Category: Art

It’s been a while since a cryptid post, so today I introduce…The Flatwoods Monster!

In 1952 some children and their parent, investigating what they believed was a UFO crash, saw something resembling the above sketch in the woods near the town of Flatwoods, in West Virginia. The monster briefly menaced them before fleeing to its UFO. The children and adult ran screaming and despite many searches no further evidence of the monster was found.

Despite this being very likely a misidentified barn own as a result of hysteria, the so-called Flatwoods Monster has entered into the UFO/Cryptid lexicon and far, far outlived it’s very brief 15 seconds of fame. Crackpot theories include such things as it being a member of the lizard race from inner Earth, an angel (or demon), a conventional ‘grey’ alien piloting an antigravity suit and the (rather mundane) possibility it was indeed exactly as seen – a representative of a hitherto unknown alien race. The Flatwoods encounter may have also inspired the ‘black oil’ as seen on The X-Files (due to ‘moving oil’ residue allegedly found at the scene) and almost certainly (since it was widely reported) contributed to the fear amongst some that UFOs and their alien inhabitants may be hostile in nature (enforced by the Hopkinsville Goblin encounters three years later).

In short, it was the result of hysteria that would possibly inspire hysteria in others.

But – and here’s why I feature it today – the Flatwoods Monster has become a sort of alien icon in that most imaginative of places – Japan! Just as the western world has adopted ‘the greys’ as the quintessential alien blueprint, Japan has given equal status to the Flatwoods Monster, of all things. And as a result it has made many and varied appearances in Japanese popular culture.

Here’s an ‘alien poster’ from what looks like 1960s or 1970s Japan:

Notably absent are conventional grey aliens, which is not surprising since they weren’t popularized until the late 1980s (and we can thank Whitley Streiber for that…). You can of course see our Flatwoods Monster on the lower left, along with a few other ‘famous aliens’ of the time (notably Adamski’s Venusians second from the left on the top row).

Of those shown above, the Flatwoods Monster appearance seemed to gain authority in Japan, and I’ve read that throughout the 70s and 80s whenever aliens (as in UFO inhabitants) were required they were often drawn using this appearance. This continued into game depictions of aliens, and over the years I have chuckled at the multitudes of Flatwoods Monsters I’ve seen, fought or even befriended in games!

The above is from the anime Keroro Gunso. Here’s a few examples of the monster in games…

That’s the penultimate boss of Tumblepop (Arcade). It’s a good depiction!

That’s the nonhuman form of the queen from Space Harrier 2 (Genesis). The inspiration is obvious.

The final boss of the NES game Amagon.

The aliens from The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (N64).

A type of random monster encounter in Wild Arms (PS1).

That’s a boss from the Wii U game Wonderful 101 (which I am playing right now).

And a scary version from Elminage for the PSP (photo I took from my Vita).

So a probably-nonexistent monster seen over 60 years ago in a small American town has now become the standard alien archetype for Japanese video games. That’s a path to fame that would impress even an alien!