Mothman and Mothra
Posted by: Nick Redfern on June 17th, 2012
As I note in a new post at my World of Whatever blog: “Late last night I watched, for the first time in years, the Japanese ‘monster movie’ Mothra. And, on doing so, a few things occurred to me that suggested uncanny parallels between Japan’s famous, flying, mothy monster and John Keel’s acclaimed title, The Mothman Prophecies.”
And what might those parallels be? They can be found right here…
About Nick Redfern
Punk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.
Mothman had nothing to do with “moths.” The name was created by a copyeditor in Ohio for a headline. It’s origin was due to the Batman television series. The Mothman (with reflective red eyes, not self-shining eyes) was involved in sightings of giant owl-like/big bird-like creatures. Later chroniclers have compounded things with the moth business, including the statue in downtown Point Pleasant.
It is a real stretch to relate the nonfiction American Mothman and Japanese fictional Mothra to each other, other than having similar names. Mothra’s development from blue and yellow egg to a huge brown, segmented caterpillar (resembling a silkworm) with glowing blue eyes (red angry), that spins into a silken cocoon around itself, and then the adult Mothra emerges – as a definite giant moth – is so far from anything to do with Mothman to be laughable.