New found footage mystery thriller Moth sluggishly treads a familiar plot to yield very little new ground for the tired genre.

The Mothman prophecies are something of a recent urban legend that has its roots in Point Pleasant, Virginia. In 1966 the Point Pleasant Register reported that a couple had seen a “Man-Sized Bird … Creature … Something”. Since then the creature has inspired a book, a movie, and an annual festival that conitues to this day. This creature also serves as the inspiration for the new horror film, Moth by Gergö Elekes and József Gallai. The film tells the story of an enthusiastic lecturer, Thora (Lídia Szabó) and her student, Adam (József Gallai) who travel to Europe to go after the mythology of the Motorman. Why Europe? Good question. Sadly that isn’t the only quandary you will be in while watching this problematic film.

The story opens in the with Thora (Lídia Szabó) lecturing to a class in London about the legendary Mothman that had been spotted flying above the Point Pleasant Bridge in Virginia, USA, years before a tragic disaster. She then explains that she is headed, inexplicably, to Europe to investigate the phenomenon further. One of her students, Adam (József Gallai), jumps at the chance to join her and they are suddenly off driving through the backroads of an undisclosed European forests.

The found footage gimmick  made popular by The Blair Witch Project in 1999 reached its pinnacle with Cloverfield in 2008 and offers nothing new here. In fact, Moth pays liberal homage to the former title in nearly every story beat. We have the long expository stretches of dialogue, the night time tent scene, the finding of a severed body part in the forest, and the climax in a strange building.

It is unfortunate that the film uses 1hr 20minutes to tell a story that has been told before yet brings nothing new to the mix aside from a final reel plot twist that leaves gapping holes in the plot up to that point.

Moth is a squandered opportunity to deliver originality to a tired format in the genre of horror.