| The Tale of Bigfoot Ridge | |
|---|---|
| Season 6 , Episode 11 | |
| |
| Air date | April 24, 1999 |
| Written by | Randy Holland |
| Directed by | Lorette LeBlanc |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous The Tale of Oblivion |
Next The Tale of the Secret Admirer |
The Tale of Bigfoot Ridge is the eleventh episode of the Sixth season of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, as well as the Seventy-sixth episode in total.
Cast[]
Midnight Society Cast[]
- Daniel DeSanto as Tucker
- Kareem Blackwell as Quinn
- Elisha Cuthbert as Megan
- David Deveau as Andy
- Vanessa Lengies as Vange
Story Cast[]
- Brooke Nevin as Dani
- Sarah Edmondson as Gina/ The Umbra
- ? as Old Gina
- Liz MacRae as Mom/Marie
- Tyler Hall as Snowboard Kid
Special Guest Star[]
- Hayden Christensen as Kirk
Intro[]
That evening, while waiting for Tucker, Quinn and Andy are killing time playing a game of hot hands, trying to see how quick and fast they can slap each other hands. Megan complains about the furniture being so dusty. Vange says it's supposed to be because it's outside in the woods and relaxing plops down on the sofa. Megan fed up of waiting says that she is going to leave if Tucker doesn't get there soon.
Just after she says this Tucker comes speeding into the enter of the circle on a bike in a BMX riding suit and helmet. Tucker asks them if he is late, Megan annoyed says yes. This impresses them all except Megan, he tells them all he's training for a bike race. Megan tells him it's crazy to race on them, but he tells her it's fun. Quinn backs up Megan saying to him if you can call breaking bones to be fun. He tells them if you know what you are doing, you won't get hurt. Vange tries on Tucker's helmet and screams extreme sports rule!
Tucker sits down on the Storyteller's chair. Then says his story is about a group of kids who were into sports in a big way and were pretty good too. But the danger they face, has nothing to do with their sports. They have to face something much more horrible than any accident they ever had. Some say these guys have no fear, but they should.
Tucker throws in the campfire dust to make the fire more intense while he submits his story for approval for The Midnight Society. He calls his story "The Tale of Bigfoot Ridge" and begins the story.
Story[]
Tucker, tells the story. The story takes place one winter day, teenage siblings Kirk and Dani have spent the afternoon snowboarding. Then Dani says she is ready to check the backside trail for their missing friend Gina. Gina has been missing for some time now (Unspecified how long, but it can be guessed that it was at least a couple of weeks ago), after going off on a dangerous trail. Dani has felt guilt-ridden for not staying with her. Now she is ready to continue looking for her. However Kirk has given up hope asks her to let it go and move on.
Suddenly in a whistling sound, Gina appears close by. Dani is shocked to see her and walks over to her calling her, when she gets there she is gone. When they're packing to go home, Kirk tells her there is nothing more that can be done. She says they need to keep searching for her, knowing she is out there somewhere. Back at home, in Dani's room, she is relaxing listening to music. Then suddenly Gina appears in Dani's mirror calling for help saying she needs her. Dani is shocked and blurts out her name, but she's gone.
Kirk comes in and asks her what's going on. She tells him what just happened, he thinks she is losing it, feeling overwhelmed by guilt. She tells him she is positive she is alive, and they will find her. He tells her that it's not possible because no one can survive for so long without food, water and shelter. Then their mom Marie talks to her, their mom is very supportive and tries to help her understand that it wasn't her fault. Gina made her own choice and decided to go off on the dangerous trail. She feels so bad because she just can't figure out what possessed Gina to just take off and go onto the backside trail. Also she feels bad because she chickened out and and left and should have stayed with her the whole time.
Later on, Dani is watching old home movies of her, Kirk and Gina playing together in the snow. Suddenly Gina in the video begins speaking to her. She asks for her help and tells her she's at Bigfoot Ridge. Then Dani checks the trail off on the map and plans to go off and rescue her. She tells her brother that no one has searched there yet, because it's thirty miles away from where she left Gina. Kirk insists she stay home because a snowstorm will happen soon. Dani, decides to try and be quick about it and jumps onto the jet ski and travels to Bigfoot Ridge.
When Dani arrives there, at the bottom of the mountain Gina calls out to her. She is surprised to see her, then Gina takes off down the trail snowboarding. Gina follows her all the way up to an old run-down cabin at the top of a mountain. Kirk has driven over in the truck to drive them home. He tells her that only her tracks appeared on the way up, much to her her shock. They check inside the old cabin. Dani calls Gina by name but gets no answer. As they check around the cabin, they discover it's dark, dusty and full of spider webs. Suddenly in a corner is a skeleton in Ski Patrol suit which scares them.
Suddenly Gina is heard calling for Dani. She is thrilled to hear her and she approaches them, but Gina's eyes are glowing lime green and she's gleaming them right at them. This makes them feel tired, worn out and heavy. Also in glimpse they appear to age about fifty years. Then suddenly the lightning outside claps and the flash makes Gina vanish. Then afterwards their back to normal again.
Then the sound of an old woman calls for help and says where she is. They head over to the fireplace and on the sofa is an elderly woman in the same snowsuit as Gina. She reveals to them that she is the real Gina, and the other one is an evil ghost called an Umbra. She explains that the Umbra makes you see and hear things that aren't really there, and lures victims to the cabin. When she went off on the trail, she was lured to the cabin by a man in a Ski Patrol suit. They mentioned they saw a skeleton in Ski Patrol suit when they came in. She tells them there are bodies all over the cabin and she is next. Dani says she is leaving with them, she and Kirk help her up and begin to walk her out to take her home.
Then on their way out, The Umbra approaches them and gleams its glowing eyes at them. Gina warns them to not look into its eyes and they turn back and return to the fireplace. Gina explains that it can't stand light and preys on victims in darkness. Then she explains it's an ancient ghost, who survives by feeding off it's victims life forces. It keeps luring more victims with illusions like the ones Dani was given thinking Gina was asking for help. Also it's always waiting for it's victims to leaves the light.
The snowstorm outside has gotten severe and they're trapped in until the morning. Kirk then asked her when the Umbra looked like her. Gina reveals that the Umbra has stolen her soul. So it will soon and drain her of her lifeforce and she will die from old age. Then when it finds its next victim it will look like him or her. Feeling ashamed by how quickly she has aged, she asks Kirk not to look at her. Kirk still does, since he cannot begin to tell her how happy he is to see her. Then he tells her about how Dani never gave up hope finding her. Then they discover the batteries in the flashlight are dying and soon they will be out of firewood, so the Umbra will get them soon. Then Dani discovers the lights on the ceiling, but Kirk finds out the power to the cabin is out.
They head over to the fix the power generator, discovering a skeleton on the way who also tried the same thing once too. Kirk tries to get the power generator going, but the generator is really old-fashioned and worn out. As Kirk is trying to get the generator going, The Umbra is heading towards them gleaming it's eyes. Dani shines the flashlight at it and it vanishes. They cheer as the generator is running, and realize since it's so old they need to turn on the backup generator outside. Meanwhile, the fire is out and The Umbra closes in on Gina again, she screams for help. They run back in and shine the flashlight at it and it vanishes. Gina has now aged even more and will die soon.
Kirk decides to go outside and find the back up generator, but he needs the flashlight. Dani wants to stay by Gina's side and says she'll shield Gina's eyes with her Ski goggles. Kirk goes outside in the freezing snowstorm and loses the flashlight. However he still finds the generator; but it's locked. Meanwhile the fire is dying and The Umbra is back. It takes away the goggles and closes in on Dani as the fire goes out. Kirk finds the flashlight and can now see where the lock is. Then with all his might he bangs the frozen flashlight on the lock and it opens. The Umbra smiles at Dani in a sinister way. Then it transforms into Dani and laughs diabolically in victory. Then just in the nick of time, Kirk has gotten the generator going and the lights inside all turn on. Exposed to the immense light, The Umbra moans in agony, turns into a black shadow ,then obliterates and is destroyed in a big bursting cloud.
Kirk and Dani sigh in relief and hug, Gina is back to normal. She says she feels like she aged a million years and she is starving. The next morning they all leave they cabin and head for home. She thanks Dani for never giving up on her and they hug and rejoice feeling reunited at last.
Ending[]
Then Tucker ends his story, Megan is now smiling and in a more cheerful mood saying it was a great story. Vange still wearing the bike helmet says it was cool. Andy nods politely saying it was very good. Quinn gets up and walks over to the bike, and tells him it's pretty cool. Tucker appreciates the nice compliment. Then Quinn tells him that best thing about it, is when you have a bike you don't need to walk home.
Then quickly without permission, Quinn hops onto the bike and begins riding off. Tucker tells the others to put out the fire and quickly runs after him. Just as he calls out to him don't blame me if you fall, he can hear that up ahead he has crashed into something such as a tree or bush and cries out "Ouch!". Megan runs after them, Vange says I hope he has a hard head and runs up to them. Andy puts out the fire and leaves to catch up with the others.
- Sarah Edmondson, who portrayed Gina, later reappeared in the show again. She next appeared in the episode "The Tale of Many Faces" as Emma.
- Liz MacRae, who portrayed Mom, previously appeared two times in the original series. Her first appearance was in the episode "The Tale of the Hatching" as Mrs. Wilson. Then she made her second appearance in the episode "The Tale of the Fire Ghost" as Linda Preston.
- Hayden Christensen was also in the Goosebumps episode "Night of the Living Dummy III" as Zane O'Dell.
- Brooke Nevin also starred in "A Shocker in Shock Street" as Erin Wright, as well as being in Animorphs as Rachel.
