MOMO: THE MISSOURI MONSTER *** USA 2019 Dir: Seth Breedlove. 82 mins
This is probably the slickest, most fun of prolific filmmaker Seth Breedlove’s features to date, following TERROR IN THE SKIES, THE MOTHMAN OF POINT PLEASANT, etc. and with more Mothman and Bell Witch-themed features in the pipeline. MOMO takes a more playful approach, opening with a Roger Corman quote and juxtaposing a talking-heads documentary from the “Cryptid Case Files” (hosted by “Rue Morgue” magazine cryptozoology expert and previous Breedlove narrator Lyle Blackburn) with an amusing mock-up of a 1975 drive-in movie inspired by the same legend. Blackburn has found the only surviving copy of this previously lost (fictional) movie and provides a potted history of cryptozoology cinema including Charles B Pearce’s highly influential THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK and variations like SNOWBEAST. The MOMO movie excerpts affectionately recreate the production values, 70’s look and hokey acting of the period as two young women en route to an Alice Cooper concert are the first to fall victim to the excessively hairy seven foot beast who smells of death and carries rotting animals in its hirsute hands. As Momo menaces a Nuclear family, the movie excerpts are integrated with documentary recollections of eyewitnesses and historians from the eponymous Midwestern state. Once you adjust to the structural shifting between the two formats, it’s an enjoyable meld of storytelling techniques.
Review by Steven West
MOMO: THE MISSOURI MONSTER is available on DVD HERE, as well as Vimeo OnDemand, Amazon Instant Video, and VIDI Space.