A message from Seth
The End
Today, I’ve wrapped up my polish on The Kinderhook Creature. It’s a bittersweet feeling, as I put the finishing touches on what will likely be the final chapter in what we started with Minerva Monster back in 2015. Before you hit the panic button, allow me to explain what I mean.
Small Town Monsters began its life as a film series documenting forgotten or nearly-forgotten cryptid stories around the United States. The idea was to focus on these small-town, rural cases and their impact on communities and people. For around 8 years, we were blessed to be able to continue that mission and find an audience in doing just that. While other projects such as the “On the Trail of…” series took off to unprecedented levels, we were also able to grow from being simply a production company that made one-off features into a full-scale production house with a major focus on both features and episodic content.
In 2022, this all came to a screeching halt when our former distributor filed for bankruptcy while still owing us monumental (to a family business like STM) amounts of money. In the years since, the traditional Small Town Monsters series has failed to find an audience across multiple titles, while the episodic wing of STM has flourished. Meanwhile, the On the Trail of… series continued to soar alongside films such as American Werewolves and the Aaron Deese/Shannon LeGro series of Dogman films.
We have continued to push forward with the traditional Small Town Monsters series, but at the end of last year, the inkling was that 2025 would be the final year for this type of film. For one thing, on a storytelling level, I feel like I need to move on from this style of film. I’ve done over 20 of them, after all. It’s also down to their continued failure to find an audience. Something that impacts the morale of myself and the crew that works so hard on them.
Is STM going away? Heck no. We’re still growing, in fact. However, the end of the traditional Small Town Monsters film series is at an end. We will continue producing films and episodic content but this particular series which started with Minerva Monster over 10 years ago is ending with The Kinderhook Creature.
I can’t think of a more fitting way to wrap it all up. This is easily the happiest I’ve been with a project I edited; perhaps only Bell Witch rivaling the creative and technical satisfaction that this film brought me. I’ve been so enamored with telling this story for so long, that finally getting to do it felt something like a dream. I can’t thank Bruce Hallenbeck enough for allowing me to document his story on such a personal, emotional level. It’s easily the most emotional STM film to date.
On the crew side of things a huge thanks to Aleksandar, Zac, Courteney, Heather, Aaron, Mark and Byron for being involved. It’s only fitting that Chris Scalf is onboard with this one, bringing his artistic talents to a series he helped build with his early work; particularly the work he did on our Mothman of Point Pleasant film. Naturally, I couldn’t close out the series without Brandon Dalo being along for the ride. Brandon has been a key part of making STM a success since day one. On a personal and professional level he has backed me since the series was birthed to life with Minerva back in 2014. His work on this is some of my favorite.
I’m ready to wrap up this chapter in my creative journey and move on to the next. Again, fear not! We aren’t going anywhere. In fact, between now and the release of Kinderhook next Spring there are three other films in the series slated for release. The Siege of Ape Canyon feels like a traditional STM-series film and comes out on November 11th. After that, Dawn of the Dogman and From the Beyond will both release. Beyond those, and Kinderhook are the numerous film and episodic shows that we’re working on.
So it’s not goodbye, but the pages are turning to the next chapter. All I can say is thank you to everyone who continues to support our little business. I’m amazed at how far we’ve come and we couldn’t have done it without all of you. Now on to 2026!