On the Trail of UFOs: Dark Sky (2021) Review
On the Trail of UFOs: Dark Sky, the new documentary from Small Town Monsters picks up where last year’s web series On the Trail of UFOs left off. This time Seth Breedlove and paranormal researcher Shannon LeGro head to West Virginia to look at the state’s long history of strange objects in the sky.
Some of this will be familiar as Breedlove has already made two films on the state’s most famous mystery, The Mothman of Point Pleasant and The Mothman Legacy. He’s also covered another bizarre piece of the state’s history in The Flatwoods Monster: A Legacy of Fear. These are touched on as well as another well-known case, Woodrow Derrenberger who claimed to have been in contact with alien visitors. Anyone who has read John Keel’s The Mothman Prophesies will be quite familiar with his story.
Mostly though, On the Trail of UFOs: Dark Sky focuses on fresh material, interviewing witnesses and local experts on strange phenomena. There are recreations of some of the stories they relate to, usually via fairly good CGI. And, in an interesting change from most of these kinds of documentaries, the crew capture their own footage of something strange in the sky.
The film’s subtitle, Dark Sky may sound ominous, but it’s actually a reference to this mostly rural area’s lack of light pollution. More than one person speculates that it’s a reason why there are so many UFO sightings there, it’s simply easier to see them. That’s a theory that makes a lot of sense. Some of the other theories however don’t.
On the Trail of UFOs: Dark Sky uses reports of the Men in Black, who are stranger and more sinister than those in the films inspired by them, as a jumping-off point into serious conspiracy territory. Linking sightings of UFOs near, and occasionally entering or exiting old coal mines to allegations of covert military operations in the region they hint at the possibility that they’re incredibly advanced military craft operating out of secret underground bases.
I’m no expert, but I think if these actually were US government craft at least some of the technology would have found its way into more conventional military applications. Enough to give them enough superiority that the Russians and Chinese wouldn’t be nearly as aggressive as they currently are. Unless of course, you want to go further down that rabbit hole into the domain of the Illuminati and secret societies actually ruling the world. Thankfully On the Trail of UFOs: Dark Sky doesn’t go there or into Hollow Earth theories.
Apart from that however On the Trail of UFOs: Dark Sky is interesting enough to keep your attention if you have an interest in strange things in the sky. Others will probably dismiss these reports as the product of too much moonshine and meth.
On the Trail of UFOs: Dark Sky will be available to purchase or rent on August 3rd on a number of platforms from 1091 Pictures. You can check the Small Town Monsters website and Facebook page for more details.