Back in November, I reviewed the documentary On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Discovery, by the Small Town Monsters team. In my review, I mentioned how a paranormal renaissance of sorts was happening now, with tons of new content being released by creators. Basic cable television has essentially failed us (I’m looking at you, Travel Channel and Discovery+). But there’s a plethora of great content in indie documentaries, podcasts, books, and YouTube Channels. Which brings me to a new favorite channel of mine: Mountain Beast Mysteries. Exactly What You’d Expect…and That’s a Good Thing Created and ho ..read more

We humans have had a long fascination with Mars. The red planet has been a source of endless speculation and fantasy, from The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, to the “face on Mars,” and the current spate of weird objects allegedly seen by NASA rovers. UFO enthusiasts have seen all sorts of things over the years in NASA photos. Traffic lights, a sheep-man, a rat, an iguana, and other anomalies. Traffic lights and silly animals aside, one researcher now says new NASA footage depicts a UFO crash on Mars. But did a flying saucer really land on the planet? A Crash on the Surface South African ..read more

On the Trail of the Lake Michigan Mothman Directed by Seth Breedlove | Small Town Monsters Back in 2019, Small Town Monsters released a documentary called Terror in the Skies, which focused mainly on flying cryptids such as the Thunderbird and modern-day pterodactyls. But they did briefly cover another winged, flying creature: Mothman. This wasn’t the traditional Mothman of Point Pleasant, though. The accounts covered in Terror in the Skies were focused on sightings of Mothman in and around Chicago. On the Trail of the Lake Michigan Mothman takes a closer look at these alleged sightings, as we ..read more

As we get deeper into the holiday season, many of us are moving out of the spooky state of mind of Halloween and into the more merry times. Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and New Year’s make the late fall and early winter a happy time for most. But did you know that prior to the mid-20th Century, Thanksgiving looked a lot more like what we now think of as Halloween? It’s true. So pour yourself a glass of apple cider, and learn about Ragamuffin Day – a mostly-forgotten holiday from days past, when kids went door to door asking for candy…on Thanksgiving. Adults are big, stupid doodo ..read more

On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Discovery Directed by Seth Breedlove | Small Town Monsters I remember a time, not too long ago, when this blog was more cynical and critical. The paranormal boom of the mid-2000s brought plenty of attention to the field, but most of it was not good. TV shows like Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures were embarrassingly obvious ratings-grabs, desperate to make each episode more thrilling than the last. Logic, truth, or science be damned. Finding Bigfoot was a nice guilty pleasure, but ultimately it was hard to take too seriously. And honestly, these shows were the bes ..read more

The Bigfoot Project Directed by Seth Breedlove | Small Town Monsters “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” – Friedrich Nietzsche The above quote was not something I ever thought would make it into any of my blog posts. But even while watching early Small Town Monster films, this quote would often pop into my head. Director Seth Breedlove has always presented balanced – if not skeptical – films on mysterious creatures and phenomena. And I often wondered how long it would take before the objective skeptical belie ..read more

Skinwalker: The Howl of the Rougarou Directed by Seth Breedlove | Small Town Monsters The term “skinwalker” has gained a lot of notoriety in the past few years. In Navajo lore, a skinwalker is a shapeshifting shaman, and can take the form of various animals, such as coyotes. Or in some cases, other human beings. Skinwalker Ranch in Utah has brought the lore to the forefront, even gaining a popular TV show. The ranch is alleged to be a vortex of paranormal activity, including encounters with UFOs, ghosts, Bigfoot, and other strange phenomena. For most people though, a skinwalker conjures up the ..read more

Ahh, Bigfoot. Who doesn’t love the big, hairy, legendary cryptid of North American folklore? I’ll tell you who: unsuspecting 6-year-olds. And the parents of said 6-year-olds who hired a birthday party Bigfoot to entertain the kiddies. It all started innocently enough. Brett McPherson, of Broken Bow, Oklahoma, was planning a birthday party for her daughter, Blaynee Mae, who was turning 6. Ms. McPherson, eschewing more traditional birthday party entertainment such as a clown or a popular cartoon character, decided to hire an actor to portray Bigfoot. Which I totally get. I was very much into Big ..read more

Once again, it seems we have a case of a monster-hunter claiming to have the “best evidence yet” of the legendary Loch Ness Monster.  Nessie hunter Eoin O’Faodhagain – who claims to also have spotted the creature twice in January of 2020 – claims to have footage of a 30-foot beast swimming in the Loch. So just how good is his footage? O’Faodhagain claims to have made the video in April of 2020. Apparently, he reported it to the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register. And they subsequently “confirmed” his sighting. Whatever that means. Anyway, the video itself is at least intriguing ..read more

On the Trail of UFOs: Dark Sky Directed by Seth Breedlove | Small Town Monsters West Virginia is a state that is well-known for its wide array of stories of high-strangeness. Mothman may be the most famous anomaly from the Mountain State, but it’s not the only one. The Flatwoods Monster terrorized Braxton County in 1952. Bigfoot sightings abound in Appalachia, as well as reports of a similar creature, called “white Thing” or Sheepsquatch. Other cryptids, such as the chupacabra and Grafton Monster have also been spotted there. Ghost stories are part and parcel of Appalachian Mountain folklore ..read more