Culture
New Mothman Documentary Includes Never Before Heard Interviews
By: Emily Votaw
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Point Pleasant, WV is small and tight-knit, nestled deep in the gorgeous hills of Appalachia.
Although the area is known for being a home to the grandparents of Mark Twain; the birthplace of Karl Probst (who is credited with the invention of the Jeep,); as well as the resting place of the second-to-last Confederate general to die, John McCausland; perhaps the quiet town alongside the Ohio River is best known for 13 months between 1966-1967.
During that time span, multiple residents of the town reported seeing a terrifying, winged cryptid that would eventually be known as “the Mothman.” Although reports vary slightly in descriptions of the Mothman, it is almost always painted as a dark creature with glowing, red eyes. Throughout that year, UFO sightings were reported frequently all around Point Pleasant and up and down Route 35, which runs through Point Pleasant and to Charleston. The phenomena climaxed with the tragic fall of the Silver Bridge in December 1967.
Ashley Wamsley-Watts is a longtime resident of Point Pleasant; as well as the public relations contact for the world’s only Mothman Museum and the marketing director for the Mothman Festival.
Due to her proximity to the town and its lore, Wamsley-Watts has seen more than her fair share of various media interpreting the events of 1966-67.
The Mothman of Point Pleasant, a documentary due out June 2, crafted by independent outfit Small Town Monsters, is the most recent.
“Small Town Monsters is a great group, and it’s nice because they are relatively close to us, too; usually we have filmmakers coming from all over the country,” she said. “I really appreciated their respect towards the Silver Bridge falling. That’s an event that is very important to a lot of families in the area – because many of the people who were impacted by it still live here. I was really happy when I found out that they handled that portion of the documentary so respectfully.”
Seth Breedlove, the director of the documentary, said he has long had a fascination with the legend of the Mothman.
“When it came out, I saw The Mothman Prophecies several times in theaters,” said Breedlove. He has been a part of Small Town Monsters since the group’s creation; having worked on the outfit’s first release of a film about the Minerva Monster – another cryptid that was sighted in the late ‘70s in eastern Ohio.
Last September, Breedlove attended the annual Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant (slated for September 16-17 this year,) and spoke with a police officer who told him a bit more about portions of the legend that hadn’t been widely discussed.
“Speaking (with the police officer) made me realize that there was a lot more to this story to tell,” said Breedlove. “When you think about everything that happened over the course of those 13 months, you really start to see that the legend is multi-layered.”
When doing research for the film, Breedlove said that he was initially concerned that he wouldn’t be able to find too many living witnesses to interview – being that the events took place so long ago.
“Honestly, we had a pretty easy time finding people who wanted to speak to us,” said Breedlove. “We actually found two witnesses who had never gone on record before to speak to us.”
The Mothman of Point Pleasant will be screened at the historic (and, some would say, potentially haunted,) Lowe Hotel, 401 Main Street in point Pleasant, at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 27. After the screening questions about the film, as well as the legend, will be fielded to members of the Small Town Monsters crew, and those who operate the Mothman Museum, which will also be open after the screening.
Update: the screening has officially sold out! The documentary will be available for purchase on the Small Town Monsters website, as well as on streaming services, starting June 2.