The Mothman Legacy (2020) Review

The Mothman Legacy is Seth Breedlove’s follow-up to 2017’s The Mothman of Point Pleasant. It’s a subject he also touched on in last year’s Terror in the Skies and one he obviously has a lot of interest in. Here he updates the story past the original wave of sightings and the collapse of Silver Bridge in 1967. A tragedy which the creature has been said, much like a Banshee, to have been a harbinger of.

While The Mothman Legacy doesn’t entirely ignore the original sightings it doesn’t spend much time on them and assumes the viewer is familiar with the events of 1966-67. Those who aren’t may want to familiarize themselves before watching. It will make much of the film easier to understand.

He also takes a look at a different aspect of the Mothman sightings. Breedlove goes back and looks at the various groups that settled the area around Point Pleasant and how their folklore may have played into the perception of what was seen. This includes the Scots and Irish with their tales of banshees as well as the native traditions concerning the Thunderbird.

Of course, there are the expected interviews with witnesses and recreations of sightings. The CGI used for the recreations is a bit of a mixed bag and some of the animations work better. There is also some actual footage of what is alleged to be a strange winged creature flying over a river. 

We also get a look at how the sightings and accounts of them, such as John Keel’s book The Mothman Prophesies and the movie that shares its name but not much else, affected the town and its inhabitants. Jeff Wamsley who runs the Mothman Museum and organizes the extremely popular Mothman Festival provides a lot of information on that topic.

Another influence of Keel’s book that gets covered is his theories on Mothman’s origins and nature. Prior to The Mothman Prophecies, the explanations for the creature revolved around physical creatures. A giant owl, a sandhill crane or a new species of bird. Keel introduced the idea that it could be something from an entirely different dimension. That concept has gained a lot of traction over the years, not just regarding Mothman but with other strange phenomena as well.

Breedlove also covered the interdimensional theory in regard to another aerial phenomenon in On the Trail of UFOs. His next film The Mark of the Bell Witch takes Small Town Monsters fully into paranormal territory. I wonder if this is the start of a new direction in his thinking and his films?

The Mothman Legacy is available to stream via 1091 Media. You can check the Small Town Monsters website and Facebook page for more information.