Fear the Woods (2017) s01e01 Episode Script

The vast
North American wilderness
is home to evil forces
thought only to exist
in nightmares.
But the terrible creatures
that roam here
are all too real.
Young people looking for
a place to play
find the woods irresistible
almost as irresistible
as the beings within find them.
Let us in! Please!
Run! Aah! Run!
Something had followed us,
something from a horror movie.
- Aah!
- He's going to kill us.
Go! Go on! Get out of here!
Jon Patrick and his friend Lucas
are in the woods behind
Lucas' house,
competing to win.
We were playing a game.
We would play Capture the Flag.
We'd play Manhunt.
Manhunt pits two teams
of teenagers against each other,
but at night, it's not
as much fun as you'd think.
It could be
pretty intimidating at night.
Definitely, if you weren't
prepared for it
or you heard something,
you didn't know what it was
and it caught you off guard,
the fight-or-flight response,
for me,
was pretty heavily weighted
towards flight.
We were basically running
from three to four people.
If you were caught,
then you were captured.
You were taken to the jail.
Shh!
Lucas and I were probably two
of the fastest people out there,
which is why we were
the only ones left on our team.
- We have to rescue them.
- Yeah.
- You see 'em?
- No.
If we catch them first
We win.
Now their game suddenly takes
an unsettling turn.
The first time
we kind of got the hint
that something might be wrong
was when the other team
yelled at us.
Suddenly, there was
another person
who we couldn't account for
seemingly out of nowhere,
and neither myself nor Lucas
had, uh,
had had noticed this person.
As the game continues,
someone or something strange
appears.
I couldn't tell if I'd really
seen that or if I imagined it,
or maybe it was
just another shadow.
Like I said, there were lots
of shadows out there
that looked like people,
that could be people,
that could be someone hiding.
I thought I saw one of the other
members of the other team,
so I had to sort of
come behind Lucas
to try to tag this person.
I'll cut him off!
He was running really fast,
which really kind of put me off
because like I said,
I thought I was one of
the fastest people out there.
The longer the chase continues,
the more Jon wonders
exactly who he is pursuing,
or if it's even a person at all.
Entities tend to be attracted
to the energy of a young person,
um, especially to the happy
energy if they're playing.
Spirits, they don't eat food,
but they do need to
consume energy to keep going.
They can pull that energy
from the earth.
They can pull that
energy from appliances.
They can pull that energy
from people.
It basically looked
like a shadow
that was running full speed.
It was incredibly silent.
I don't recall hearing it at all
up to this point.
As I was running,
I could feel my heart pounding.
I could hear every stick
that I stepped on.
I could hear every misstep
that I took where I had to trip,
where I had to kind of reset.
I expected it to be
farther ahead of me,
and once I looked,
there was nothing there.
That person never materialized.
When that person never
showed up,
it sort of caught me off guard.
What?
Did you see him?
Lucas was silent.
He looked at me,
and we both kinda
had a quick mental exchange that
we both thought we saw someone.
Okay, let's go. Let's go.
It's increasingly unclear
what they were running after
or how their target could
seemingly vanish into thin air,
but it scares them enough
to call off the fun.
We kind of agreed
to just end the game.
None of their friends report
seeing anything
out of the ordinary,
and soon Jon and Lucas
are on their own in the woods.
A couple of people decided
to go back down the hill
to the houses.
When people started leaving,
the first thing
that came to my mind
was basically every sort of
horror movie that I'd ever seen.
I was thinking, "Oh, good.
The group is getting smaller.
This is not helpful."
Man, you're sure no one
saw anything?
Maybe it was an ax murderer.
Shut up.
Now it's just the two of them,
and they hope it stays that way.
Yet they're still determined
to camp out.
We still wanted to
stay out there,
just didn't want
to be called chicken,
so we didn't want to leave.
We were pretty steadfast
in that.
The general tone was just quiet.
No one really wanted
to say much.
The fire actually sort of
made the situation
outside of the immediate circle
a little bit more tense.
It did cast moving shadows
that we couldn't write off
as easily.
It made the unknown
a whole lot more unknown.
It definitely left more room for
us to want to stay closer to it.
At one point in time,
I noticed something
at the edge of the clearing.
Look! Look!
What?
What?
It looked like a person.
It was very shrouded in shadow,
but the only reason I saw it
was because it became
briefly illuminated by fire,
and I couldn't really make
any features out
except that it looked
like a person.
It may look like a person,
but it's most definitely not.
Teenagers Jon and Lucas
were playing a game
with their friends
when they were interrupted
by an eerie creature.
They're now alone in the woods,
and it looks like the creature
has come for them.
Negative spirits in particular
may fixate on a younger person
because physically,
they are going through changes
in their lives.
Their bodies are changing.
Their minds are changing.
They thrive on that kind of pain
and confusion.
They do that to control.
They do that to draw energy.
They do that to feed.
Pass me the flashlight.
Pass me the flashlight!
Come on!
- Okay, okay.
- Hurry up! Come on!
Before they can get
a good look at it,
it seems to disappear
into thin air.
I bet it's my Uncle Jimmy.
- What?
- He's just messing with us.
Come here.
Lucas is convinced
this is all just a joke.
Lucas had an uncle.
His name was Uncle Jimmy.
And he was, uh,
he was just about
10 years older than Lucas.
I mean, he would come out
and he would, from time to time,
terrorize the kids
that were hanging out there,
scare us out of our minds.
When we approached, as soon as
we got anywhere near the woods,
it essentially vanished.
It looked like I could see it
one second,
then it was gone the next.
It didn't move behind a tree.
The fire didn't suddenly go out.
I didn't light it up with
my flashlight
and then suddenly lose it.
It just wasn't there.
I knew that something was wrong,
that it wasn't Uncle Jimmy,
so we decided to,
in our infinite wisdom,
try to find out what it was.
Generally speaking,
it's never a good idea
for young people to
go out looking for ghosts
or spirits or entities.
They haven't reached
adulthood yet,
even human experience-wise.
They're just not ready to
handle the kinds of consequences
that could be meted out.
We were too stupid to admit
that we were scared,
and we wanted to act like
the big guy,
act like the big, strong guy,
and so we definitely pursued it
farther than I really think
we should have.
We got real silent.
The woods got real silent,
and every now and again
you would hear something.
And it was always a little bit
deeper into the woods.
And then we heard this, um
it was a stick breaking and then
just a little bit of movement,
but it was much closer
than anything else had been.
It was probably 10 feet from us,
but we couldn't see it.
When they turn around,
they come face-to-face
with the creature
that's been stalking them
all night.
It made this growling noise
that, uh
um, it didn't sound human.
It didn't remind me of any
wild animal that I'd ever heard.
It was something
from a horror movie.
I couldn't understand
what I was hearing.
It was a very low growling,
scratching noise.
And I started walking backwards,
but I didn't want to turn away.
I was afraid if I turned away,
it would jump at me.
And there were just two of us.
We didn't know what to do.
We needed to get out of there.
We knew that we needed
to go home.
Come on! Come on! Come on!
All the tough guy-ness
was gone. We were done.
No matter how fast they run,
it's not fast enough.
The woods felt like
they were alive
and felt like they were
following us down the hill.
We were originally
playing a game.
We were chasing each other,
and it's ironic that at that
point, something was chasing us.
The teens raced
to Lucas' house
- Come on. Let us in!
- But they aren't out of danger.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, please!
- Please, please!
- We're out back! We out back!
- Please, please let us in!
- Oh, come on!
- The door was locked. We couldn't get in.
- Please, please!
We felt safe at first,
and then suddenly here we are,
trapped, stranded,
out on the front porch.
- He's coming! He's coming!
- Please! Please!
- He's coming! Please! Please!
- Please, let us in! Please!
Their game of Manhunt
in the woods with their friends
has gone wrong
in blood-chilling ways.
Now terrified teenagers
Jon and Lucas
are the ones being hunted by
an evil and unnatural creature.
- Mom, let us in!
- Please! Please! Please!
- They had been targeted, basically.
- Please! Please!
A negative
entity would probably target
a child's energy to sap it,
to drain some of that energy
for their own well-being.
Help!
Something had followed us.
Whatever had been up
had come down after us.
Please! We're out back!
Please let us in!
They make it to Lucas'
house, but no one is home,
and the door is locked.
Please!
The lock wasn't really that good
of a lock.
If you sort of jimmied it
and lifted the door,
you could get it off the track
and you could slide in,
so that's what we ended up
doing to get inside.
Please! Please!
Let us in, please!
Please, no.
We felt relieved. It definitely
was a relief to get inside.
We got that door shut behind us,
and that felt like a barrier.
I mean, it wasn't
a perfect barrier.
You kind of start thinking
about it.
We stayed away from the windows.
We stayed away from the door.
We were definitely
still on edge.
But being inside
doesn't mean they're safe.
With no one else home,
Jon and Lucas are on their own
against the mysterious creature
prowling outside.
We heard a loud thud up
on the roof.
I was tired and I was terrified.
I wanted to go to sleep.
I wanted to reset.
I wanted to start over.
Lucas and I made
a quick judgement call.
If we could scare it away,
if we could shoot it.
We didn't have access to a gun.
All we had was an air rifle,
a little pellet gun,
and thinking
that would be sufficient,
we quickly grabbed it,
and myself and Lucas
went outside.
We look up on the roof,
and there it was.
It was sort of hunched over,
almost on all fours.
And then we heard that low,
raspy rumble again
and it was almost like the way
a firework hits your chest.
It sort of shook us.
Go, go!
We tried to throw things at it.
We had rocks, pinecones,
whatever was on the ground,
and it seemed
to almost go through it.
It didn't faze it.
It was the loudest growl
I think I've ever heard.
And, um
when Lucas fired
a couple of shots
from the air rifle at it,
and it backed up,
and we thought maybe we'd won.
We'd thought maybe we'd got it.
But it appears
they've only made things worse.
And it just jumped off
the house at that point.
And now it's on the ground,
inches away from them.
It turned to face us.
The best we could see it,
it stood
at the time, it looked like
it stood 8 or 10 feet tall.
It was incredibly aggressive.
It seemed to be challenging us.
The creature appears
ready to strike a fatal blow
and then it vanishes
into the night.
It jumped 20 foot
across the creek,
and then that was
the last we saw of it.
Jon and Lucas wait
in terrified silence
until Jon's parents arrive home.
Yeah, we told them everything.
We we told them what we saw.
They didn't really believe us.
A few days later,
they realize how lucky they were
to have escaped
the monster in the woods.
As we were telling Lucas'
parents what had happened,
they informed us
that a cow had been killed
and had been pretty much gutted,
and it was all over the place.
Of course, when we heard that,
we thought it could as easily
have been any of us.
It could have been any one of us
at any time that night.
Jon and Lucas escaped
the terrifying creature,
and now Dan and Ken
are heading out to the woods
with their friends,
- a night that also begins as innocent fun.
- Go, go!
I'm telling you, guys,
it's the creepiest place
I've ever seen!
- Ooh!
- There it is.
Try not to be too scared.
It was just a game
of hide-and-seek.
After you, ladies.
You know, I haven't really
told too many people about it.
Oh, we've got a lively bunch
around here.
Oh.
This abandoned graveyard
- Hey, Ken, I've found your mom!
- There she is. -tucked in the forest
is definitely not a place
for the young and the living.
A lively bunch here, folks.
Some cemeteries do house
spirits of people
who are actually
looking after the graves
that their bodies are buried in,
to keep them
from being desecrated.
All right. All right.
Here's what I'm thinking
I'm thinking hide-and-go-seek
in the dark.
Ken and I against you guys?
What drew us into playing
in that area, the graveyard,
is to kind of laugh
in the face of danger,
thinking we were tougher than
we probably were.
We were playing, like,
a two-on-two game
of hide-and-seek,
or Ghost in the Graveyard,
I think we were calling it
at the time,
so we already
were kind of enjoying,
or at least pretending to enjoy,
the scariness about the evening.
At least, to provide
some sort of entertainment,
considering, you know,
the feel of death, uncertainty,
just knowing
that it's possible that,
I guess, the the veil
is thin there.
Oh, 20 seconds should
be enough, yeah?
Starting now.
- Go!
- Run, boys!
Ready or not, here we come.
Dan and his friends
sense they're not the only ones
lurking around
the graveyard tonight.
Something has been woken.
We first thought we saw
our two friends
hiding in some trees.
Turn the light right there.
Oh, they're so dumb.
And so we're both
kind of saying,
"Hey, guys, get out.
We know you're there.
"We see you.
We know something's over there.
You're not being
very good at hiding."
Gotcha!
I thought you changed
the batteries.
Crap. I did. Oh, man.
My mom buys the worst batteries.
Come on.
The sounds of the woods
definitely made the game
more fun and more creepy.
Ken and I looked to the left
and we see this
To this day, it's still kind of
hard for me to explain.
Definitely made a lasting impact
on my life.
Hard to explain
and impossible to forget.
Go! Go, go, go, go, go!
Come on.
Teenagers Dan and Ken
are playing
hide-and-seek with their friends
by the old cemetery,
but now something
has come looking for them.
The message is,
"You came onto my territory.
"I didn't like it,
and I'm gonna show you
my abilities and what I can do."
It kind of looked like
an overflowing leaf bag
that was a little more dense,
on top of a young boy's legs.
Nice one, guys.
That's real scary, okay?
At first, we thought it was
our friends,
like, kind of doing, like,
a piggyback.
Like, one on top of the other.
Come on. Come on, guys.
We started walking towards it,
because Ken and I thought
it was our friends just
trying a new way to
mess with us.
Come on.
Look at them.
- It's both of them.
- Doesn't even look real.
No, doesn't even look real.
We started
hearing it whistling
and I can't
It's really hard for me
to describe the
the odd whistle
that it was doing.
This uh, thing
it seemed to just enjoy the fact
that it was able to scare us.
Go! Go!
And I turn around and just start
running back towards my house.
Go! Go! Get up there!
I just felt pure fear.
It was just kind of like,
"I really hope I don't feel
anything tug on me,
grab me, rip at me, whatever."
Definitely felt my heart
rapidly hitting on my chest.
My blood was pumping so much
that my ears
were kind of throbbing.
Go!
Go! Go! Go!
What the hell was that?
When Ken and I reconvened
with our other friends,
"Did you see that?
Did you hear that?"
Like, "Why didn't you guys
come out when we saw you?"
They were just kind of
laughing and like,
"I don't know what
you're talking about."
Ken and I were pretty shook up.
Let's get out of here.
We didn't want to play anymore
'cause we had no idea
where this creature had gone.
Deeply rattled by
their terrifying experience,
the boys decide
to call it a night,
but Dan can't forget
what happened.
Sleep didn't
come quickly, knowing that
whatever this creature
or thing was out there,
just possibly in my backyard.
Um
it
Yeah, I didn't
I didn't sleep well.
I'll just put it that way.
He hopes
the ordeal is behind him.
But two nights later,
he's still on edge
when he has to go outside.
My dad told me I had
to take the garbage out.
So as I was walking outside,
getting the cans ready,
and that's when
it kind of hits me.
Hearing the whistling
strike up again,
I was pretty frozen in fear
and not really sure what
Where to go or what to do.
I stood there for quite
some time, contemplating.
I felt stalked or hunted.
There were so many different
thoughts and feelings
I was experiencing.
Here it is again.
It chased me.
It's now messing with me.
Where is it?
Here we are,
hide-and-seek in the dark.
Dan and his friends
are terrified
Me and Ken against you guys?
When the game
they're playing in the woods
is interrupted
by a malevolent creature.
Go, go, go!
He thinks he's escaped it.
What the hell was that?
But two nights later,
he discovers
it's followed him home.
When a particularly
malicious entity
targets somebody
and follows them home,
they tend to invade their life.
Basically,
I had 30 yards of driveway
and almost complete uncertainty
on where this thing was
because there were
so many trees in the way.
What was most troubling
is I didn't see any movement.
I didn't see any shadow.
I hadn't told my dad
or any of my family members
what had happened
the night before
because I was
so uncertain about it.
Now that it was happening
all over again,
I was still kind of like,
"I don't want them
to think I'm crazy."
I was just thinking, "Okay,
I'm going to get this done,
"and then I'm just going
to hide in the house
and I'll hopefully never have to
hear or see this thing again."
Not only was this thing
watching me
and whistling at me,
I couldn't always pinpoint
where it was.
It was very long
and drawn out notes,
so it seemed very
deliberate and almost like
it was waiting for me to
stop moving
so I could hear it.
The reason why an entity
might follow a young person
They thrive on that pain.
They thrive on the teasing,
the torturing,
the taunting aspect,
so they need that energy
and will draw on that to
serve themselves.
I felt very alone, and still,
all I could really hear
was this very eerie whistle.
I just booked it into
my front door
and shut it.
It was just a very creepy,
life-altering event,
experiencing that.
Dan doesn't understand
why the creature appeared
but he's terrified that
it may still be lurking
in the woods
surrounding his house.
Being a kid in my neighborhood
wasn't really the same
after that.
I didn't really go out and play
much, at least at night.
Go, go!
The dark forest hides
all sorts of terrors
that can stalk you,
but games played
in broad daylight
can go just as badly,
as Brett and his friends
are about to find out.
Whenever
I tell this story as an adult,
I-I get the general impression
that it's hard to believe.
It's a thing that's straight out
of a horror movie.
Most of my childhood was spent
living in an apartment complex.
Just to the north
of the apartment complex,
there was this clearing
that we sort of
took it upon ourselves
to make that ours.
When I was a kid, there were
places that were sacred to me.
It was a place
where me and my friends
could go talk about the things
that we wanted to talk about,
about the things
that we thought were cool,
and there were no adults.
It was just us.
It was
a very secluded place that,
unless you spent
a lot of time in the woods,
you wouldn't know that
it existed.
All right, guys,
what have we got?
Oh, nice.
So we would go
to the different dumpsters,
'cause in an apartment complex,
there's lots of dumpsters
with lots of cool stuff
to get into
and grab and scavenge.
And we would take
broken furniture,
things that we thought were cool
that were probably
not very cool,
just pieces
of other people's trash,
and use it to build a fort.
Did you guys check out
that match yesterday?
Yeah.
I was pretty carefree.
I was well taken care of,
so there weren't many hardships,
so it was just a life
of going to school,
coming home,
playing with your friends,
and repeating that
throughout the week.
And then one day,
their childhood
is changed forever.
As far as we knew,
it was a typical day.
I remember it was sunny.
I remember that the wind
was blowing
a little bit harder than normal.
Did you guys see that new
"Archie" comic?
The day that we went out
to the woods
Got home from school,
you drop your book bag off.
You say "Hi" to your parents,
and then
you're back out the door.
And I went and rounded up
my friends,
and we headed off into the woods
to go to our fort.
We didn't know that it
was gonna be the kind of day
that it turned out to be.
So I get the idea
We were walking
through the woods
and we were heading towards
our fort like normal.
There was never anybody
in the woods.
We'd always be there
by ourselves.
It's like, you can't base
an entire genre off it.
Wait, do do you see that?
It was me who noticed that off
in the distance to our left,
I would guess maybe 70 yards,
80 yards in the distance
there was a man
walking in
the opposite direction as us.
He had a very
purposeful walk to him.
He was going somewhere
or searching for something.
To see a person out there
was startling,
so we froze whenever we saw him.
We didn't know where
he was going.
We just stopped, stayed still,
and we hoped
that he passed us by.
But to their horror,
he sees them.
So we knew
at that point in time,
he knows that we're here.
He's looked directly
in our direction,
and that's the first time
that we saw his face.
It wasn't just a man
walking in the woods.
It was a man walking
in the woods with a mask on.
And then we noticed that
in his hand
he was carrying an ax.
- Run. Run!
- Let's go! Let's go!
The woods are full of
entities that prey on the young,
but you don't have to be
a creature to be a monster.
They're out in places
that are isolated.
They're far from help,
and consequences
could be disastrous.
Brett and his friends
are heading
to their secret shack
in the woods
to hang out and play games
only to discover their
hideout isn't so secret anymore.
We were hoping that maybe
he didn't really see us.
Maybe he is just looking
in the direction
because he heard some footsteps
or he heard some sticks break.
Unfortunately,
that's not the case.
We were just frozen with fear.
We didn't know where to go.
What does he want?
That's when we knew
we need to get out here.
Run. Run!
- Let's go! Let's go!
Let's go!
It was just a
Sort of a boom boom decision.
He started running.
We start running.
Let's go! Come on!
Run, run, run, run!
Our immediate reaction
was to run.
"We gotta go to our fort.
We have to get to our fort"
-Uhh! -because that was
the safe space.
Go! Let's go! Come on!
I can only assume that he is
What are you doing?!
He is out to kill me.
He's going to kill us.
- Let's go!
We knew that
if anything happened,
if there was something
in the way and we tripped,
that he was on us.
Let's split! Go!
They decide to split up,
hoping that will save them.
We knew that he was
gaining on us as we ran.
It's the woods, and there's
nobody else out there,
so every sound is amplified.
You could hear his footsteps
getting closer and closer
behind us as we ran.
Let's go!
Let's go! Let's go!
- Come on!
- Brett! Come on!
My friends made it,
and it was too late
by the time it was my turn.
- Come on!
- Come here!
Aah!
He was right there,
and I could not get away
from him.
The only thing
that I could think of was,
"If I can't get away from him,
I have to fight him."
It's either I hurt him
or he hurts me
so I grabbed what
I thought was a good stick.
I assumed that I get one chance
to make a connection
and held it like
a baseball bat
-Aah! -and took a nice,
big fat swing at his face
and I hit him right in the head.
As he was stunned,
we saw that as our opportunity
to get out of there
because the fort was no longer
safe and we needed to get home.
We ran away as fast as we could.
As we were running out,
we kept looking behind us
to make sure that he wasn't
following us again.
Whenever we told my parents
what had happened,
I think their initial reaction
was to assume
that the story that they heard
were the embellishments
of a kid's imagination.
"Surely that didn't happen
to them"
but it did.
After all of this happened,
the woods themself sort of lost
their luster as our place
of safety and solitude.
I think that it was the manager
of the apartment complex.
I remember him being
very strange.
I remember avoiding him.
Let's go! Let's go!
Let's go! Sucker!
He did not like us playing
out at the apartment complex.
I don't really know why.
It was just
kids playing outside.
I don't remember seeing him
after that.
We moved shortly after
all of this happened.
Looking back, I am
sort of proud of myself
in a way that
whenever it seemingly
came under attack,
that we knew that we had
to defend
the place that we loved being.
Perhaps the woods
are not the best place
to venture into and play games.
Definitely made
a lasting impact on my life.
After that incident,
it definitely left us thinking,
"What if it came back?"
It was one of
the last experiences
I had in Pennsylvania
before we moved to Florida,
and it really puts a cap
on the life up there,
and I was terrified.