have Richard Gere in them – is that they aren’t clear about what the heck is this thing?” laughed Grimm. “That’s one thing I definitely wanted to answer with this film: what is the origin of the Mothman, what the heck actually is it?”
Enter Michael Knost’s 2014 Bram Stoker Award nominated novel Return of the Mothman. (Michael Knost is a pen name for Michael Collins, a West Virginia-based writer and folklorist). Set in present day Appalachia, the novel (Knost’s first) tells the story of Ted Browning, a man accustomed to devastating loss who is called back to his hometown of Logan, WV after learning of his grandmother’s cancer diagnosis.
“I saw that whenever a story about West Virginia was told, we were made to look like idiots, like rednecks to the max. I wanted to create a story that was more about our people than anything — and shine the light on the wonderful people we have, and that is really what Return of the Mothman is about,” said Knost. “If you read it, it is really less about the monster but more about the emotion and empathy and sympathy we have for the people involved.”
While the book sported the title that Grimm and his team had already dreamed up for their film, it also provided something else that Grimm was looking for: a concrete response as to what the Mothman really is.
“I allow the reader to find out what the Mothman is, I’m not saying this is exactly what the Mothman is, but this is what the Mothman is in my story,” said Knost.
“I saw that whenever a story about West Virginia was told, we were made to look like idiots, like rednecks to the max. I wanted to do a story that was more about our people than anything and shine the light on the wonderful people we have, and that is really what ‘Return of the Mothman’ is about. If you read it, it is really less about the monster but more about the emotion and empathy and sympathy we have for the people involved.” – Michael Knost, author of ‘Return of the Mothman’
The book hits close to home for Knost, who based the grandmother character on both his mother-in-law and grandmother; and based their tragic struggle with cancer on the one fought by his father shortly after Knost began writing the book. Both of these angles were integral to Knost’s decision to create a more human-centered and less sensational depiction of West Virginia’s patron cryptid.
After discovering Return of the Mothman, Grimm reached out to Knost to see if he would entertain the possibility of Vandalia FilmWorx creating a film adaptation of it. Knost had received numerous offers to create a film adaptation of the book, but Grimm’s was the first to which he enthusiastically agreed.
“When Calvin got in touch with me, he said ‘first and foremost, we are West Virginians and we are telling West Virginia stories,’ and I thought if anybody is going to get this right – it’s going to be us,” said Knost. “I was elated once I found out that they were going to take care of my people.”
“One thing that (Knost) mentioned is that he was always concerned about a bigger, out of state production company losing that Appalachian touch — that sense of Appalachian pride that everybody who has grown up in or lived in this area feels,” said Grimm. “There is a certain feel about West Virginia that is easily lost, a lot of big productions have tried to fake it and there is something missing.”
Grimm said that he hopes Vandalia can begin filming the project within the next several weeks, with an anticipated release date of summer 2021. Considering recent events, it seems unlikely that the region’s (and the world’s) adoration of Mothman are going to end anytime soon.
“There are people making suggestions that any confederate statues in West Virginia should be torn down and replaced with Mothman statues,” said Knost. “I think says a lot to how the people look at this entity, this monster, and how we have embraced it as our own bogey man.”
Listen to WOUB Culture’s interviews with Calvin Grimm and Michael Knost, embedded above.