TREATMENT

 FEED IT

By
Jack Carlin

Psychological Horror / Short Film

 Content Warning: Strong Violence, Themes of Sexual Nature, Mildly Offensive Language

Act One

Colin sits in his car alone, exchanging conversation with his wife Siobhan on the phone on when to expect him home. After the call messages quickly come through from a gay hook-app named Bandit, from a profile named “Hornytwink01”. Colin’s profile remains blank with his visible name being “Discreetmeet89”, evidently proving his discretion. He takes off his wedding ring and disposes of it in his pocket.

The two meet as Colin drives to a deserted location for the two to have cautious sex without fear of being spotted. Soon after Colin realises that Hornytwink01 might know more about him than he’s comfortable with, making a throwaway remark of once seeing Colin with his wife.

Colin returns home to see his neighbour out in the garden, who nosily enquires of Colin's whereabouts to which Colin dismisses with a shifty response. He then quietly enters his home and crawls into bed next to Siobhan, who's unaware of his late night antics. That night Colin is haunted by nightmares of a forest, one that hosts a familiar malignant entity which tells him he needs to feed, as its voice is projected through the handful of Dead Boys scattered throughout the woods staring.

Act Two

Colin shoots awake in a frantic panic, splashing his face with water fully aware of what he has to do; he has to feed Hornytwink01 to the entity. His phone buzzes with an unknown number, that when he answers the voices of the Dead Boys overlap on the other end "Say it. Admit it. Do it. Feed it". This is not the first time this has happened, as Colin is behaving as though he knows what it is expect and what he has to do next.

Paranoia begins to creep in for Colin. As he comes to the kitchen he see's Siobhan as she speaks outside to the neighbour from last night. Siobhan renters the house saying nothing of any substance. Behind her through the kitchen window as she talks stands passer Byers who are at a stand still staring through the window straight at Colin. As Siobhan notices his disconnect, she turns and looks out the window - nothing but people walking by on their ordinary routine. Siobhan's frustration begins to intensify with Colin. 

Nothing is as it seems  However, it’s never as it seems, as the entity’s hunger manifests hallucinogenic paranoia within Colin making him believe he is seeing the boy in places he never is. He knows what he has to do to make the hallucinations come to end, to stop them before Siobhan finds out; it’s to meet up with Hornytwink01 once again and take him to the isolated forest where the snarling creature lives within, hungry for new flesh.

Colin excuses himself from the house and leaves to pick up Hornytwink01, not without Siobhan detecting Colin’s strange behaviour once again as if to be noticing a pattern. As Colin leaves Siobhan admits to activating a tracker on his phone, and it is here when she begins to follow him.

Act Three

Colin meets up with Hornytwink01 who is unaware of his deadly intentions. As he takes the boy to the entrance of the isolated forest, he begins to suspect something strange when Colin leaves to urinate and has yet to return. When Hornytwink01 gets out of the car to investigate he is clobbered with a hammer and dragged into the forest area, deep enough to not be seen from the entrance.

As Colin props his limp body up against a tree he begins to swing the hammer at Hornytwink01’s knees, ensuring he can’t run. Colin cries out to the darkness within the trees, alerting Hornytwink01 with the frantic sound of snapping branches and snarling screeches - the creature is coming.

Colin exits the treets, crying over what he’s done but knowing it’s the sacrifice he has to make to ensure his discretion. Hornytwink01 scrambles to get out of the trees to safety before he is dragged in; after a few seconds of screaming ending with a crunch the woods are silent.

As Colin turns to make it back to the car Siobhan is there, watching, horrified. She grills him on everything he's done, who he is and who he’s been hiding from her, exposing everything about him he’s been hiding from Siobhan and everyone for so long. Colin is left with a haunting decision - does he have done onto Siobhan like the rest of the boys? Beaten and left to be savaged by the beast within? Or does he let her live, and face the consequences of his new reality by finally facing everything he’s been suppressing all these years.

We are left with the final moments of Colin pulling up the forest when it's light; different day. The forest no longer looks menacing like it did before. It’s quiet and almost peaceful. He gets out and sits on his car and stares into the trees. Colin smiles.