Eyes of the Mothman (2011) User Reviews

"Eyes of the Mothman" Sadly Disappoints

[kcrisenphoenix · 5/10 · 6 January 2022]

Mothman is perhaps my very favorite legendary "creature," even over Big Foot. There are so many witnesses that I find "him" incredibly interesting. So when I saw this documentary, I was quite excited. Sadly, I was disappointed.

When the documentary is on target, it does a good job. But when it isn't, it is boring and rambling and down-right silly. It wanders way too much, often disjointed, and quite a few of the people that were interviewed had no credentials or validity at all. Tim and John Frick for instance, who look like chatacters from "The Big Bang Theory," as well as Susan Sheppard, are credited as so-called "paranormal investigators," but what does that mean? What were their credentials? Their degrees? Anyone could call themselves a paranormal investigator. What makes these people someone to believe in? They did not witness any of these incidents so why should we listen to them? Only one or two of the people interviewed had even written anything, like a book on the subject. People would repeat the same basic story over and over and there was no reason for that. Some contradicted each other. One actually said that intelligent life has only existed for two thousand years of this planet! Even Christians think the Earth is six thousand years old!

"Eyes of the Mothman" could be cut by at least 30 minutes and the lack wouldn't even be noticed. The entire first part of the documentary is about the Native American chief named Cornstalk. There was absolutely no reason for that section to be so long and the visuals were silly. This part could have been five minutes and it would have been fine and relayed in pertinent information. The second section was about the history of TNT plants outside of town. It again is way too long. One section, about the famous collapse of the Silver Bridge, is way too long, and while interesting, is not connected to Mothman. It seems like this documentary should have been called "Point Pleasant."

There are also quotes throughout the documentary that have little to nothing to do what is going on. I love quotes. I love them interjected in books and movies and such, but it was more like the writer simply skimmed the word "eyes" in "Bartlett's Quotations" and picked anything that sounded cool.

Giving this five out of six, because while some of it was interesting, much of it was just a waste of my time. I would have rather watched the movie with Richard Gere even though it isn't entirely accurate. Sorry.

Thoroughly interesting and insightful

[gavsalkeld · 4 April 2011]

As someone with a heavy interest in the Mothman phenomenon, and a champion of the film "The Mothman Prophecies", I was intrigued to come across this weighty (two-hour plus) documentary on the relatively little-known phenomenon, the Mothman.

The opening back story that makes up the beginning of the film really helps give the Mothman story context, and although you have to sit with it for a little longer than you may want to, it nevertheless is an interesting introduction to the history of Point Pleasant.

Overall, the visuals are really nice -- with some clever effects and reconstructions to boot -- and to see eye-witness accounts firsthand was what really made the documentary good. To hear about events from officials, scientists and authority figures is fair enough, but to get to hear the actual witnesses speak was great.

The narrator's voice is well suited to the material and none of the reconstructions or effects are cheap, intrusive or cheesy. The subject matter is treated completely with the respect and seriousness it deserves.

I highly recommend prospective viewers of "Eyes of the Mothman" track down John Keel's compelling non-fiction book, The Mothman Prophecies, and read it before seeing this. The movie of the same name is also worth seeing, but I think you should see it before you read the book. The book will expand upon the movie, if you enjoyed it, and finishing off with this throughly interesting and insightful film won't leave you disappointed.

"Eyes of the Mothman" is a little long, but its worth sitting through. Well-made, beautifully put together, and really entertaining.

Campfire Tale Masqurading as a Doccumentary

[greymane_lor · 2/10 · 1 December 2011]

Covering not just the Mothman event, but also the tales of self-proclaimed alien contactee Woodrow Derenberger, the tragic Silver Bridge collapse, and assorted other unusual sightings around the town of Point Pleasant; Eyes of the Mothman is a film for believers.

It is preaching to the choir in it's purest form. What had the potential to be a serious examination of the fascinating urban legends of Point Pleasant rapidly transforms into a quagmire of crackpot theories claimed as scientific evidence and rumors presented as fact.

Any and all mundane theories about any of the events presented are hastily dismissed out of hand by the film makers (excluding the Silver Bridge collapse, which they do at least respectfully give the official explanation for, prior to then suggesting it was the Mothman or men in black who caused it). The nearest we get anyone entertaining a mundane explanation at all is the idea that chemicals from an explosive storage facility might have caused a bird to mutate to twice it's normal size. It's only too bad they did not go with the more plausible "It was a mutated man-sized turtle practicing his ninjutsu."

This is the sort of hard-hitting investigation Eyes of the Mothman offers. No actual hard evidence is ever presented - no peer reviewed scientific papers quoted to support claims, no photographic or video record, no physical evidence of any kind. Their only evidence is in the form of eye witness reports, often attributed to a nebulous "people" rather than cited from anyone specific. These are simply not enough to back the often bold claims made within the film. Any serious investigator will tell you eye witness reports are easily the most unreliable source of information you can have. Even within the film itself, not a single person who claimed to have seen the Mothman themselves seems able to agree on what it looked like and their descriptions do not merely vary, but do so wildly. The film does it's best to gloss all of this over however. The film makers even go so far as basically outright lie at the end, where the narrator claims there is hard evidence to back up the Mothman stories. Apparently there just wasn't time to present this any of this evidence to the audience. I could see how at two and a half hours, they might not be able to squeeze evidence in between "Native American Curse" and "Extra-Dimensional Beings."

It's too bad that the films actual content is such drivel, because it's actually very well put together. The music and sound effects are effective and it's rather sharply edited, which helps mask the often cheap set design and costumes involved in "reenactment" footage. It's narrator is also a great storyteller whose voice can easily draw you in and almost make you forget how utterly ridiculous what he's claiming is. The shame of it is that if this were intended as nothing but a piece of entertainment, I'd have considered it a much better film. The conceit that it is some sort of informative documentary however forces me to judge it as one though and for that, it is a dismal failure.

Going into this film, I knew of the Mothman event that people in Point Pleasant had seen "something." Coming out, that was still all I knew. It's not a bad film if you want to sit around a fire and listen to ghost stories without going camping, but if you're looking for anything informative or, especially, investigative then you're going to be disappointed.

More than just Mothman

[lucfrlv · 9/10 · 29 May 2018]

I like this documentary because they cover more than just the Mothman and the town of Point Pleasant. They touch base on a lot of strange events that took place within that area of the country, all of which happened around the time of the Mothman sightings. Really opens your eyes to other events that weren't really talked about at the time, some very odd things happening all around there.

Overly long with a confused narrative

[brendan-268 · 3/10 · 19 October 2012]

This VERY long documentary will probably hold appeal for conspiracy theorists, UFO buffs and anyone with a passion for the Mothman event, however, for anyone else it probably isn't going to be as appealing.

It actually ends up being 4 mini documentaries rolled into one - first one is about the local Indian/colonial history; second is about the Mothman, third is about UFOs and men in black, and the fourth is about the collapse of the 'silver bridge'.

It's kind of like a pot pourri of historical events and theories, etc, rather than actually being strictly a single documentary - as a result it doesn't really have a coherent narrative or flow, it just feels like several things all lumped together in the same film.

Reasonably well produced (apart from some small annoying technical issues in places), but it just isn't a great or memorable documentary.

Great

[Cosmoeticadotcom · 9/10 · 21 June 2012]

Eyes Of The Mothman succeeds magnificently as a work of investigative reporting and a speculative docudrama. Prior to this film, the most interesting take on the whole Mothman mythos was by the late psi writer, John Keel, whose book, The Mothman Prophecies, was the basis for the Gere film. But this film is far more detailed and comprehensive, and roundly debunks some of the longstanding claims made in Keel's book, as Keel was seemingly hoaxed on multiple occasions, and his book riddled with other inconsistencies. This film will likely become the definitive resource on the Mothman legend for the foreseeable future, for it does not condescend, claim to know what was real and what was not, and has no agenda- political, spiritual, philosophic, nor otherwise: it does not push the psi aspects of the legendry, nor does it ignore them. This is, easily, the finest piece of journalism I have ever read or seen, as it pertains to things deemed paranormal, for it eschews the classic Von Danikenism of earlier psi documentaries, and focuses on history, people, and how they were affected by the oddities, rather than just focusing on the oddities. In this way, Eyes Of The Mothman is not only a great documentary film, but an innovative one. Let's hope its style and execution are embraced, whether or not you believe in the Mothman and company.

Worst Documentary Ever Made

[arfdawg-1 · 1/10 · 22 June 2020]

This is abject garbage.

Not interesting. Absurdly long. And filled with BS that will interest no one on earth.

An extremely long documentary of Point Pleasant and Mothman

[Bernie4444 · 10/10 · 19 November 2023]

We get to see the 1777 war between settlers and Indians including Chief Cornstalk; we see it through many angles and bounce back and for the between the presenters like a Ping-Pong ball in the sound bite presentation that seems to go on forever and ever. You begin to wonder if there are ever going to get too Mothy.

Then we go through the area that is being used by the government for the manufacturer of Trinitrotoluene. We see bunkers designed to hide it from enemy aircraft over Ohio. But where is Mothy?

We see a stranger called Indrid Cold, flying saucers, a silver bridge, and finally some Mothman information tossed in as a secondary thought.

After 155 minutes it is over. We now know that they were trying to say in "The Mothman Prophecies" (2002.)