American Horror Stories – Feral

By: Kelly Kearney

On this week’s episode of the anthology series, a family of three head in the woods for a camping trip having no idea the deadly secret that lurks inside the forest. When their three-year-old son, Jacob, goes missing his parents spend almost two decades searching for answers until it leads them back to the woods for a deadly reveal that could be their last.

A Camping Trip Turns Into a Nightmare

When we first meet the Gantzs, the happy family of three are on the road towards their family camping trip. Jay Gantz (Aaron Tveit) is excited to teach their three-year-old son, Jacob (Colin Tandberg), all the skills he learned from his Boy Scouts’ days while Addy (Tiffany Dupont), the boy’s mother, is less enthused about sleeping in a tent, but overall, happy to be spending quality time with her family. When they arrive at their lakeside camping grounds Jay sets up the tents, including a smaller tent which he houses a portable toilet. Once everything is in place the three sit around the campfire cuddling and enjoying the peaceful setting. Everything is seemingly perfect; all except the person, or what might be a person, lurking beyond the trees. Addy tucks Jacob into his makeshift bed and her and her husband eventually fall asleep.

In the morning there is no sign of any intruders at their camp, and the mood is positive and exciting to tackle the day. First on the itinerary: a boy’s day fishing! Jay preps Jacob for a big day at the lake and even gives the boy his old Boy Scout compass on a chain and puts it around his neck. Addy agrees to stay behind and clean up their campsite and get ready for their fish dinner. After a quick bathroom break in the tent Addy spots a trail of blood and gore that starts at their campsite and leads her into the woods where she comes across a torn apart deer hanging in the tree. Where did that come from and who hoisted the carcass into the tree without her hearing them? Elsewhere, Jay and Jacob play a round of hide and seek as their make their way to the lake, but the precocious boy takes the hide part of the game too seriously because the minute Jay turns around his son is gone! Panic takes over and Jay starts to scream which in turn alerts Addy, who runs to her husband’s side to find out what is wrong. Hours and days go by, with search parties coming up empty. Jacob has vanished and there is no evidence of what happened to him. If the boy was attacked by a wild animal, then there would be blood and a body, but with nothing to go on except suspicions swirling around his father the case goes cold.

The Search Never Ends

Ten years later and, virtually no signs of Jacob or evidence to his whereabouts, the marriage between Jay and Addy is irrevocably broken. The couple divorces with Addy moving on from her presumed dead son, leaving Jay forever invested in finding their boy. Living in a rundown apartment with a scarlet M for murder hanging on him like a stench, life for Jay is bleak and depressing. One glance at his living conditions and it is pretty clear he never stopped looking for Jacob. The walls are covered with newspaper clippings, news articles, maps highlighting areas he has combed over with a fine-toothed comb and still not a clue what happened to the three-year-old. That is until a hunter named Birch (Blake Shields) knocks on his door with a possible lead. Birch’s trail cam spotted a child lurking in the woods and later he found the compass Jay gave Jacob the morning he went missing. Both clues reminded him of the missing boy the town was looking for a decade ago. Could this shadowy figure be Jacob or at least hold a clue to what happened to him? At first Jay assumes this is another scam, just like the many before who tried to milk money out of the grieving parents. Birch promises Jay this is different. In those woods, which are a part of Yellowstone’s National State Park, exists a population of pot growers fueled by Mexican cartel money. They own those woods that surround their grow farm, and they might know what happened to little Jacob. In fact, Birch isn’t entirely sure they didn’t take him for a bounty since they are known for kidnapping people to forcefully get what they want. Whatever they know, the hunter has in an in with them and if Jay wants an introduction it will cost him ten thousand dollars. At first Jay refuses because it sounds exactly what he assumed it would be, a scam, but Birch promises the photo and the growers are legit. Having run out of ideas and financially broke from years of searching, Jay is forced to ask his ex Addy for money to fund this rescue plan. Addy, who recently lost her job as a teacher when her ex was rumored to be a child murderer, doesn’t jump at the opportunity to pay for another one of Jay’s lost causes. After he shows her the compass, which is the best clue they have come across in years, Addy agrees to give him the money if she can tag along.

What lurks beyond the TREES?

When they former couple meets up with Birch, he tells them there was a possible sighting of their son in the aptly named area of the woods called “malvado,” which loosely translates to evil; a pretty good spoiler of what’s to come. While the three walk through the woods Jay mentions how long it has been since he has seen Addy and questions if she is still with the man who replaced him. Addy, with a bite in her tone, tells Jay she and boyfriend Rob broke up over a disagreement about having children. After the loss of Jacob, Addy has no desire to have more kids and Ron couldn’t live with that. As the exes argue over their past, the camera scrolls towards something moving in the background. Is it human or animal? It is hard to tell due to the fact they blend in with their woodsy surroundings, but Addy and Jay are oblivious to the possible stalkers.

As the three make their way to the meeting point with the growers, they stop at the Ranger’s station to check out the view and stock up on water. There they meet Ranger Stan Vogel (Cody Fern) who immediately gives off a suspicious vibe. It is clear that the Aussie Ranger doesn’t trust Birch and even less so when he hears who his two traveling companions are. He knows about their missing son because he was on duty the night Jacob went missing. He explains he saw what appeared to be a man-like creature who knocked him out and, in his daze, swears he saw the beast drag their boy into the woods. Birch, who jumps in to downplay the Aussie’s Bigfoot story, knows those woods and he never saw evidence of any two-legged beast. Stan corrects him on the Bigfoot accusation because he never explained what he saw, just that he did see something unexplained and terrifying.

Terrifying is an understatement! When the three head back into the woods for the last leg of their trek to the grow farm they stumble upon a gruesome scene that could prove Ranger Stan right. In a clearing they see dozens of bloody corpses littering the forest floor. The blood and gore prompts Birch to reveal the true reason for this meeting: Jay’s initial fear was accurate because this was all a set up! The photo was of Birch’s nephew and the compass he bought after seeing a news article discussing Jacob’s disappearance. The plan was to lure the desperate parents into the woods, rob them of the ten thousand dollars and hand them over to the pot growers so they can steal their credit cards and dispose of their bodies. Now it looks like someone, or something, killed the growers and that leaves Birch to take all the winnings from this scam for himself. Aiming his pistol Birch orders Jay to kneel for his execution. Jay refuses and Birch fires his gun anyway and it awakens one of the corpses behind him! The thing rips his jugular out with its teeth and Jay, who was grazed by the bullet, watches on in horror as Birch’s screams awaken the other bloody beasts who are not only human but pretending to be dead until they could hunt these three down! Luckily for Jay and Addy, the hungry cannibals are too busy picking Birch’s bones clean to chase after them, giving the duo a chance to make their way back to the Ranger Station; bloody bullet wound and all.

The Child King

When they arrive a terrified Stan worries if the killers could have followed them. He explains his story from earlier was never about Bigfoot but what Aussie’s refer to as “Yaoi,” which is a name for a human-like creature who has not evolved much further past their ape ancestors. He goes on to explain the entire National Park system has been used to contain these cannibalistic sub-humans; keeping their existence a secret and tourists and locals safe from being hunted by these Feral park dwellers. Nobody knows where The Ferals came from, but theories range from lost Confederate soldiers, inbred and off the grid land squatters, as well as Government MK Ultra type experiments run rampant with the locals who have escaped their gnashing teeth. The U.S. Government kept this a secret to quell the local panic and to keep the federal money flowing and the tourism profitable. He continues on with a story about the night Jacob went missing and how a group of trained military soldiers were a part of the search party, but they weren’t looking for their son. They were hunting The Ferals. Whenever someone falls victim to the park’s worst kept secret, the military swoops in to cull the Feral herd and that night was no different.

The truth about that night prompts Addy and Jay to make amends. Addy felt like Jay was to blame for Jacob’s disappearance and it resulted in both of their lives getting torched in the flames of suspicion. Before the couple can kiss and makeup, the unimaginable happens: The Ferals attack! They sub-humans launch themselves through the Ranger station’s windows and tear Stan to pieces, once again giving Addy and Jay ample time to make a run for it. Bleeding and hunted by a pack of cannibals, the couple doesn’t get far when they find themselves surrounded by the hungry man-beasts. Begging for their lives the circle of Ferals closes in on them and that’s when they see him – a young boy carried in on a throne of skulls and wearing a makeshift crown calls the group of Ferals to attention. Addy and Jay spot the tarnished compass around the boy’s neck and realize the child King is none other than their precious son Jacob (Ledger Fuller)! Tears fill their eyes with joy as they finally lay eyes on the child they lost ten years earlier. The happiness is short lived when one of the Ferals (Paul Duke) asks his King in their native tongue what they should do with his parents. Jacob, who is a far cry from the boy they lost, takes one look at the overwhelmed couple and says “Dinner,” serving up both of his parents to his hungry tribe. The episode closes to the sounds of Jacob’s new family hungrily devouring the old one.