The vast North American wilderness
is home to evil forces
thought only to exist in nightmares.
But the terrible creatures that roam here are all too real.
Go, go, go, go!
In the woods of West Virginia
lurks a fearsome creature born of bloody legend.
Once it latches onto you, it won't let go.
It looks like death.
We've made it angry.
Ah!
Run!
This was just pure evil.
- Oh! - Oh, my God! Turn, go!
"It's going to come and get us. It's going to come and get us."
The town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia,
is postcard-pretty on the outside...
But years ago, a devastating tragedy
shook its residents to the core.
The Silver Bridge was a bridge
spanning from Point Pleasant to Kanauga, Ohio.
It collapsed on December 15th, 1967.
It was the worst bridge disaster in U.S. history.
It claimed 46 lives.
This was just a huge, traumatic event
for the small town.
I was right in the middle of it when it happened.
I was 5 years old in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
At the time, a mysterious creature was seen
clinging to the bridge.
Because of its expansive wings and insect-like appearance,
it became known as the Mothman.
There were people that claimed they seen it
flying around some of the towers of the bridge a few days
before the bridge collapsed.
People thought that this creature
caused the collapse of the bridge.
There were over 100 reported sightings to the authorities.
My guess is there were probably hundreds more
who never reported anything
because they were afraid of being called crazy.
There are those that think the Mothman itself
is a harbinger of doom.
The Mothman sightings in 1966
started a gigantic surge of media coverage
and a lot of curious people who descended on Point Pleasant
to get a glimpse of this creature for themselves.
You know, there were people driving around
with rifles and guns.
The military and the police did come in
and quarantined that area off.
This brought a lot of theories that there was a cover-up.
The fear still is out there.
These days, this legendary being is said
to haunt the woods outside of Point Pleasant.
It's a perfect environment.
It still is.
It's desolate. It's very eerie.
It's dead silent.
Nothing has really changed in the 60, 70 years.
It's a very scary place to be.
In 2008, Jeff and Krystle Drenning
head out to the area for a little getaway.
When we went on this trip, we thought we were just going
for a day trip, something different.
I had no idea it would change our lives like this.
I entirely regret it.
I wish we had gone anywhere else but Point Pleasant.
We work in retail management at the time,
and it was few and far between
that we had weekends off together,
so one came up, and we decided it was within driving distance.
We wanted to head out to that area.
So if we keep going...
A casual stop for directions
changes their destiny.
- Take the left? - Okay, okay.
The man started talked to us and explained these stories.
So he just drew us a map where there was
a lot of paranormal activity reported.
Thank you so much for your help.
Here you go. Thanks.
Don't worry about it. Thanks.
Krystle and I always shared
just a brief interest in the paranormal.
I mean, we didn't really put much stock into it.
But upon being alerted to Mothman's stalking grounds,
they find the lure irresistible.
We're just going to go straight ahead.
And we decided to just give it a shot, you know?
It would be like a little adventure following
the little map he drew us, treasure-hunt kind of deal.
This is it.
If I had the opportunity to go back,
no, there's absolutely nothing
that would get me to go out there.
Got it? Is this it?
I think so.
Krystle and Jeff
decide to make the most of the experience
and return with proof of their adventure.
Ready? Okay.
We went just, like, to the local Walmart
and got a digital voice recorder.
That was the first time we had tried anything like that.
You ready? Yeah.
Let's see if this thing works.
This way?
Sure.
I think this is the place.
Do you have that recorder thing?
Oh, yeah.
Do you know how to work it?
Hit record.
Hello?
Is anyone there?
Uh...
"If you're here, can you, you know,
make an audible noise to make your presence known?
Just say a word."
Can you hear me?
Here, let me try.
Good luck.
Are you there?
Can you hear me?
At the time, we audibly heard absolutely nothing,
and when we backed out,
I didn't think anything happened.
You know, I just chalked it up to cross this little adventure
off on a list and head back into town.
I'll try and get some rest.
When we got back home,
we just thought we'd see what we got.
- Can you hear me? - All right. Are you ready?
Oh, I'm ready.
- Are you there? - All right.
If there is anything you want to tell us,
this is your last chance.
What?
No, no, no. Let me see that.
And then we heard this really deep voice just say, "I'm here."
Someone is messing with us. And...
Did you mess with this? It just blew my mind.
Like, it was, like, we almost went into, like,
kind of a state of shock.
We just were speechless.
If there is anything you want to tell us,
this is your last chance.
I am here.
What?
And it just takes you aback.
It was really a deep, raspy, guttural voice,
but it didn't sound like
it should come from any humanoid vocal cords.
I was not prepared for what was going to happen next.
Hello?
I thought it was just a computer or a telemarketer,
something like that.
That was weird. Who was it?
No one there.
But I quickly found out that it wasn't any of those things.
I am here.
Geez!
Jeff?
I... I don't know.
Hello?
I am here.
We knew we were dealing with something that shouldn't exist.
Let's go inside. Yeah.
We knew 100 percent
that whatever we picked up in Point Pleasant
had followed us home.
Here, let me try.
On a whim,
Jeff and Krystle Drenning went into the woods
to try and contact a legendary creature, the Mothman.
If there is anything you want to tell us,
this is your last chance.
If you go in and mess with something like this,
we had learned the hard way that you're almost opening a door.
I am here.
Now that they've conjured up the entity,
it won't leave them alone.
People that, you know, had encounters, you know,
with this thing are never to be able to shake
that feeling that there's something unexplainable
that is still in their life and won't go away, a haunting,
so to speak.
Odd things started happening.
We were getting ready to go out to dinner,
and I went into the bathroom
just to touch up makeup or something like that.
I went to grab the doorknob.
And the doorknob was just burning hot.
And I pulled my hand back,
and there was, like, this dark black, ashy substance
on my fingers from where I touched the knob.
I immediately thought, "Oh, my gosh. Something is on fire."
Jeff, fire! Jeff!
She yelled for me, so I go.
Jeff, hurry!
Fire! Ah!
And I touch the doorknob, and it's burning hot.
I mean, it's radiating heat from inside the doorknob.
Fire!
It's literally hot to the touch to the point
where it blisters your hand.
Fire! Stand back!
All right.
Oh, God.
Oh, my God! What happened?
I'm looking around to make sure, you know,
hey, there's no fire internally in the wall.
What happened in here?
There was nothing.
No fire, everything was completely normal.
Jeff...
We then opened up the back of the bathroom door.
There's handprints on the back of the bathroom door.
It was these elongated fingers,
and it's like this ashen, sooty kind of residue.
There's no way it was human.
We realized pretty soon that the activity
that we started to have was nothing compared
to what we would end up having to deal with.
When I was home alone, I was definitely on edge.
It was looking over your shoulder,
wondering if something is going to happen at any time,
and it takes a lot out of you
to be constantly on edge like that.
Jeff?
I thought you were at work.
She continues to talk to what she thought was me,
and there's no response.
And she saw a hand just press up against the shower curtain.
I mean, there's something there.
It's not something she imagined.
I mean, she actually felt it.
There was different things drawn.
There would be, like, big handprints.
There would be different symbols, mainly, like,
drawings of eyes and things like that.
It takes it to an entirely different level.
I mean, your home is supposed to be your safe haven,
and it's now ground zero, essentially.
It was late. I worked a closing shift.
It was probably 10, 10:30 p.m.
I was out in the middle of nowhere on this one stretch
of highway.
It's incredibly desolate.
There's no residences around or anything
for probably 15, 20 miles.
This was a road that I had driven daily,
I mean, to and from work.
I never noticed anything out of the ordinary prior to this...
and I rounded a turn on the road,
and just on the edge of my headlights...
I caught a silhouette of someone,
and I thought, "That's kind of strange,
a hitchhiker out here in the middle of nowhere.
He's never going to catch a ride.
I mean, he's literally in the middle of nowhere."
Hey!
As I approach him, I could see
that this wasn't a normally dressed person.
I mean, they had a cloak on...
Hello? Like a hood.
It draped all the way down to their ankles,
but their hands were at their side.
Do you need a ride or what?
He had this really... Hello?
Twitchy kind of movement to him.
Can you get out of the way?
This thing turned around...
And the first thing that I noticed
was this desiccated, gray,
mottled-looking skin on the hand.
I mean, it almost looked decomposed.
I could see two eyes glowing.
And it wasn't like an animal's eyes
when you shine a light on them, they'll reflect back at you.
These were independently glowing.
I mean, almost like it had its own light source.
So I'm completely awestruck.
This doesn't make sense to me.
And then it breaks the stillness of the whole situation.
It let out this ear-piercing shriek.
It looks almost like Death, what you think Death would look like.
There's something unexplainable in their life.
It won't go away.
This thing is just pure evil.
The legendary Mothman has haunted the woods
of West Virginia since the 1960s.
Jeff and Krystle Drenning have crossed its path,
and now it's stalking them.
They're seeing this thing and hearing it
and encountering it over and over.
It's terrifying to live with this.
Your home is supposed to be a safe place to be,
and you never know when something is going to happen.
Jeff finds himself face-to-face
with a bloodcurdling creature in the middle of nowhere.
I'm trying to wrap my mind around what is in front of me.
It was really animalistic.
The movement in itself is enough for me to know there's no way,
shape or form that was a human.
Ah! It's coming closer to me,
so immediately I think, you know,
"Oh, my God. What am I going to do?"
Ah!
You could feel it when something was near.
It was just... The air became just really thick.
You could almost feel your lungs start to tighten up
and your heart beating.
It was almost as if it just surrounded you.
Once it manifests itself physically, I mean,
that's an entirely different ball game.
It's terrifying.
I mean, you feel violated, almost.
This thing that isn't supposed to exist not only contacted you,
not only replied to what you said,
it's taken the next step further and followed you home.
I am here.
That voice definitely haunted us.
We began to hear that voice not only in recordings.
Jeff. But we would actually...
Got to the point where we would hear it audibly.
Jeff, it's here.
Huh? Jeff, it's here.
It's here.
And every time I hear that voice, it's just complete dread.
It just... This voice is just, like, pure evil.
Ah! Jeff!
Jeff!
We would actually hear things
in the home, you know, disembodied footsteps.
Jeff, I told you.
Jeff! What?
As the activity grew stronger...
Stop it! It became more violent.
Stop it! Stop it!
Silverware that would actually be thrown on the floor,
you could hear it from the next room.
Stop it! The knocks on the wall...
No! No, don't!
Pushed to the point of desperation,
Krystle and Jeff return to where their nightmare began.
You ready?
Yeah.
We decided to go back...
Let's go. Okay.
Just to try to get some answers.
We just had enough.
We got to a point where we were like,
"That's it. You know, this thing has followed us home,
but we know that it came
and attached itself to us in Point Pleasant,
so we're going to go there to the source
and just confront this once and for all."
I mean, it was almost a last-ditch effort.
It seemed like we didn't have anywhere else to turn.
It was a completely different ball game
than the first time.
The first time that we went, we were just, you know,
looking for some entertainment, having fun.
This time we wanted to fight this thing down.
When we crossed that threshold,
it was almost like we could feel
just this really ominous suppressing-type feeling.
It was almost like something was closing in around you.
This is it. Do you have the recorder?
Yeah, okay. Do you have the recorder out?
Yeah.
Are you here?
This time it was more along the lines of demanding answers.
Tell us what you want!
We've had enough!
Just leave us alone!
Do you hear anything?
Do you think he's here?
Say something!
Do you hear anything?
This feeling continued to grow and grow,
it was a feeling I can't even begin to explain.
It was almost like you just wanted to jump out
of your own body.
We know you're here!
Come out!
Finally, Jeff just told it.
It's now or never!
After I had said, "It's now or never,"
I gave it 10 or 15 seconds to answer.
I didn't hear anything.
Oh, come on, Jeff.
What was that?
I don't know.
Ah! Jeff!
It was like a freight train hit me.
Jeff!
Something just hit him in the chest,
and he just lifted up in the air and just went.
Are you okay? Are you okay?
I thought, "This is it. I'm going to die.
There's no doubt about it."
He just looked up at me.
His face was pure white, and he just said, "Run."
- Run! - I'm not leaving you here!
I jet fast as I can.
It literally felt like we were running for our lives,
that whatever this was... I thought we were done for.
Hello?
I am here.
Ah!
After months of torment,
Jeff and Krystle return to the site
where they first encountered Mothman to beg for peace.
Ah!
Oh, Jeff!
It doesn't work.
Run! What?
Run!
I just know that an unseen force literally just assaulted me,
so in my mind it was, "Run. Get to the car.
Get out of here."
I was pretty much in shock when we were running.
I just... I thought that this was it,
that it was going to kill us.
The only thing going through my mind
was just to get as far away as possible.
Go, go, go!
I do regret going back.
I don't know if it gave it any more, you know, energy.
Despite the couple's attempt at a truce,
Mothman won't let go of them.
After we had confronted this,
it just felt like there was nothing that we could do.
We felt hopeless.
We didn't know if we just made it angry
so things are going to get worse.
Jeff. Thanks.
Come on. Give me that too, okay?
We just heard this extremely deep growl come from inside.
We're leaving!
Just let us go!
Krystle, stop. Let's just go.
Come on. Get in the front. Get in the front.
And we left, and we thought if we moved,
everything was over, but it wasn't.
For the Drennings, the terror doesn't end.
Mothman follows them wherever they go.
I think we definitely opened a doorway.
There's no doubt about that.
What came through it, I don't know how to get rid of it.
I don't know if it's going to follow us
for the rest of our lives or not.
I really hope not, but, I mean,
it just seems like whatever we do nothing gets rid of it.
We've actually had a Catholic priest come to our house
and bless it twice, but it just always comes back,
so we just have to deal with it on a daily basis.
But the question is, what exactly is Mothman?
Some say it goes back to a bloody chapter
in West Virginia's history.
Chief Cornstalk was a Shawnee chief
who was murdered over a land dispute.
Him and his son both were actually murdered back
in the 1700s.
It was told over the years that Chief Cornstalk
actually cursed the town of Point Pleasant in the form
of a 200-year curse in revenge for him and his son's deaths.
And exactly
two centuries after the massacre,
Mothman descends on Point Pleasant to wreak havoc.
Two hundred years to the month, to the day and to the year,
that's when the bridge fell.
Some contend Mothman
is the personification of Chief Cornstalk's revenge.
Others refute that claim,
but most believe he is not of this world.
There were some people who claimed this thing
had biblical connotations.
They thought that, you know, this thing was just pure evil,
period, so I don't know if anybody
will ever be able to have a direct answer.
Whatever the origin, the legend persists,
and even after taking 46 lives, Mothman still stalks the area.
Few are foolish enough to go looking for him,
and those who do often suffer the consequences.
My brother wanted to try to find the Mothman.
- Ah! - Oh, my God! Turn, go!
Ah!
Faye Dewitt and her brother Topper's encounter
takes place even before the horrific bridge collapse.
The Bug Man of Virginia.
That's real spooky. What do you think it eats?
Maybe it eats people.
Oh, God.
Maybe it uses its mothy proboscis
to drink them dry from the inside out.
Really, Topper?
It was my brother's big idea to go up there and try to find it.
He was going to prove that that was a fake
because he was a very skeptical person,
a very smart person to the point that,
you know, he didn't think nobody knew anything but him,
and he was going to prove the Mothman was a fake,
and that was his intent of going up there.
You know, what if we actually see it?
Then what are you going to do?
You're going to eat your words, is what you're going to do.
I'll go out and shake hands with it
and try to look for the zipper. How about that?
I don't know why you made me do this.
See anything?
Nothing publishable.
Do you see that?
I thought, "Well, what is it?"
See what?
Nothing.
Topper, did you see that?
What?
I saw it plain as day.
Well, what did it look like? It was just a deer or something.
- This wasn't a deer. - Big deer?
You're so stupid.
So which way?
This was your idea, not mine.
What?
Don't turn around. Why?
My brother just kept looking at me.
He said, "Don't look.
There's something there beside the window."
No.
In my peripheral vision, I could see it there beside me
even though I was looking straight ahead,
and I thought, "What are we going to do?
What are we going to do?"
Did you see that?
There are a lot of people who go looking for this creature
and, you know, playing it off as,
you know, maybe just some fun,
but once they encountered it themselves,
you know, I think they change their tune.
Faye Dewitt and her brother, Topper,
head out to prove that Mothman,
the legendary beast haunting the woods
at Point Pleasant, is a hoax.
They find out the hard way that it's not.
I got scared the minute I turned my head
and saw that thing beside the window.
It had, like, rubbery, tight skin, like, on him,
and long fingers, long curly nails on.
I mean, like you would see on a hawk or a bird.
But if one thing stands out,
it's the eyes is what caught you.
You're focused on that, and that's what those eyes did.
The Mothman definitely has a way of hypnotizing.
I would say just about everyone who witnessed this creature
talked about how they were almost paralyzed by,
you know, these two red eyes.
We were just scared to move,
afraid if we moved, it might try to come in the car.
Go.
Go!
Drive!
Topper, drive! Hurry!
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
Turn, go. - I'm turning.
- Go! - Hold on.
And when my brother turned,
he thought he was going to throw him
when we made the turn, but he didn't.
Go, go!
We were going down the road like a racetrack.
- You see it? - Drive!
And it seemed to be right beside the window there.
Drive, drive, drive. Topper, hurry!
He was trying to speed up and lose it,
and it just was right there by the side of the window
just like nothing, like it was no effort whatsoever.
No! What?
We'll get trapped in there.
And he made that turn into the loading dock,
where they would fill the trucks up.
And I said, "Don't go in there!
Then how are we going to get out?
It'll have us pinned."
Where'd he go?
Maybe we lost him.
And when he did that...
It crouched, kind of like a squat position,
looking at me and my brother, and we just drew back
and tried to be real quiet and don't move, and I told him,
"What are we going to do? What are we going to do?"
It jumped off the car.
Where'd he go?
It landed just a few feet away,
and it's crunched down, just like it did in the car
and watched us, crouched like a gargoyle.
What are you doing?
Are you crazy? Topper!
What are you doing?
Hey!
Get out of here!
Hey!
He was picking up chunks of coal, throwing it at it.
Get out of here!
Topper, get back here!
And I was sitting, telling him, "Get in here!
Leave it alone. Let's get out of here."
And it stood up.
Get back in here.
And I told him, "Now you done made it mad!
It's going to come and get us! It's going to come and get us!"
My brother said, "Don't move. Don't move."
I said, "I can't. I can't.
What's it going to do? What's it going to do?"
Faye and Topper go looking for a creature
they think is a hoax...
- Did you see that? - Until they find it.
Hey! Get out of here!
Now they are trapped on the road
facing the living nightmare that is Mothman.
Topper, get back here.
I saw its wings because it just opened it up
just as pretty as a angel or any bird, and it was beautiful.
I mean, just...
It was like seeing a angel in a way because of those wings,
big enough to carry a human being.
It was beautiful.
Beautiful... and terrifying.
Topper!
It ran, and I thought sure it was coming after us.
It just flew off, and off it went.
But it was just amazing to see something like that,
but we were scared.
Topper...
I told my brother, "We need to get out of here and get home
because it might come back."
So he turned around and whipped around.
We went home.
That was it, and then the bridge fell,
I guess, not long after that.
The siblings never see Mothman again.
I had a lot of things in my life happen that was scary.
That was really more scary than life-threatening.
Though it let Faye and Topper go,
Jeff and Krystle aren't as lucky.
Mothman continues to terrorize them.
We've been dealing with it for 8 years.
We have no idea why it chose us, but it did.
It's almost like it's just there to torture us.
This did happen.
Ah! Jeff!
After nearly a decade, I don't think it's ever going to leave.
It's all too real.
You need to take precautions.
You need to realize that the world
isn't as simple as mankind has led us to believe.
Stop it!
Now, my belief is, you know,
there's definitely something out there.
What it is, I don't know
if anybody will be able to answer that.
I personally can't answer that question.
The unknown is out there, you know?
I just don't know if that book will ever be closed.