Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019
Images from the Internet
Terror in the Skies
Directed by Seth Breedlove
Small Town Monsters
68 minutes, 2019
Folklore
horror is a hidden gem that doesn’t get talked about much. Well, apart from the
granddaddies of them all, the bigfoot/yeti and the Loch Ness monster. But
nearly every corner of the world has their own equivalent mystical creature. For
example there is the Jersey Devil, or the Mothman, or even the Gitaskog. Many
of these tales arise from the oral cultures of the Indigenous people of the
area, but there are many that rarely make it to the mainstream.
One
of the things that makes this film different is that director Seth Breedlove
has gone beyond the genre into the documentary realm, making it real. This is not a mocumentary like the
extremely overrated The Blair Witch
Project, but he takes a serious probe into the story we are to be
presented.
For
this case, we are looking at the giant birds of Illinois. Not birdmen, but
birds proper, although to be fair, there is a correlation explained here with
the West Virginia Mothman. But the focus here to start is Alton, Illinois,
along the mighty Mississippi. The local natives (pre-settlers) called it the Paisa
Bird, the stories of which were passed down to the French explorers of the area
in the 17 Century.
We’re
not talking about just big birds (and not the ones who live on a PBS street),
but humungous ones that are described as the size of a Piper Cub airplane, and
eats livestock and – you guessed it – human piggies, especially piglets (i.e.,
kids).
The
film begins with a history of these sightings dating back to colonial times by
bringing out a slew of experts in the field, including a world renowned
crypto-zoologist (not my term). They tell of the eyewitnesses from long ago,
where it’s necessary to have a secondhand experience because, well, we’re
talking a span of hundreds of years. That being said, most of the sightings in
the early part of the film are from the 1940s through the 1970s.
What
is my opinion about all these gigantic birds? Y’know, I think it’s possible,
though it seems strange that no one has ever captured one, and the tales of
people shooting them posit that they burned the bodies because they were
scared. I’m on the fence at the 40-minute mark because I do think it’s possible
for there to be big birds. Ten to twenty-foot wingspans? Well, that’s easy to
mistake. Most descriptions seem to be like condors, which can be believable.
And that they come and go, well, there is migration and even small birds can
fly thousands of miles away (though I’m still not sure about coconut laden
sparrows who are African or European). Perhaps they end up in South America for
stretches of time (lots of condors down there). Hell, big pelicans keep
migrating up to Saskatoon from Mexico every summer, so I can see the
possibility of it all. To sum it up at this point, I’m firmly perched on the
fence.
At
the 40-minute mark, the film takes a strange turn and for me kind of puts
pressure on the vibe when the possibility of these Thunderbirds (as Native
Americans call them) are of a mystical nature is introduced. From nature to paranormal,
essentially. Suddenly there’s the question of whether they are supernatural
harbingers of doom, or multi-dimensional beings. Oh, please.
As
the tale moves north to the Chicago area, suddenly we’re introduced to the
“Chicago Mothman,” a more human, bat-like creature, reminiscent of the film Mimic (1997). Wisely, the director
chooses to be a bit skeptical at this point, mentioning the fact that there are
71 sightings in a city of millions, and not to mention the number of CCTV
cameras around. But it is here that we get to start hearing directly from the
“witnesses,” though there is still commentary by the experts; that being said,
I found the addition of the belief in the paranormal aspect gave loose on their
credibility a bit.
Despite
my skepticism, which is not to be read as criticism, this is quite a well-put
together film, that is the right length for its topic, rather than being
longwinded like this sentence. Along with live footage and quite a bit of
from-the-sky drone shots (and rightfully so considering the topic), there is
also some decently done animation (nothing too elaborate) to demonstrate the
eyewitness reports, or what the creature(s) looks like from description to
description.
This
documentary was actually quite fun, presenting one of the first
crypto-zoological animals that I believe could be possible (at least in the
first 40 minutes), and kept my interest throughout its hour length.
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