Movie Review: Small Town Monsters' Invasion on Chestnut Ridge

As a researcher into and a fan of the unexplained, I always enjoy watching the documentaries Seth Breedlove and the rest of the Small Town Monsters team produce. "Minerva Monster" and "The Mothman of Point Pleasant" remain two of my all-time favorite movies. I am always looking forward to what they will be making next, but I was even more excited about "Invasion on Chestnut Ridge." This was for two reasons. Firstly, the film focuses on the Chestnut Ridge. The Chestnut Ridge is a mountain range that spreads across the western edge of Pennsylvania and just happens to be one of the weirdest and most fascinating places on Earth, in my opinion. Secondly, the film features heavily the work of one of my mentors, Stan Gordon. Stan is one of the main reasons I am where I am today and I always enjoy seeing his work getting more recognition.

The movie opens with a disorienting shot of the Ridge, followed by narrator Mark Matzke's clean, news reporter-esque introduction. Mark begins by informing the viewers that there are places on this planet that appear to be catalysts for the odd and unusual. He mentions Stonehenge, the Nazca Lines, and the Bermuda Triangle before shifting into the Chestnut Ridge. Some of the rich histories of the Ridge is mentioned and then the most infamous case from the Ridge is brought up: the Kecksburg UFO Crash. The Crash is discussed in detail and included some witness testimony from some locals who experienced the event. From there, the movie begins to go chronologically through the Ridge's weirdest cases. You'll see Bigfoot in cahoots with UFOs, birds so big you'll shout "Judas Priest!". and even a werewolf or two. 

The film has a uniquely '80s infused atmosphere that positively oozes the strange. The visuals, sound effects, and special effects all harken back to the B-science fiction and horror films of that period. Yet, the film still accomplished to be informative and interesting, in a style similar to the classic "In Search of..." series. One of the best parts of the movie, as with "Mothman", was the animated sequences reconstructing the encounters. For "Invasion" the animations were saturated with color and were made to resemble old film videos. 

All in all, "Invasion on Chestnut Ridge" is another fantastic entry to the STM collection of movies. I highly recommend the movie to all of my readers and listeners, whether or not they are from Pennsylvania. Be prepared to be shocked, amazed, and thrilled by this throw-back documentary of epic proportions. If you love old sci-fi and horror and unexplained stories of the mysterious, this is the documentary for you. 

You can find the trailer for "Invasion on Chestnut Ridge" here.

You can purchase the movie here.

And you can keep up with STM here.

Small Town Monster's The Mothman of Point Pleasant Review

The Mothman is the gold standard of monster stories. Its extensive and detailed legend includes not just nighttime encounters with an unidentified creature of some sort, but it also includes UFO sightings, Men in Black, Native American curses, and even a mutated sandhill crane. But what makes the Mothman so alluring is that opposed to many monster legends... people actually saw the thing. Something was actually there. Over 100 witnesses claim to have encountered a flying humanoid weirdo of a creature.

The Mothman is also not a new story. It began in 1966 and has been retold in numerous mediums, from John Keel's seminal Mothman Prophecies to the movie of the same name; documentaries, novels, video games, and even comic books have all attempted at relaying the chillingly true tale of the Mothman.

I am personally an enormous Mothman fan. While I am a researcher of the weird and wonderful, I do not consider myself a researcher into the Mothman phenomenon. That story has been told and retold in numerous ways. I honestly feel that I couldn't contribute anything productive to the study, but I've hungrily consumed any and all Mothman related media I could get my paws on and still greedily want more. Now, though, I think I have found something that might hold off that hunger for a little while: The Mothman of Point Pleasant.

I was fortunate enough to be allowed to view a pre-release review copy of the movie, courtesy of Seth Breedlove, the movie's director. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect before I watched the movie. I am a fan of Small Town Monster's work but the previous movies they had done were all focused on smaller scale Bigfoot sighting flaps. I was skeptical of whether or not they would be able to cover the vast information connected to the Mothman. After viewing, I can thankfully say that they passed with flying colors.

The movie opens with some shots of the TNT area, where numerous sightings were reported, with Lyle Blackburn's creepy, Texas-twanged narration. I immediately got chills and knew I was in for one heck of a ride. Mothman covered the history of the Mothman phenomenon chronologically, from the Battle of Point Pleasant to the Silver Bridge collapse, and all the cryptid goodness in between. Breedlove and crew leave no stone unturned in their examination of the creature, interviewing key witnesses, well-known authorities on the events, and even just some of Point Pleasant's natives from the time of the events.

I actually did learn of a few cases I hadn't heard before and enjoyed hearing some familiar cases being told in a visual way. As much as I loved the great information and tales, I honestly think that the highlight of the movie was easily the visuals. Seth and company employed the use of aerial drones for awesome landscape shots, used numerous gorgeous photos of the TNT igloos and the area that surrounds them, and absolutely stunning digital animation. Honestly, my jaw dropped when I saw the animation segments, which showed the visuals of a story as the witness described what happened.

I cannot recommend this movie enough. If you have even a passing interest in the Mothman or strange stories, you will love The Mothman of Point Pleasant.

The Mothman of Point Pleasant, the fourth Small Town Monsters film, will be released on DVD and digitally on June 2, 2017. You can watch the trailer for the movie here https://youtu.be/Vqk9RlHA-3Y. You can also find more about Small Town Monsters and their documentaries at their website http://www.smalltownmonsters.com/.

Minerva Monster Documentary Review

I recently went to the wonderful event, Creature Weekend, and while I was there I got a chance to meet the producer and director of a documentary which has become very popular, Minerva Monster. The documentary was made by a team known as Small Town Monsters, who also have a documentary on the Beast of Whitehall.
I was excited about getting the documentary because I live about 45 minutes away from Minerva and when I began to be interested in cryptozoology, the Minerva Monster was one of the first creatures I looked into.
I was not disappointed. The documentary was level headed, open minded, and was very respectful of the witnesses. It was similar to any documentary on a small town and an important event within the town. It reminded my of one of Lyle Blackburn's books except in a documentary format.
I especially liked that the team treated the event as history, which it is.

Overall, Minerva Monster is a great examination of a small town and its claim to cryptozoological fame. I recommend this to anyone who lives in Ohio and to anyone who is interesting in cryptozoology.