"Man that was luck," Trapper says in the darkness at the close of the show. "All the way down, these things were attacking us," he says of the Snallygaster attack.
"The safety of the team became more important than continuing the hunt. The Snallygasters kicked our asses tonight," Trapper says as the credits roll and the show fades to black.
Every episode sees a different critter of yore and lore, and a different county in West Virginia (or
at times, southeastern Ohio Appalachia) featured. One of these episodes is focused around something
called a "Cave Creature" of Greenbrier County, W.Va., which looks remarkably a
lot like the alien in the movie Alien.
This aggressive critter can move around with "stealth and speed," according to Trapper, and
is a diabolical monster inhabiting the big network of derelict coal caves around Greenbrier County's underground never-never lands. Another show features the "Bloodless Howler" of Harrison County, W.Va., a nasty thing that the boys claim has killed livestock by slitting the throats of cattle and swine, then sucked down the blood. From Jeff's and Trapper's accounts, this thing's about the size of a lion or tiger. It has the head of a male lion and the body of a very large dog. It's a lean, mean, blood-extracting machine, this much is certain!
Another show features "Hogzilla," a large pig said to be terrorizing Ohio's Hocking Hills area, and at the end of this show, a massive 800-pound swine is caught in the trap that Wild Bill and Willie create. Although the legend has it that "Hogzilla" is actually a few feet longer, about a foot or so taller, and a few hundred pounds heavier, Trapper insists that the AIMS team caught the real "Hogzilla" monster and that the delirious and preposterous way in which folklore is spread accounts for why the actual beast they trapped is a wee bit smaller than the monster of legend.
I sent an email to U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin on July 8, asking him how he felt about Mountain Monsters, letting him know that it wasn't going to be a hard-as-nails hardcopy story, but more of an oddball feature, a colorful account of this very unusual Destination America series. I got no response, however. The previous day in which I sent the email to Sen. Manchin, I also sent an email to the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce in Charleston, asking them if they feel Mountain Monsters has given West Virginia a positive or negative image, along with other questions like "do you think this show is good or bad for business in the Mountain State?" Again, no response. During the same time frame, I sent emails to the West Virginia State Troopers, the Preston County Sheriff's office, along with a few other law enforcement departments in West Virginia, asking these police organizations if they had any experience, or ever took any kind of reports on any of these mountain monsters that the AIMS hunters and trappers are involved in tracking down, and hopefully, catching in one of Wild Bill and Willie's traps. Again, no response whatsoever. I wasn't going to telephone anyone on this list, fearing either the men in blue, or worse, the men in white, may knock on my door and take me away. I was hoping beyond all hope that if nothing else, these officials I queried might just write the whole email experience off to spamming, if they decided not to respond. Luckily for me, neither the guys in blue suits, nor the guys in white scrubs, came calling to force me from my abode and into an institution of some kind.
I even sent emails to the Psychology Department of West
Virginia University and Marshall University, West Virginia's two largest
institutions of higher learning, asking for a response, but nothing doing --
there was no return of my queries here, either. I wanted to get some kind of
response, in psychology terms, of why shows about monsters, folklore,
paranormal experiences, and the unexplained and mysterious are so popular and
prevalent today. They're all over the cable offerings currently, and have been a staple for a good number of years now.
Although I don't think all the reality shows, and real-life documentaries about forest creatures, ghosts, haunted houses, and sundry other paranormal and strange and mysterious phenomenon fall into the blockbuster category for TV watching, they must do pretty well, all things considered. Why else would cable TV have so many of them gracing the networks?
Many watch them for entertainment value, it's quite apparent, but there's also the concept of the shock and fear factors that come with such shows. In the days of having 500 channels with nothing on, maybe it's a last-ditch alternative to at least try to see something bizarre on the boob tube. A good scare is great as a cheap thrill, costs a lot less than a bottle of Jack Daniels, and some even get high off fear.
Luckily, there are a few explanations from academics about why monsters have always intrigued us, on a few online websites. I fished around the Internet for an answer - by some academic types - and though I'd rather have a real live source, I guess these quotes fit a bit. Enjoy -
From flickr.com/photos/27119837@N06/8587339661/: National Museum of Natural History: This thing sure looks like the skeleton of a Snallygaster, but who knows what this monster would look like with a reptilian hide.
(Image by Unknown Owner) Details DMCA
In what looks to be a webzine titled Monster Culture, Patricia Donovan writes: "Monster narratives help us share an experience of horror and address our real anxieties, from wars and economic disasters, to insane political situations, climatic ruin and other issues in the news, according to David Schmid, associate professor in the Department of English and author of several books on the "monsters" living among us, both real and imagined. (See: http://www.buffalo.edu/home/feature_story/monster-culture.html.)
"Monster tales tell us the 'truth' about things--evil is afoot, you can't trust what you see, the future is grim, you're going to die. In a narrative, that permits resolution or catharsis," Donovan writes. (See ibid: http://www.buffalo.edu/home/feature_story/monster-culture.html.)
"Schmid says the concept of "monster" has been used in many historical, geographical and ideological contexts to dismiss and demonize that which is considered marginal, deviant and abject," Donovan continues. (See ibid: http://www.buffalo.edu/home/feature_story/monster-culture.html.)
In another essay online titled "The Science of Monsters", Matt Kaplan, a science writer, explains: "At their most basic level, monsters represent fears held by society, fears associated with dangers perceived in the surrounding world. These fears have a powerful evolutionary history by encouraging people to flee instead of fighting suicidal battles." (See: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/07/08/3795976.htm.)
"When ancient hunters encountered a saber-toothed tiger by accident, they ran. When the human ancestor Homo erectus caught angry cave bears by surprise, it ran. When chimpanzees and bonobos, the nearest genetic relatives to modern humans, encounter large predators in the wild, they run," Kaplan writes. (See ibid: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/07/08/3795976.htm.)
Kaplan continues, "While Hollywood heroes have made running away distinctly unpopular on the silver screen, every single actor who has ever portrayed a hero who stood his or her ground against some abominable terror comes from a long genetic lineage of cowards who fled in the face of danger. That is why they are here to act today. If their ancestors had fought against monsters far more powerful than themselves, as Hollywood heroes do all the time, their lineage would have been destroyed by predators long ago. Fear, in short, keeps people alive. But fear can also go too far." (See ibid: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/07/08/3795976.htm.)
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