MOTHMAN FLUTTERINGS

I wondered that myself while watching that movie. An excellent movie, in my opinion by the way…

Question asked on Yahoo Answers: Why was the Mothman Watcher sent to the asylym?

Beware; for some reason the link doesn’t work, or it didn’t for me; I got an alert that Yahoo removed the question due to “community guidelines.” So here’s what came through in my alerts:

It’s not clear in the film but here’s what I found on wiki :

“During the ’50s, as Mason later mentions, the House UnAmerican Activities Committee forced all active costumed vigilantes to reveal themselves to one of their representatives. Due to left-wing friends that Mothman had cultivated while a student, his clearance was considerably more difficult than his companions. He was eventually cleared, but Mason describes the investigations as both lengthy and ruthless.

Mason speculates that the pressure of this meeting may have prompted his future drinking problem, but Laurence Schexnayder points out that the stem of his harder drinking was after the death of Dollar Bill. After a long bout of drinking, Mothman had a complete mental breakdown, and in 1962 he was admitted into a mental institution that Rorschach reveals is in Maine. “

A Mothman movie is to air on the SyFy channel April 24th. Here’s the blurb:

Jewel Staite (Firefly, Stargate Atlantis) stars in Mothman, premiering Saturday, April 24, at 9PM (ET/PT). In the movie, the legendary West Virginia monster returns to exact revenge on five childhood friends who covered up an accidental killing. Produced by Brad Krevoy and Reuben Liber. Directed by Sheldon Wilson. Written by Sonny Lee and Patrick Walsh. Source: Sci Fi Talk Official Blog.

I hope it’ll be better than the awful Jersey Devil movie they aired a year or so ago. As much as I love Lou Diamond Phillips, the movie couldn’t transcend the enjoyable B movie vibe. I didn’t expect it to be good good, just, not… bad. Mainly it was the ending that got to me; as if all the producers and the director just gave up and tried to finish the movie off so they all go home.

Anyway, of course I’ll be watching Mothman!

No doubt uber-skeptic Joe Nickell will be on the program and tell us that the Flatwoods Monster was just an owl.

From last year, but an interesting find. . .

A ten minute “show” about Mothman. The paranormal or high strangeness things are mentioned here as well, not only UFOs but poltergeist activity, etc. and MIBS. Interesting comments from viewers in the comment section as well. Most importantly, and interestingly, there is mention of psy-ops, mind control as explantion for Mothman, something not discussed usually in shows like this.

Monster Quest recently aired its episode about Mothman. (Read my comments here.) But Animal Planet’s program Lost Tapes also had a Mothman episode, with some neat clips of original news items about the Mothman sightings in Pt. Pleasant.

Lost Tapes usual method is to mix pretty cheesy dramatizations with some original footage. Still, pretty interesting, and in some ways, a lot better (in a goofy way) than the MQ episode. Not that it’s a contest.

An article by paranormal researchers on the west coast about how producers of paranomral shows use researchers for their own agendas. A given, maybe, but something not often talked about. I felt the same way after talking to the producer from History Channel, and it’s good to hear this not so pretty side of things from someone else. In Paranormal Television: Cutting Room Floor Philosophy the recent Mothman episode aired on Monster Quest is discussed, and MQ’s treatment of witnesses, data and researchers.

This person asks the ‘Questions and Answers’ site why is there a letter from Robert F. Kennedy at the Mothman Museum in Pt. Pleasant?

I saw it; have been looking forward to this episode ever since a producer from the show contacted me several months ago in preparing for the program. I think I put her off; for I went into an esoteric direction (a la Andrew Colvin, who, I noticed, the show did not mention) and she nervously-laughingly said she didn’t want the government following her, dismissing anything to do with all that. I didn’t think much of the program, even though Nick Redfern was on, which was great. But overall, didn’t think much of it and Coleman makes a good point: where was the historical background? However, of all the things that annoyed me the most was the inclusion of uber-skeptic (“I’m not a scientist, I have an English Lit degree, but I play one on TV” Joe Nickell) who smirked non-stop while gleefully cutting out plywood Mothman figures to test the accuracy of witnesses. This man has an intriguing fixation with owls; for, after all, not only are owls the explanation for Mothman sightings, owls are the explanation for the Flatwoods creature, and the Kelly Hopkinsville entities, says Nickell.

Here’s Coleman’s review on his blog Cryptomundo.

Monster Quest does Mothman, tonight. Check local listings… more to come.