Wadsworth filmmaker releases new documentary on 'Mothman'

WADSWORTH — While some throughout Ohio and Appalachia call the "Mothman" a harbinger of doom, Wadsworth filmmaker Seth Breedlove has found good fortune through the mythical figure in the form of a new documentary. Breedlove, 39-year-old founder of downtown Wadsworth-based production company Small Town Monsters, has directed all 10 films the studio has put forth and is gearing up for release of "The Mothman Legacy," a sequel to to his 2017 documentary, "The Mothman of Pleasant Point." While that earlier picture looks at events reported in the 1960s around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, that established Mothman folklore, including the Silver Bridge collapse of 1967, "The Mothman Legacy" delves into whether origins of the red-eyed figure date back much further and includes personal accounts of modern sightings. "A lot of people don't realize how many people are still saying they've seen the Mothman," Breedlove siad. "We spoke with people all over and they're reported sightings in the Ohio Valley, Pennsylvania, New York, and of course Appalachia. The sightings and how they're described are quite varied, from being outdoors somewhere to at the foot of their bed." The documentary was set to premiere Sept. 18 at West Virginia's annual Mothman Festival, but that event was canceled due to COVID-19. It will now be released exclusively on digital streaming platforms Oct. 20. "Our goal here isn't to convince viewers that Mothman is real," Breedlove said. "It's just to show what these people have to say and let viewers make their own decision. We spoke to multiple people who claimed to have experienced a tragedy right after seeing Mothman, including someone whose father died the day after a sighting in their bedroom." Breedlove moved to Wadsworth in 2013 and established Small Town Monsters two years later. Positive feedback to early productions allowed the director to make that his full-time job by 2017, leaving behind work in medical billing and freelance reporting. He said a passion for film production is something that developed naturally. "I don't like being told what to do, and that was also a big motivation to get out of medical billing," Breedlove said. "I just like telling stories. That's the real skill. I feel like my writing experience helped more than anything in developing as a storyteller and anyone out there could pick it up if they put some effort into it." Small Town Monsters is working with 1091 pictures on the release "The Mothman Legacy" after signing a distribution deal with the New York-based studio in March. Last year, Breedlove signed a collaboration agreement with Hollywood director Adam Wingard, who is heading the upcoming "Kong vs. Godzilla" that's seen its release delayed from November to next year due to the pandemic. "I met Adam in 2017 and he actually reached out to me," Breedlove said. "I didn't even know who he was at first then found out what movie he's making. That made it a pretty big deal for me, to get that kind of attention for our work. He flew me out to L.A. in 2018 and we kicked around a lot of ideas. He's become a buddy of mine and we hope to get something going still in the future." Next up for Small Town Monsters is "Mark of the Bell Witch," another documentary that will focus on early-19th century accounts of a "shape shifting invisible entity" haunting a Tennessee family. "Everything we do so far has had some kind of link to the paranormal," Breedlove said. "We shot parts of Bell Witch in Wayne County and used a couple of Wadsworth actors for our recreations. This one was a bit harder to research since it happened so long ago. The population in Adams, Tennessee is still just around 700, but we found some historians who really helped us a lot." The studio hopes to release that film early next year. Pre-orders for "The Mothman Legacy" are now open at www.smalltownmonsters.com. Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at (330)721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.