Back Roads of West Virginia

There are movies, television shows and subjects that make me stop mid-click and watch when I'm flipping through the 800 channels of nothing. The subjects range from WWII Holocaust to documentaries on the food industry, and ghost hunting to going "off the grid". A specific topic is the legend of Mothman.

If you think you've heard the name you might be thinking of the 2002 film starting Richard Gere and Laura Linney called The Mothman Prophecies. The film is based off the 1975 book by the same name written by John A. Keel. The book (and film) are an account of his investigation into the sightings of Mothman that occurred in 1966 and 1967 around Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

Who is Mothman? Eyewitness accounts report seeing a large manlike winged creature with glowing red eyes. The accounts vary and sightings have been reported from late at night to in broad daylight. The Mothman legend is mainly rooted to the Ohio River Valley and the Point Pleasant Silver Bridge disaster of December 15th, 1967, but Mothman has been sighted and linked to other devastating event, such as the JFK assassination and even 9/11. The curse or theory behind Mothman is that he is some kind of foreshadowing of the darkness which is to fall over an area due to an upcoming event.

The events of 1966-1967 up and down the banks of the Ohio River Valley surrounding Mothman have been the most documented and publicized of the his "career". The collapse of the Silver Bridge which connected Point Pleasant and Kanauga, Ohio ended the sightings of the creature and forever linked Mothman to the tragic death of 46 souls. Those years were full of Mothman and UFO sightings in the Ohio Valley and the focus of Keel's book.

Why am I going on and on about this? Well, when I happen to flipping channels looking for something to watch, when Mothman pops up in the guide on my Direct TV I stop and watch. This happened last night. Flipping channels looking for something to fall asleep to I found Syfy network had a movie called none other than Mothman. Okay I know it's Syfy and they have their cheese factor, but honestly that have had decent stuff. THIS WAS NOT THE CASE. I think a managed to get through a 1/2 hour before I gave up. The premise of the film was that 5 childhood friends accidental caused the death of a friend and covered it up. 10 years later the one who protested the most against the cover-up returns as a report to do a fluff piece on the Mothman Festival  (which I keep telling Mad Dog we're going to) in Point Pleasant. The legend of Mothman (in the film) is that he appears and takes revenge or takes it wrath out on the bad/evil. WHAT? I'm not even going to go into the whole bad, did I say bad? Oh wait I meant HORRIBLE effects, but can you at least have some respect to the legend? Of course you don't want to make a remake of The Mothman Prophecies, but really there were more than enough stories that surrounded Mothman what would be worthwhile. You don't have to regurgitate I Know What You Did Last Summer or any other movie of the genre tell the stories.

If Syfy's Mothman theory is right, that he strikes against the unjust then the Writer of the film is screwed big time!