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‘The Flatwoods Monster: A Legacy of Fear’ Documentary Review

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Flatwoods

Production company Small Town Monsters make a compelling case for local cryptids in their documentary series. With each film focusing on a different local legend – such as the Minerva Monster, the Beast of Whitehall, and the Mothman of Point Pleasant – writer/director Seth Breedlove shares his passion for the mysterious and spooky tales that haunt these small towns.

The Flatwoods Monster: A Legacy of Fear tells the story of The Green Monster of Flatwoods, West Virginia, and how its cultural reach continues to grow.

The legacy begins on September 12, 1952 when a small group of local kids – brothers Edward and Fred May, and their friend Tommy Hyer – witnessed a bright object streaking across the sky before it came to rest over a neighboring farm. The brothers ran to tell their mother, Kathleen May, who joined them with three other local youths and the community dog (which is an amazing concept, if you ask me).

The group witnessed a large, pulsating “ball of fire” and reportedly discovered an otherworldly creature accompanied by a harsh and pungent mist. Frightened and panicked, they fled, and matriarch Kathleen May went to the local authorities to report their sighting.

via West Virginia Explorer

The Flatwoods Monster appeared at a time that was surging with reported extraterrestrial sightings worldwide. Global and political events were making the world an increasingly fearful place, and the rise in unexplained activity brought a whole new tension to small communities. Rural areas seemed to be a hotspot for these bizarre events. West Virginia, for example, had another legendary encounter in 1966 with the Mothman.

The documentary uses a combination of bright, colorful filters and smooth aerial shots – like a rural Pleasantville – paired with campfire-creepy animation, Tim Burton-esque miniatures, and atmospheric recreations to tell the story.

The creative imagery used in The Flatwoods Monster: A Legacy of Fear is particularly appealing – I found myself drawn in by the visual storytelling. They inspire memories of 1950s sci-fi films that capture the wonder and wild incomprehension of these shocking experiences.

via Small Town Monsters

Director Seth Breedlove’s interviews with the surviving witnesses probes their memories for the full story while presenting their reports in an impartial way.

He tells us the tale of the Flatwoods Monster – including the helpful historical context – but does so in a way that is both respectful of the sources and not invasive to the viewer’s personal opinion.

I have to mention the director of photography, Zac Palmisano, for his great work here. And a shout out to J.D. Riggs for the monster effects, Chris and Brandon Scalf for designing the animation (with stop motion animation by Santino Vitale), and Brandon Dalo for composing the score.

This documentary really highlights the spectacular creative team behind Small Town Monsters. Their work elevates their subjects and compliments the story in a fantastic way. For me, it was the film’s major selling point.

via Dread Central

The Flatwoods Monster: A Legacy of Fear is more of a short-subject documentary, clocking in at a cool 45 minutes. The official description is as follows:

Unlock a decades-old mystery that included a government-ordered military examination of a purported alien crash-site, and multiple UFOs seen by countless residents of Braxton County, WV. In the years since their brush with the “Flatwoods Monster”, witnesses have seen their story evolve from a terrifying, true-life event to little more than a fable. Two of the remaining witnesses will set the record straight.

Check out the trailer and the poster below. The Flatwoods Monster: A Legacy of Fear lands on April 6 and is available to order through the Small Town Monsters website.

via Small Town Monsters

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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