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    New film to investigate W.Va. legend of Flatwoods Monster

    Flatwoods Monster Illustration
    The Flatwoods Monster as imagined in a new film that regards the alleged alien encounter in central West Virginia.

    A new film aims to tell the true story behind what happened in a rural West Virginia town when a group of locals encountered a monstrous being moments after seeing strange objects in the sky.

    "The Flatwoods Monster: A Legacy of Fear" is a new documentary from director Seth Breedlove, which will 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 in central West Virginia.

    In the years since their brush with the encounter 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 when the film is released on April 6.

    In September 1952 hundreds of people across the U.S. witnessed glowing objects streak across the sky.

    One object in question appeared to land on a hill near the small community of Flatwoods, West Virginia. According to the legend, the children who observed "the crash" and two adults climbed to the top of the hill to search for the object and found themselves face-to-face with a 13-foot-tall mechanical monster.

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    Later that same evening a branch of the local National Guard unit would be dispatched by Air Force officials to investigate the encounter.

    Shot between July 2017 and January 2018, the film will also be part of a crowd-funding campaign launching Thursday night at 7 p.m., and members of the film crew will take part in a Facebook Live Q&A and radio show the same night.

    The film is being released by the award-winning Small Town Monsters production company, which has also produced “The Mothman of Point Pleasant,” another documentary centered around a well-known West Virginia legend.

    The film features an original score composed by Brandon Dalo and cinematography by Zachary Palmisano with special FX by Santino Vitale and fully animated sequences by Chris Scalf.

    "The Flatwoods Monster" will be released on DVD and Amazon next April with a wider digital release planned thereafter. Plans are in place to screen the movie prior to its release in Cincinnati, being held March 23-25.

    The official premiere will be held at the Elk Theater in Sutton, West Virginia, on April 7 with members of the Small Town Monsters crew taking part in a Q&A following the showing.

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    David Sibray
    David Sibray
    Historian, real estate agent, and proponent of inventive economic development in West Virginia, David Sibray is the founder and publisher of West Virginia Explorer Magazine. For more information, he may be reached at 304-575-7390.

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