| The Tale of the Hunted | |
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| Season 6 , Episode 7 | |
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| Air date | March 27, 1999 |
| Written by | Gaylen James |
| Directed by | Lorette LeBlanc |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous The Tale of Jake the Snake |
Next The Tale of the Wisdom Glass |
The Tale of the Hunted is the Seventh episode of the Sixth Season of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, as well as the Seventy-Second episode in total.
Cast[]
Midnight Society Cast[]
- David Deveau as Andy
- Daniel DeSanto as Tucker
- Kareem Blackwell as Quinn
- Elisha Cuthbert as Megan
- Vanessa Lengies as Vange
Story Cast[]
- Charlotte Sullivan as Diana
- Jennifer Bertram as Laura
- Noah Klar as Gar
- Larry Day as Grant
- James Rae as Hank
Intro[]
The episode begins with Andy sitting alone, staring at the fire thoughtfully. First Tucker comes in saying that he beat them all there. Vange is happy to see that he has already gotten the campfire going. Megan asks him why he didn't want for the rest of them. He looks to her very seriously, saying that he just felt like coming up alone tonight. Realizing something is bothering him, Megan asks him if he is all right and if anything is wrong. Andy explains that the previous weekend, his family had a big cookout, and were playing badminton when the birdie got stuck very high up in a very tall tree. Hearing this, Quinn at first thinks getting the badminton bird stuck in the tree is a joke. So none of his friend can still understand why he is upset. Until Andy explains that he took his slingshot and knocked it out. His brother thought that the feat was purely luck. When a bird flew into a tree, his brother, still skeptical, asked him to shoot that out, so he did, not believing he would actually hit it. But he did, and successfully hit it, killing it. Andy was so disturbed that he thought of a story. He muses about how things are born and things die on their own, but if you decide to take nature in our own hands, then you had better be ready for the outcome. He proceeds to tell the Midnight Society, entitling it, "The Tale Of The Hunted".
Story[]
Andy tells the story, the Story begins with a girl about fifteen years old, named Diana, in the kitchen of a small rural home, taking inventory of camping supplies. At the sound of a car horn, Diana walks out to greet the newcomers, Her father, Hank, her father's friend, and Gar, whom she seems to have a secret crush on. Diana's father reminds her that she will be accompanying himself, Hank, and Gar on their next camping trip. Diana seems a little nervous about this, and seems unnerved by the dead wolf in the back of the car, which Hank and her father note is not The Blaze, a legendary wolf, which hunters have been after for years, and it always seems to get away.
The camera cuts to Diana sitting on the bus with her best friends, Laura, who is horrified by the idea of hunting. Gar does not understand this, protesting that the killing process was quick and painless. Laura argues that "They wouldn't think that if it was happening to them", foreshadowing future events in the episode.
That night, Diana wakes up to hear panting and whining of a dog or wolf creature, and goes downstairs to investigate. The first window, she doesn't notice anything, but the second the image of a barking, snarling wolf creature with glowing pale blue eyes faces her. Terrified, Diana screams and drops the blinds and wakes her father, who comforts her and sends her back to bed, not before checking out the window. He sees nothing except for a vicious claw mark in the window. He chooses to ignore this.
The next day, Gar is out showing Diana some hunting and tracking tips. Suddenly Laura comes out from behind a tree, startling them. Gar expresses his angered concern by telling her that it isn't funny to sneak up on hunters in the woods. Since he very well could have been holding his rifle. Therefore he could have mistakenly shot her. She scoffs it off as if to say "Yeah right! As if you would really shot me!". Gar stalks off and Laura gives Diana a beautiful charm handmade by Native Americans from a local tribe, a wolf perched on a man-in-the moon face.
She tells Diana that Native Americans believe that wolves have ancient mystical powers. Unlike any other creature. Hearing this Diana asks Laura if she believes it. She replies saying that the Native Americans respect wolves, and believes that they should too. As Diana examines the charm, the face's eyes glow pale blue and becomes more wolf-like. A second later, it returns to normal. Laura asks about Diana's feelings about hunting. Diana is uncertain: She doesn't think it's wrong, she doesn't want to let her father down. Most of all she doesn't want to let Gar down either (hoping to impress him). The two girls then talk about something else.
That night, Diana hears wolf howls outside her room. She gets up to investigate, and sees several eyes wolfish eyes staring at her in the darkness. Diana rushes back to her bed while her father scares them off. Later that night, Diana has a nightmare. In the nightmare, she keeps hearing voices of things that her friends said to her before. Also she hears herself saying that she didn't want to let her dad down. Then she sees the blaze glaring its pale blue eyes at her. She gets up and her eyes begin to glow as well. Then she opens her window, a little later a wolf jumps through the window and attacks her in the bed. She wakes up screaming. At first she shakes it off thinking it was just a nightmare. Then as she reaches for her glass of water, she finds a claw mark on her arm.
That morning, Diana gets out of bed to discover she is a wolf. Shocked, horrified, and very confused, Diana rushes through the house willy-nilly, knocking over several items and leaving the house (Via doggy door) an utter mess. Gar, Hank, and Diana's father do not recognize her. Gar runs into the house, her father leaps into the car, and Hank nearly whacks her with a club. Terrified, Diana rushes into the woods, jumping when she hears a gunshot.
Meanwhile, Gar reports to Hank and Diana's Father that "The Wolf" (Who is Diana) was definitely in the house. As they are unable to find Diana, they assume that Diana was scared off by "The Wolf". They rush into the woods, desperate to find Diana, but do not have much luck. Her father goes back to see if she took the road. Meanwhile, Diana crosses a road and nearly gets hit by a car.
Laura sees Diana's father and asks where Diana is. Diana's dad tells her that a wolf was in the house and it chased Diana into the woods. (Though in reality Diana IS the wolf and they chased her into the woods) Laura is alarmed by this. Diana's father gets into the car, muttering that "That beast is gonna pay" if his baby girl is hurt. Laura goes into the house to investigate, and finds the charm that she gave Diana the day before. She notices the charm now resembles Diana's face and she doesn't seem too surprised and almost like she expected it to happen.
Diana finds The Blaze, and he leads her back to the house. On the way though, they hear a yell for help from Gar, who stepped into a trap. Diana and The Blaze go up to him. Gar, not knowing it is Diana come to help him, is utterly terrified. Diana and the Blaze howl loudly to attract the attention of Hank and Diana's father, then run off. Diana's father does not believe Gar when he insists that the two wolves were trying to help him, and helps him to the van. Diana makes it back to the house, where Laura is waiting. Laura does not recognize Diana either, but is friendly and gets her some water. She tentatively pats Diana, and Diana relaxes-until she hears a loud car horn.
Diana's father gets out, furious, a large club held high over his head. Diana can only back away as her father nears her. Laura yells that she didn't do any harm, but her father insists that the wolf caused Diana's disappearance and that it was in his house, and definitely did harm. Diana continues backing away and catches her right paw in a trap. Gar gets out of the car to try and stop him, but he steps on his bad foot and falls over.
Just has her father is about to club her to death, Diana looks at him directly in the eye. Surprised, Diana's father puts down his club. Laura and Gar rush forward and free Diana. At this point, Laura uses the charm on Diana and she changes back, still in her night gown. Laura and Diana hug. Diana's father is utterly shocked to realize he could have hunted his own daughter. It can be assumed that Diana learned her lesson about how it really feels to be hunted, and Gar is happy that she has been found. Diana's Father gives her a hug, and Diana, still slightly confused, mumbles about how she was lost and now it's OK. Gar throws the club that nearly killed Diana into the brush, learning his lesson too and The Blaze watches from afar.
Ending[]
The scene cuts back to the campfire, where Andy explains that no one really knew what happened to Diana, and those that did forgot-or pretended to. Diana herself looked back on her experience as a dream, and that she never wanted to go hunting again. The Midnight Society ends their meeting, with one remarking that Andy's story was really good.
- Jennifer Bertram who portrayed Laura, is the younger sister of Laura Bertram who appeared in the episodes "The Tale of the Lonely Ghost" as Amanda Cameron and in "The Tale of the Mystical Mirror" as Laurel. Also the story mother in The Tale of Mr. Tophat and the Carnival of Doom.
- Jennifer Bertram and Daniel DeSanto appeared together in the Disney movie Phantom of the Megaplex.
- Larry Day who portrayed Grant also appeared in "The Tale of the Fire Ghost" as Dan Preston.
- James Rae who portrayed Hank also appeared in "The Tale of Badge" as Gwen's Dad.
- Charlotte Sullivan was also in the Goosebumps episode "You Can't Scare Me" as Courtney King.
- The wolves used in this show are not wolves, they are Malamute Huskies, easier to handle for animal trainers and safer to use in films and television because of their docile nature.
- The story has some parallels to the chaste Roman goddess of the hunt, Diana (also the main character's name). In a story in Ovid's Metamorphoses, a young hunter named Acteon saw Diana bathing in a forest spring. To punish him for seeing her naked, Diana turned him into a stag, and his fellow hunters and own hunting dogs caught him and tore him apart.
