Flatwoods (2022) Movie Script
1
[eerie music]
[eerie synthesizer music]
[crickets chirping]
[spaceship whirring]
[alien speaking indistinctly]
[alien speaking indistinctly]
[spaceship rumbling]
[eerie music]
[wolf howling]
[crickets chirping]
[grass crunching]
Savages.
[crickets chirping]
[woman gasping]
[birds chirping]
[sinister synth music]
[pen scratching]
Okay, Carol. Tell us what you saw.
It was a bright flash of light.
We all know how vivid the imagination of a child is.
We found these in the bedroom.
Seems you like to read tall tales.
It was--
[Carol dropping pencil]
Mom!
[Sarah] It's gonna be okay.
-No, Mom! -Mommy's gonna be okay.
-It's gonna be okay. -No!
No!
Mom!
[menacing music]
[ominous synth music]
[breathing heavily]
[deep, distorted voice] What were you and your daughter
doing in the woods tonight, Ms. James?
Stargazing.
We know what you saw.
We know you've seen a lot of things in Flatwoods
over the years.
There's a portal.
It was open here in Flatwoods in 1952.
I'm not the only one who knows about it either.
A portal?
I've been collecting evidence.
[man] I see.
[Sarah clicking tongue]
There's another man, too.
I saw his solid black eyes.
He said his name is Manny Burgess.
We are aware of this individual.
There. That's all I know.
Now, please, let my daughter go.
We will release your daughter and implant
false memories into her and your son.
False memories?
Unfortunately, you know too much, Ms. James.
And do you know what we do to people who know too much?
[gun firing]
[haunting orchestral music]
[keyboard clacking]
[Sarah] You can do anything you set your mind to, Carol.
I believe in you.
[high-pitched beeping]
If you're watching this,
you're probably one of the few.
My name is Carol James, and this is my documentary
on the study of extraterrestrials.
I admit when I first started this,
I didn't think it would get this dangerous.
And...
Now I fear for my life.
[ominous synth music]
Everyone you're about to see in this film
is either a ufologist or a distinguished author
on the subject in West Virginia or Pennsylvania.
None of what you're about to see is scripted.
There are 250,000 missing person reports a year
in the United States.
Two hundred and fifty thousand.
Most are runaway kids, they find them, et cetera.
But you get down to 30,000 cases a year
in the United States that are not solved,
uh, whether you call it an abduction or a missing person.
Thirty thousand people a year disappear.
And you have to wonder if it's extraterrestrial
related, and they're abductions.
Maybe that's a part of that problem, and that's scary.
And maybe that's a scary side of the UFO phenomenon
that the government can't tell you about.
And if they have craft that fly through our airspace,
and we can't stop them, well, the Air Force is charged
with the protection of the people from the sky.
And what are they gonna say?
"Well, there's extraterrestrial
craft out there that just flies
circles around us and there's
nothing we can do about it?
And they abduct people and there's nothing
we can do about it?"
I mean, it raises a question.
I think there's something to UFOs.
There's just been too many sightings,
and too much evidence, and, uh, too many, uh,
very important people,
knowledgeable people-- I mean, from professors,
airline pilots, and everyone else-- that've witnessed UFOs.
So, I think there's something to it.
I don't think the government can build those things
and keep it that secret for that long a time
without being actually something out there.
I-- I believe that aliens have been here
since the beginning of time.
If-- If you actually go back
into history, I mean, real-- before Christ,
the things that were built could not have been built
by the people living here at that time with chicken bones.
Something else had to be there.
I think aliens have been here.
I think they're still here from then.
In the vastness of the universe that--
I can't believe that we're the only ones.
I-- I don't want to be arrogant enough to say
that humans are the only race out there.
And I also think with all the UFO sightings through
the years, and unexplainable craft doing things that-- that
-can't possibly be done-- -Mm-hmm.
that there is something to the phenomena.
I do believe that they exist.
If an extraterrestrial
life form comes to our world,
uh, they're not going to--
they're essentially not going to want to be seen.
[high-pitched beep]
[birds chirping]
[calm orchestral music]
[beast growling]
[dramatic music]
[beast growling]
[birds twittering]
[beast growling]
[dramatic chord]
-[high-pitched beep] -The government is not gonna
come out and tell us it's real,
because there's too much--
Once you start down that slippery slope,
where do you stop?
Even if you acknowledge
that there's life in space,
and that they've come here and observed us,
then that whole question comes out about abductions.
The question comes out about who knew,
how long did you know, and why didn't you tell us,
'cause you just violated the Constitution.
You know? You can't keep that from-- from people.
It's against the law, you know, to lie about
it like that in our government.
-I think they're from here. -Yeah?
They came here, say, thousands of years ago.
-[Carol] Yeah. -Why would they go back?
If you look at right now, you got the alien abductions.
Okay? They're abducting people.
They've been abducting people for how long, 50, 60 years?
If they found out what they all are looking for,
they're never going to...
[upbeat synth music]
Uh, I wanted to talk about the Flatwoods monster.
-[Brian] Mm-hmm. -Um, explain
what you know about it.
Yeah, that happened, I believe,
September 12th, 1952.
Uh, there was boys out playing one night
and they saw an object.
Looked like it had landed close to them.
You know, they got their mother
and three other eyewitnesses.
[alien speaking indistinctly]
[Andrew] They saw this thing come at them.
They were immediately gripped with fear, turned and ran
as quick as they could back through the woods,
across the pasture field, and down the hill,
and, uh, called the authorities as soon as they got back home.
And funny enough, though, the sheriff and his deputy
didn't get there real quickly because they were
actually out on another call for a reported airplane crash,
which they got there and investigated the area
that this would-- supposedly went down.
And as far as they could tell,
there were no-- no evidence of a plane crash.
And a lot of people feel like what the boy saw in
Flatwoods in the sky, you know, maybe they were connected.
So, they were away looking for possibly,
you know, dead bodies in a plane crash.
So, once they got done there, they came back to Flatwoods.
But by that time it was
already completely dark.
And as far as I know,
the only thing they could detect was the--
the smell that they described was
still kind of hanging in the air.
[documentary pauses]
[dramatic whooshing]
It smelled of sulfur.
Sulfur is one of those smells that comes up
when you're dealing with
these interdimensional,
-malevolent entities. -[Carol] Uh-huh.
You get that smell of sulfur, so it was a weird, weird
creature, to me, that bordered more on the paranormal.
I think that the-- the visitation in Flatwoods
is extraordinarily r-- real, uh,
for-- for multiple perspectives.
One is the people.
You're dealing with very spiritual Baptist individuals,
and you're dealing with a group of individuals that were most
likely uncorrupted at the time when it comes to
issues of being exposed to a possible visitation.
It was a time of innocence from our society,
which represented a time in which we were very
open-minded and weren't-- weren't being manipulated
by our government.
[Roy] I remember going down a day or so
after that happened and people were scared,
they wouldn't come out of their homes.
And they was talking about the--
this green monster in a slam,
and the grass was burnt, and people were scared.
I wanted to go up and see it, but my father wouldn't
take us up to the actual location.
And so, people weren't, uh, talking too much about it.
The people that actually see it were, uh, really scared.
[high-pitched beep]
[foreboding orchestral music]
[camera clicking]
[bell ringing]
That's so cool.
-[Carol] Oh! Hi. -Hey, can I help you?
-Hi, yeah. I'm Carol James. -Oh, yes.
-How are you doing? -Nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you as well. -Doing good.
-Thank you for having me. -Yeah, no problem.
This-- This place is great.
-Thank you. -Yeah.
I really don't have a tremendous background
in a lot of this stuff, but the story of the Flatwoods
monster was just one that we always felt
was worth preserving, just to have a place for people
to come that, you know, know about the story,
and-- and sort of need a-- a mecca.
That was really the-- the purpose of all this
and just slowly but surely, we've collected a lot of items,
and-- and collected a lot of people's individual
stories that sort of go along with the preservation
of, uh, the Flatwoods monster, and some, you know, s--
other related, you know, things that have kind of happened
in the area, just to keep them from being lost to time.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[key turning]
[Carol sighing softly]
Yeah.
[door shutting]
[birds chirping]
[music fades out]
[doorbell chiming]
-Hi, John. Hi. -Hi, Carol. How are you?
-Good, how are you? -Very good.
-Good. -Come on in.
I have all my stuff with me. Love your house.
[John] Thank you.
[relaxing orchestral music]
[lens turning]
All right. All right, John, I'm just gonna try
and get you in focus here.
[lens turning]
-[high-pitched beep] -Well, tell us what, uh,
you know about the events of the Flatwoods monster,
an, um, incident in West Virginia in 1952.
Yeah, Flatwoods is a really good case.
You know, there was a UFO that was seen.
It-- It went down in Flatwoods, West Virginia.
It was disabled. It was coming down, it landed.
But here's the thing I find crazy:
the description of the alien,
i-- it was like a creature. It had clawed fingers.
It had a red face, green, uh, skin.
-Kind of-- -Uh, it was wearing a hood--
-Yeah. -And, uh, it smelled of sulfur.
Sulfur is one of those smells that comes up
when you're dealing with
these interdimensional,
-malevolent entities. -Mm-hmm.
You get that smell of sulfur.
So, it was a weird, weird creature, to me,
that brought it more on the paranormal than, uh, alien.
But there was a craft that went down,
and then a second one was seen going to its aid.
And they both left, almost like to repair the first one.
A-- And it took off.
And-- And the kids, and-- and-- the ones that they smelled
that sulfur, they got really sick and they started vomiting.
-Mm-hmm. -So, it was a very strange
case with, uh-- with more of a creature
than an alien, or unless those aliens were creatures.
Yeah. [laughs]
And there's a lot going on during
that time. It seems like the '50s was--
Well, 1952, you had the UFOs over Washington, D.C.
Uh, there was a lot going on.
That was the reason in '52 they formed the CIA.
There were four branches of government after
the UFOs over, uh, D.C. in July.
They formed the CIA, the Defense Department.
There were, like, four branches of government,
and the CIA we know was looking at the UFO field.
And-- And Flatwoods was September of '52.
Okay. That's very coincidental.
-[John] Hmm. -[Carol laughing]
[high-pitched beep]
[eerie music]
[deep, distorted voice] Agent,
we need you for a secret mission.
No one must know.
[altered voice] Not a problem.
-What is the issue? -[masked man] Manny Burgess.
[agent sighing] I'm on it.
There are more sightings here than ever before.
And we want to keep them under wraps.
Do you understand, agent?
Yes, I understand.
We suspect he will be helping Carol James
with her little film.
Perhaps we could make this work to our advantage.
My loyalty is to my superiors.
Excellent.
[ominous music]
[birds chirping]
[music fades out]
[aliens chittering]
[pulsing synth music]
[aliens continue chittering]
Money in the bank.
Manny Burgess. My associate told me to find you.
Ah, one of you guys.
I will see you tomorrow for a meeting at your place.
How do you know where I live?
You are the gatekeeper, are you not?
I've been called a lot of things.
What do you need?
Bait.
[music fades out]
Son of a bitch.
[menacing music]
Sure you don't want some coffee?
This little meeting is off the record.
I caught you filming illegals.
Pin the footage on someone else or my superiors
may beam you back up to where you came from.
You need a man like me.
One that can see.
Carol James is a good candidate.
-Do this so we can-- -So, you can what?
So we can avoid jail time.
Gatekeepers aren't too hard to come by.
Do this or we beam you back up.
Your choice.
[Manny] Oh, great.
Hey, can I have my phone?
[door squeaking and shutting]
Asshole.
[majestic orchestral music]
[mysterious music]
[camera clicking]
[keyboard clacking]
If you have a story about your alien experience,
please call 555-793-8893.
Oh, I've got an alien experience for you.
[eerie music]
[dialing]
[phone ringing]
-Hello? -Uh, hello. Uh, is this...
Carol James?
Yes.
Uh, I-- I was just, uh, watching your-- your YouTube
video. I think I've got something that I-- I could
share with you for--
for your documentary.
Great. Um, where do I meet you?
[Manny] Oh, I'd rather just keep it between you and me.
I'll text you the address.
Excellent. I lo-- I look forward to it.
I-- I remember the rumors when I was growing up.
Folks said it was probably an owl, that those kids
were just making it up for-- for press attention.
But I saw it... y-- years after that.
Tell me about it.
I was driving home from work one night and... there it was.
Right in the middle of the road.
Lucky for me, I had my camera with me.
And I got it.
You did? Can I see it?
[faint suspenseful music]
This is worth more than money.
You have to understand the risks.
I mean...
I mean, it's-- i-- i-- it's a good way for you to get killed.
I need this to get out there.
[keyboard clacking]
[ominous music]
[Carol laughing softly]
[Manny] There's more where that came from.
There's more? Like what?
Abbagoochie.
[beast roaring]
The Mothman.
[roaring]
Even a... alien autopsy.
No, I-- I won't say anything about you or-- or any of this.
I promise.
Why do you do this?
It's something my mom would've wanted.
She believed in "this," but nobody believed in her.
But they'll believe me.
What happened to your mother?
It's funny. I don't remember.
[dramatic synth music]
I got someone else that-- that you should probably talk to.
And he's-- I'll warn you, he-- he's a little weird.
But maybe after that,
I'll show you the Flatwoods monster.
[Carol] Deal.
[dramatic synth music]
[music fades out]
[papers rustling]
They get in my head.
Can you draw me what you saw?
Well, it started about two weeks ago.
[Carol] Mm-hmm.
They show up at my home.
I start hearing these voices in my head.
So, I went out and got me a gun. This gun.
'Cause they ain't getting me.
Or it's you don't believe me?
[Roy scoffing]
Just like everybody else.
Help me see them.
All right. I'll help you. Drink that.
What is this?
That's gonna help against the implant.
Chances are they've already wiped your memory.
-Tasty, ain't it? -[Carol coughing]
It's quite bitter.
[Carol coughing]
[coughing heavily]
That was inside me?
Oh...
Oh, fuck.
How long has this been here?
Long enough.
[up-tempo orchestral music]
[pounding]
Hello?
-Is Carol James here? -No. Can I help you?
No, you can't.
[keyboard clacking]
Carol?
I've been trying to text you.
Where you been?
Hey, big bro.
I've been busy. [chuckling]
What are you watching?
It's, um....
Don't tell me. You're working on that alien documentary?
I've got a new lead, and I know what happened to Mom now.
You know what happened to Mom?
-She was really sick. -No, they took her.
Who?
Look, if anything happens to me, if I suddenly die,
or go missing, or anything like that,
I need you to hold on to this.
It's my backup.
-A backup of what? -Of my film. And it's proof.
It's real proof that aliens exist here in Flatwoods.
Now, don't tell anybody that you have it,
and don't give it to anybody, okay?
Just promise me.
There was a man in a black suit asking about you.
Is it about this?
Whatever happens, don't give him anything, okay?
Promise.
[crickets chirping]
[phone ringing]
[Manny] Carol, where are you?
Hey, Manny.
Are you at the coordinates?
Yeah, I am, but I don't see anything.
Patience.
How was Roy Miller?
Roy was intense, but, um, he had me drink
this fluid, and it made cough up--
Yeah, that's because he debugged you, Carol.
Yeah.
Good. It's why I sent you there.
-Manny? -Yeah?
I know what happened to my mom.
-[shrill buzzing] -[Carol grunting]
[Carol groaning]
[rhythmic whirring]
[whirring intensifies]
[curious electronic music]
[staticky zapping]
[thunderous booming]
Hey there, kiddo.
That-- Did you see-- I mean, it was right there!
Flatwoods.
-Flatwoods monster. -Yeah.
[Carol sniffling]
Yeah, this, uh, this point right here.
It's right in its flight path.
Carol?
[ominous music]
Be careful.
[mysterious music]
[static crackling]
[dramatic music]
[branches rustling]
[rhythmic whirring]
[spaceship rumbling]
[staticky zapping]
[staticky zapping]
[thunderous booming]
[music fades out]
[birds chirping]
[mysterious music]
[car engine starting]
[car tires skidding]
[phone ringing]
-Hello? -[altered voice] Carol James.
-Yes, who is this? -Idrid. Idrid Code.
-You're being watched. -Watched?
This line is tapped.
There's a body in your backyard,
and the men in black are on their way.
Whatever you do, don't go near it.
[phone beeping]
[birds chirping]
[door creaking]
[dramatic music]
There's the body.
[loud zapping]
[suspenseful synth music]
[man screaming]
[high-pitched murmuring]
[man wailing in pain]
[buttons beeping]
[high-pitched beep]
[beeping]
[doors opening]
[agent] This is what we found on her computer.
The film she was making.
All of the hard drives and the film reels
are in our possession.
Good.
You wouldn't believe some of the stuff on there.
-It's a good thing that-- -I didn't ask you.
Did I, agent?
No, sir.
Where is she now?
In the interrogation room.
I didn't lie about anything.
You want us to buy that?
Get me out of here!
[fly buzzing]
[agent slurping]
[agent] No!
[Carol weeping]
[Carol screaming]
[robotic beeping]
Her vitals are good.
But she spit up her bug.
Roy Miller must have helped her
with that concoction of his.
He's next on my shit list.
[Agent X] Good.
[high-pitched beep]
Now, what you're about to see is real.
I know it's crazy.
But for the first time, I bring you actual
photographic evidence of alien life.
[high-pitched beep]
[indistinct alien chatter]
[Agent X] Hmm.
[button beeping]
-[high-pitched beep] -You had George and Edith
Natowski, the very next day,
who happened to be traveling home from visiting
their relatives in Ohio, had a similar encounter.
You know, their car quit on the side
of the road and they couldn't figure out why.
They saw a glowing purple-ish light over in the woods,
had a horrible smell, just the same type
of smell that the-- the first witnesses reported.
They got out, he went over to where
the light was shining in the woods and saw an-- a--
He described it as a-- a globe.
His wife is looking right past him and started screaming
bloody murder because there was something following him,
and he looked back and saw what was very similar described
as the-- the Flatwoods monster that was seen here
in Flatwoods.
So, he made his way back to the car and waited sometime.
And then he peaked up over the dash,
and there he saw a creature in a metallic-type suit
with no legs, with a long, spindly arm, kind of, like,
trying to figure out what his car was.
It was, like, inspecting it, or trying to figure out
what it-- you know, what is this vehicle.
And then it just simply turned and glided away.
Well, a few minutes later, they looked and they saw
the craft rise, ascend up to a few thousand feet.
And shoom, disappeared.
Magically their car started a few seconds later
and they came out to look at the car,
discovered these strange burn marks all over where
the creature had touched, you know, as if the car
was burnt and left it and rusted in nature.
If it was a UFO, where did it go?
Nobody's seen anything else that night,
leaving there or whatever.
So, if it was a UFO, it would've had to leave,
unless it became interdimensional and took off.
Well, 1952 was a very interesting
year for ufology in general.
I mean, there were UFOs being spotted
all over the East Coast.
During that time, it was getting so, uh, intense
that our own Air Force pilots and navy pilots were
ordered to chase these things and shoot them down.
Uh, we lost many pilots during that time, uh, to "training"
accidents as they called it, because it was all a cover-up.
Um, the-- the Flatwoods incident,
in my personal opinion, was directly related to
this massive UFO wave of 1952.
There definitely is a segment of people
that-- that really don't want this story to be true.
You know, they don't-- they don't want it to be true,
and they really don't really even want the witnesses to
be credible, because then that makes the story harder
to refute. So, you know, if you-- if you ask
the right people, or the wrong people,
depending on how you look at it, you might get a story of,
you know, they were all, you know, drinking moonshine.
-Mm-mm. -And so they just saw whatever.
Or you'll get people saying even dumber stuff like,
you know, they were huffing paint.
It's like-- You're talking-- they're, like,
ten-year-old kids. They weren't huffing paint.
And it was a mom, and it was an army--
They're not-- Quit saying that.
But, uh-- So, you'll hear that every so often.
But-- But if nothing else, even-- even though I don't
love people telling me that version of the story,
everybody here knows some version of the story.
[high-pitched beep]
[eerie music]
[buttons beeping]
[door opening]
Listen, I know what this looks like.
And I know why you won't release me.
You know why, huh? We've been watching your little film.
My film?
Where did you get that?
It's too bad nobody but us will get to see it.
[Carol] If you're watching this,
you're probably one of the few.
My name is Carol James, and this is my documentary
on the study of extraterrestrials.
I admit, when I first started this,
I didn't think it would get this dangerous.
[birds chirping]
[faint ominous music]
[Manny] Nice car.
-'28? -'29.
Hmm. Hmm. Good year.
[camera clicking]
[Gary] Who are you?
[Manny] I'm a friend of your sister's.
I know what she entrusted you with.
Those guys in the monkey suits,
the, uh, men in black...
they think they've got the only copy.
But you and I both know you've got the backup.
I'm not gonna hurt you.
What should I do with it?
Keep it safe.
Keep your mouth shut.
You could lock it in that trunk if you like.
But whatever you do, don't trust anyone.
And if you don't hear from me within three days' time...
burn it.
Burn it?
To a cinder.
[buttons beeping]
[elevator whirring]
[door closing]
[whispering] Oh, great.
Well, Miss James,
it appears you know too much information.
Do you know what we do with people who know
too much information?
No.
[electric whirring]
[Carol gasping]
You're coming with me.
Let go of my arm.
Look, I'll tell you everything you need to know. Ugh! Please.
-[high-pitched whirring] -[Carol yelping]
[robotic whirring]
[speaking alien language]
I have Carol James' film, photographic evidence
in this briefcase. Just as you requested.
Yes.
Now, what you're about to see is real.
I know it's crazy.
But for the first time,
I bring you actual photographic evidence
of alien life.
[deep rumbling]
[spaceship whirring]
[spacecraft whooshing]
[spacecraft rumbling]
[crickets chirping]
[bell ringing]
[thunder rumbling]
[haunting music]
[bell ringing]
[Manny] Carol.
[figurine smashing]
[upbeat, mysterious synth music]
[phone ringing]
Yes, sir, almost ready.
[sinister screaming]
[eerie music]
[eerie synthesizer music]
[crickets chirping]
[spaceship whirring]
[alien speaking indistinctly]
[alien speaking indistinctly]
[spaceship rumbling]
[eerie music]
[wolf howling]
[crickets chirping]
[grass crunching]
Savages.
[crickets chirping]
[woman gasping]
[birds chirping]
[sinister synth music]
[pen scratching]
Okay, Carol. Tell us what you saw.
It was a bright flash of light.
We all know how vivid the imagination of a child is.
We found these in the bedroom.
Seems you like to read tall tales.
It was--
[Carol dropping pencil]
Mom!
[Sarah] It's gonna be okay.
-No, Mom! -Mommy's gonna be okay.
-It's gonna be okay. -No!
No!
Mom!
[menacing music]
[ominous synth music]
[breathing heavily]
[deep, distorted voice] What were you and your daughter
doing in the woods tonight, Ms. James?
Stargazing.
We know what you saw.
We know you've seen a lot of things in Flatwoods
over the years.
There's a portal.
It was open here in Flatwoods in 1952.
I'm not the only one who knows about it either.
A portal?
I've been collecting evidence.
[man] I see.
[Sarah clicking tongue]
There's another man, too.
I saw his solid black eyes.
He said his name is Manny Burgess.
We are aware of this individual.
There. That's all I know.
Now, please, let my daughter go.
We will release your daughter and implant
false memories into her and your son.
False memories?
Unfortunately, you know too much, Ms. James.
And do you know what we do to people who know too much?
[gun firing]
[haunting orchestral music]
[keyboard clacking]
[Sarah] You can do anything you set your mind to, Carol.
I believe in you.
[high-pitched beeping]
If you're watching this,
you're probably one of the few.
My name is Carol James, and this is my documentary
on the study of extraterrestrials.
I admit when I first started this,
I didn't think it would get this dangerous.
And...
Now I fear for my life.
[ominous synth music]
Everyone you're about to see in this film
is either a ufologist or a distinguished author
on the subject in West Virginia or Pennsylvania.
None of what you're about to see is scripted.
There are 250,000 missing person reports a year
in the United States.
Two hundred and fifty thousand.
Most are runaway kids, they find them, et cetera.
But you get down to 30,000 cases a year
in the United States that are not solved,
uh, whether you call it an abduction or a missing person.
Thirty thousand people a year disappear.
And you have to wonder if it's extraterrestrial
related, and they're abductions.
Maybe that's a part of that problem, and that's scary.
And maybe that's a scary side of the UFO phenomenon
that the government can't tell you about.
And if they have craft that fly through our airspace,
and we can't stop them, well, the Air Force is charged
with the protection of the people from the sky.
And what are they gonna say?
"Well, there's extraterrestrial
craft out there that just flies
circles around us and there's
nothing we can do about it?
And they abduct people and there's nothing
we can do about it?"
I mean, it raises a question.
I think there's something to UFOs.
There's just been too many sightings,
and too much evidence, and, uh, too many, uh,
very important people,
knowledgeable people-- I mean, from professors,
airline pilots, and everyone else-- that've witnessed UFOs.
So, I think there's something to it.
I don't think the government can build those things
and keep it that secret for that long a time
without being actually something out there.
I-- I believe that aliens have been here
since the beginning of time.
If-- If you actually go back
into history, I mean, real-- before Christ,
the things that were built could not have been built
by the people living here at that time with chicken bones.
Something else had to be there.
I think aliens have been here.
I think they're still here from then.
In the vastness of the universe that--
I can't believe that we're the only ones.
I-- I don't want to be arrogant enough to say
that humans are the only race out there.
And I also think with all the UFO sightings through
the years, and unexplainable craft doing things that-- that
-can't possibly be done-- -Mm-hmm.
that there is something to the phenomena.
I do believe that they exist.
If an extraterrestrial
life form comes to our world,
uh, they're not going to--
they're essentially not going to want to be seen.
[high-pitched beep]
[birds chirping]
[calm orchestral music]
[beast growling]
[dramatic music]
[beast growling]
[birds twittering]
[beast growling]
[dramatic chord]
-[high-pitched beep] -The government is not gonna
come out and tell us it's real,
because there's too much--
Once you start down that slippery slope,
where do you stop?
Even if you acknowledge
that there's life in space,
and that they've come here and observed us,
then that whole question comes out about abductions.
The question comes out about who knew,
how long did you know, and why didn't you tell us,
'cause you just violated the Constitution.
You know? You can't keep that from-- from people.
It's against the law, you know, to lie about
it like that in our government.
-I think they're from here. -Yeah?
They came here, say, thousands of years ago.
-[Carol] Yeah. -Why would they go back?
If you look at right now, you got the alien abductions.
Okay? They're abducting people.
They've been abducting people for how long, 50, 60 years?
If they found out what they all are looking for,
they're never going to...
[upbeat synth music]
Uh, I wanted to talk about the Flatwoods monster.
-[Brian] Mm-hmm. -Um, explain
what you know about it.
Yeah, that happened, I believe,
September 12th, 1952.
Uh, there was boys out playing one night
and they saw an object.
Looked like it had landed close to them.
You know, they got their mother
and three other eyewitnesses.
[alien speaking indistinctly]
[Andrew] They saw this thing come at them.
They were immediately gripped with fear, turned and ran
as quick as they could back through the woods,
across the pasture field, and down the hill,
and, uh, called the authorities as soon as they got back home.
And funny enough, though, the sheriff and his deputy
didn't get there real quickly because they were
actually out on another call for a reported airplane crash,
which they got there and investigated the area
that this would-- supposedly went down.
And as far as they could tell,
there were no-- no evidence of a plane crash.
And a lot of people feel like what the boy saw in
Flatwoods in the sky, you know, maybe they were connected.
So, they were away looking for possibly,
you know, dead bodies in a plane crash.
So, once they got done there, they came back to Flatwoods.
But by that time it was
already completely dark.
And as far as I know,
the only thing they could detect was the--
the smell that they described was
still kind of hanging in the air.
[documentary pauses]
[dramatic whooshing]
It smelled of sulfur.
Sulfur is one of those smells that comes up
when you're dealing with
these interdimensional,
-malevolent entities. -[Carol] Uh-huh.
You get that smell of sulfur, so it was a weird, weird
creature, to me, that bordered more on the paranormal.
I think that the-- the visitation in Flatwoods
is extraordinarily r-- real, uh,
for-- for multiple perspectives.
One is the people.
You're dealing with very spiritual Baptist individuals,
and you're dealing with a group of individuals that were most
likely uncorrupted at the time when it comes to
issues of being exposed to a possible visitation.
It was a time of innocence from our society,
which represented a time in which we were very
open-minded and weren't-- weren't being manipulated
by our government.
[Roy] I remember going down a day or so
after that happened and people were scared,
they wouldn't come out of their homes.
And they was talking about the--
this green monster in a slam,
and the grass was burnt, and people were scared.
I wanted to go up and see it, but my father wouldn't
take us up to the actual location.
And so, people weren't, uh, talking too much about it.
The people that actually see it were, uh, really scared.
[high-pitched beep]
[foreboding orchestral music]
[camera clicking]
[bell ringing]
That's so cool.
-[Carol] Oh! Hi. -Hey, can I help you?
-Hi, yeah. I'm Carol James. -Oh, yes.
-How are you doing? -Nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you as well. -Doing good.
-Thank you for having me. -Yeah, no problem.
This-- This place is great.
-Thank you. -Yeah.
I really don't have a tremendous background
in a lot of this stuff, but the story of the Flatwoods
monster was just one that we always felt
was worth preserving, just to have a place for people
to come that, you know, know about the story,
and-- and sort of need a-- a mecca.
That was really the-- the purpose of all this
and just slowly but surely, we've collected a lot of items,
and-- and collected a lot of people's individual
stories that sort of go along with the preservation
of, uh, the Flatwoods monster, and some, you know, s--
other related, you know, things that have kind of happened
in the area, just to keep them from being lost to time.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[key turning]
[Carol sighing softly]
Yeah.
[door shutting]
[birds chirping]
[music fades out]
[doorbell chiming]
-Hi, John. Hi. -Hi, Carol. How are you?
-Good, how are you? -Very good.
-Good. -Come on in.
I have all my stuff with me. Love your house.
[John] Thank you.
[relaxing orchestral music]
[lens turning]
All right. All right, John, I'm just gonna try
and get you in focus here.
[lens turning]
-[high-pitched beep] -Well, tell us what, uh,
you know about the events of the Flatwoods monster,
an, um, incident in West Virginia in 1952.
Yeah, Flatwoods is a really good case.
You know, there was a UFO that was seen.
It-- It went down in Flatwoods, West Virginia.
It was disabled. It was coming down, it landed.
But here's the thing I find crazy:
the description of the alien,
i-- it was like a creature. It had clawed fingers.
It had a red face, green, uh, skin.
-Kind of-- -Uh, it was wearing a hood--
-Yeah. -And, uh, it smelled of sulfur.
Sulfur is one of those smells that comes up
when you're dealing with
these interdimensional,
-malevolent entities. -Mm-hmm.
You get that smell of sulfur.
So, it was a weird, weird creature, to me,
that brought it more on the paranormal than, uh, alien.
But there was a craft that went down,
and then a second one was seen going to its aid.
And they both left, almost like to repair the first one.
A-- And it took off.
And-- And the kids, and-- and-- the ones that they smelled
that sulfur, they got really sick and they started vomiting.
-Mm-hmm. -So, it was a very strange
case with, uh-- with more of a creature
than an alien, or unless those aliens were creatures.
Yeah. [laughs]
And there's a lot going on during
that time. It seems like the '50s was--
Well, 1952, you had the UFOs over Washington, D.C.
Uh, there was a lot going on.
That was the reason in '52 they formed the CIA.
There were four branches of government after
the UFOs over, uh, D.C. in July.
They formed the CIA, the Defense Department.
There were, like, four branches of government,
and the CIA we know was looking at the UFO field.
And-- And Flatwoods was September of '52.
Okay. That's very coincidental.
-[John] Hmm. -[Carol laughing]
[high-pitched beep]
[eerie music]
[deep, distorted voice] Agent,
we need you for a secret mission.
No one must know.
[altered voice] Not a problem.
-What is the issue? -[masked man] Manny Burgess.
[agent sighing] I'm on it.
There are more sightings here than ever before.
And we want to keep them under wraps.
Do you understand, agent?
Yes, I understand.
We suspect he will be helping Carol James
with her little film.
Perhaps we could make this work to our advantage.
My loyalty is to my superiors.
Excellent.
[ominous music]
[birds chirping]
[music fades out]
[aliens chittering]
[pulsing synth music]
[aliens continue chittering]
Money in the bank.
Manny Burgess. My associate told me to find you.
Ah, one of you guys.
I will see you tomorrow for a meeting at your place.
How do you know where I live?
You are the gatekeeper, are you not?
I've been called a lot of things.
What do you need?
Bait.
[music fades out]
Son of a bitch.
[menacing music]
Sure you don't want some coffee?
This little meeting is off the record.
I caught you filming illegals.
Pin the footage on someone else or my superiors
may beam you back up to where you came from.
You need a man like me.
One that can see.
Carol James is a good candidate.
-Do this so we can-- -So, you can what?
So we can avoid jail time.
Gatekeepers aren't too hard to come by.
Do this or we beam you back up.
Your choice.
[Manny] Oh, great.
Hey, can I have my phone?
[door squeaking and shutting]
Asshole.
[majestic orchestral music]
[mysterious music]
[camera clicking]
[keyboard clacking]
If you have a story about your alien experience,
please call 555-793-8893.
Oh, I've got an alien experience for you.
[eerie music]
[dialing]
[phone ringing]
-Hello? -Uh, hello. Uh, is this...
Carol James?
Yes.
Uh, I-- I was just, uh, watching your-- your YouTube
video. I think I've got something that I-- I could
share with you for--
for your documentary.
Great. Um, where do I meet you?
[Manny] Oh, I'd rather just keep it between you and me.
I'll text you the address.
Excellent. I lo-- I look forward to it.
I-- I remember the rumors when I was growing up.
Folks said it was probably an owl, that those kids
were just making it up for-- for press attention.
But I saw it... y-- years after that.
Tell me about it.
I was driving home from work one night and... there it was.
Right in the middle of the road.
Lucky for me, I had my camera with me.
And I got it.
You did? Can I see it?
[faint suspenseful music]
This is worth more than money.
You have to understand the risks.
I mean...
I mean, it's-- i-- i-- it's a good way for you to get killed.
I need this to get out there.
[keyboard clacking]
[ominous music]
[Carol laughing softly]
[Manny] There's more where that came from.
There's more? Like what?
Abbagoochie.
[beast roaring]
The Mothman.
[roaring]
Even a... alien autopsy.
No, I-- I won't say anything about you or-- or any of this.
I promise.
Why do you do this?
It's something my mom would've wanted.
She believed in "this," but nobody believed in her.
But they'll believe me.
What happened to your mother?
It's funny. I don't remember.
[dramatic synth music]
I got someone else that-- that you should probably talk to.
And he's-- I'll warn you, he-- he's a little weird.
But maybe after that,
I'll show you the Flatwoods monster.
[Carol] Deal.
[dramatic synth music]
[music fades out]
[papers rustling]
They get in my head.
Can you draw me what you saw?
Well, it started about two weeks ago.
[Carol] Mm-hmm.
They show up at my home.
I start hearing these voices in my head.
So, I went out and got me a gun. This gun.
'Cause they ain't getting me.
Or it's you don't believe me?
[Roy scoffing]
Just like everybody else.
Help me see them.
All right. I'll help you. Drink that.
What is this?
That's gonna help against the implant.
Chances are they've already wiped your memory.
-Tasty, ain't it? -[Carol coughing]
It's quite bitter.
[Carol coughing]
[coughing heavily]
That was inside me?
Oh...
Oh, fuck.
How long has this been here?
Long enough.
[up-tempo orchestral music]
[pounding]
Hello?
-Is Carol James here? -No. Can I help you?
No, you can't.
[keyboard clacking]
Carol?
I've been trying to text you.
Where you been?
Hey, big bro.
I've been busy. [chuckling]
What are you watching?
It's, um....
Don't tell me. You're working on that alien documentary?
I've got a new lead, and I know what happened to Mom now.
You know what happened to Mom?
-She was really sick. -No, they took her.
Who?
Look, if anything happens to me, if I suddenly die,
or go missing, or anything like that,
I need you to hold on to this.
It's my backup.
-A backup of what? -Of my film. And it's proof.
It's real proof that aliens exist here in Flatwoods.
Now, don't tell anybody that you have it,
and don't give it to anybody, okay?
Just promise me.
There was a man in a black suit asking about you.
Is it about this?
Whatever happens, don't give him anything, okay?
Promise.
[crickets chirping]
[phone ringing]
[Manny] Carol, where are you?
Hey, Manny.
Are you at the coordinates?
Yeah, I am, but I don't see anything.
Patience.
How was Roy Miller?
Roy was intense, but, um, he had me drink
this fluid, and it made cough up--
Yeah, that's because he debugged you, Carol.
Yeah.
Good. It's why I sent you there.
-Manny? -Yeah?
I know what happened to my mom.
-[shrill buzzing] -[Carol grunting]
[Carol groaning]
[rhythmic whirring]
[whirring intensifies]
[curious electronic music]
[staticky zapping]
[thunderous booming]
Hey there, kiddo.
That-- Did you see-- I mean, it was right there!
Flatwoods.
-Flatwoods monster. -Yeah.
[Carol sniffling]
Yeah, this, uh, this point right here.
It's right in its flight path.
Carol?
[ominous music]
Be careful.
[mysterious music]
[static crackling]
[dramatic music]
[branches rustling]
[rhythmic whirring]
[spaceship rumbling]
[staticky zapping]
[staticky zapping]
[thunderous booming]
[music fades out]
[birds chirping]
[mysterious music]
[car engine starting]
[car tires skidding]
[phone ringing]
-Hello? -[altered voice] Carol James.
-Yes, who is this? -Idrid. Idrid Code.
-You're being watched. -Watched?
This line is tapped.
There's a body in your backyard,
and the men in black are on their way.
Whatever you do, don't go near it.
[phone beeping]
[birds chirping]
[door creaking]
[dramatic music]
There's the body.
[loud zapping]
[suspenseful synth music]
[man screaming]
[high-pitched murmuring]
[man wailing in pain]
[buttons beeping]
[high-pitched beep]
[beeping]
[doors opening]
[agent] This is what we found on her computer.
The film she was making.
All of the hard drives and the film reels
are in our possession.
Good.
You wouldn't believe some of the stuff on there.
-It's a good thing that-- -I didn't ask you.
Did I, agent?
No, sir.
Where is she now?
In the interrogation room.
I didn't lie about anything.
You want us to buy that?
Get me out of here!
[fly buzzing]
[agent slurping]
[agent] No!
[Carol weeping]
[Carol screaming]
[robotic beeping]
Her vitals are good.
But she spit up her bug.
Roy Miller must have helped her
with that concoction of his.
He's next on my shit list.
[Agent X] Good.
[high-pitched beep]
Now, what you're about to see is real.
I know it's crazy.
But for the first time, I bring you actual
photographic evidence of alien life.
[high-pitched beep]
[indistinct alien chatter]
[Agent X] Hmm.
[button beeping]
-[high-pitched beep] -You had George and Edith
Natowski, the very next day,
who happened to be traveling home from visiting
their relatives in Ohio, had a similar encounter.
You know, their car quit on the side
of the road and they couldn't figure out why.
They saw a glowing purple-ish light over in the woods,
had a horrible smell, just the same type
of smell that the-- the first witnesses reported.
They got out, he went over to where
the light was shining in the woods and saw an-- a--
He described it as a-- a globe.
His wife is looking right past him and started screaming
bloody murder because there was something following him,
and he looked back and saw what was very similar described
as the-- the Flatwoods monster that was seen here
in Flatwoods.
So, he made his way back to the car and waited sometime.
And then he peaked up over the dash,
and there he saw a creature in a metallic-type suit
with no legs, with a long, spindly arm, kind of, like,
trying to figure out what his car was.
It was, like, inspecting it, or trying to figure out
what it-- you know, what is this vehicle.
And then it just simply turned and glided away.
Well, a few minutes later, they looked and they saw
the craft rise, ascend up to a few thousand feet.
And shoom, disappeared.
Magically their car started a few seconds later
and they came out to look at the car,
discovered these strange burn marks all over where
the creature had touched, you know, as if the car
was burnt and left it and rusted in nature.
If it was a UFO, where did it go?
Nobody's seen anything else that night,
leaving there or whatever.
So, if it was a UFO, it would've had to leave,
unless it became interdimensional and took off.
Well, 1952 was a very interesting
year for ufology in general.
I mean, there were UFOs being spotted
all over the East Coast.
During that time, it was getting so, uh, intense
that our own Air Force pilots and navy pilots were
ordered to chase these things and shoot them down.
Uh, we lost many pilots during that time, uh, to "training"
accidents as they called it, because it was all a cover-up.
Um, the-- the Flatwoods incident,
in my personal opinion, was directly related to
this massive UFO wave of 1952.
There definitely is a segment of people
that-- that really don't want this story to be true.
You know, they don't-- they don't want it to be true,
and they really don't really even want the witnesses to
be credible, because then that makes the story harder
to refute. So, you know, if you-- if you ask
the right people, or the wrong people,
depending on how you look at it, you might get a story of,
you know, they were all, you know, drinking moonshine.
-Mm-mm. -And so they just saw whatever.
Or you'll get people saying even dumber stuff like,
you know, they were huffing paint.
It's like-- You're talking-- they're, like,
ten-year-old kids. They weren't huffing paint.
And it was a mom, and it was an army--
They're not-- Quit saying that.
But, uh-- So, you'll hear that every so often.
But-- But if nothing else, even-- even though I don't
love people telling me that version of the story,
everybody here knows some version of the story.
[high-pitched beep]
[eerie music]
[buttons beeping]
[door opening]
Listen, I know what this looks like.
And I know why you won't release me.
You know why, huh? We've been watching your little film.
My film?
Where did you get that?
It's too bad nobody but us will get to see it.
[Carol] If you're watching this,
you're probably one of the few.
My name is Carol James, and this is my documentary
on the study of extraterrestrials.
I admit, when I first started this,
I didn't think it would get this dangerous.
[birds chirping]
[faint ominous music]
[Manny] Nice car.
-'28? -'29.
Hmm. Hmm. Good year.
[camera clicking]
[Gary] Who are you?
[Manny] I'm a friend of your sister's.
I know what she entrusted you with.
Those guys in the monkey suits,
the, uh, men in black...
they think they've got the only copy.
But you and I both know you've got the backup.
I'm not gonna hurt you.
What should I do with it?
Keep it safe.
Keep your mouth shut.
You could lock it in that trunk if you like.
But whatever you do, don't trust anyone.
And if you don't hear from me within three days' time...
burn it.
Burn it?
To a cinder.
[buttons beeping]
[elevator whirring]
[door closing]
[whispering] Oh, great.
Well, Miss James,
it appears you know too much information.
Do you know what we do with people who know
too much information?
No.
[electric whirring]
[Carol gasping]
You're coming with me.
Let go of my arm.
Look, I'll tell you everything you need to know. Ugh! Please.
-[high-pitched whirring] -[Carol yelping]
[robotic whirring]
[speaking alien language]
I have Carol James' film, photographic evidence
in this briefcase. Just as you requested.
Yes.
Now, what you're about to see is real.
I know it's crazy.
But for the first time,
I bring you actual photographic evidence
of alien life.
[deep rumbling]
[spaceship whirring]
[spacecraft whooshing]
[spacecraft rumbling]
[crickets chirping]
[bell ringing]
[thunder rumbling]
[haunting music]
[bell ringing]
[Manny] Carol.
[figurine smashing]
[upbeat, mysterious synth music]
[phone ringing]
Yes, sir, almost ready.
[sinister screaming]