Kinderfänger (episode)

Following the music leads to DEATH.

***Kinderfänger,*** also known as *"Piper's Song"*, is the fourth episode of *Crypt Fables* and the fourth episode overall. It is directed by Cristopher Alender, written by Adam Fidler, and released by Crypt TV. It stars Winter Obidos, Jake Getman, Mary Newsome, and Luke Persiani.

The film was released on October 17th, 2017, on Crypt TV's Facebook page and YouTube channel. It was later compiled as the fourth episode of the Crypt Fables series.

On October 12th, 2020, nearly three years after the release of the original short film, it was announced that a ten-episode television series would be released on Facebook Watch on October 30th, 2020.

## Summary

After many town children go missing, a deaf child finds them under the spell song of the Kinderfänger. Can she find a way to break the curse and return them to their parents?

## Plot

The short opens with a shot of bony black claws playing an ominous black pipe. As it plays, wisps of smoke slither out of the holes of the pipe, and there are flashes of adults being attacked by an unknown force.

The film then cuts to a poster of a missing boy named Max, with several other missing children pictured on the bottom. Children have been going missing in a desert town, and the adults have amassed a search party to find them. Among them is Jordan, Max's deaf sister and presumably the only child left in the entire town. Jordan is spacing out, walking around the landscape with the other adults when her mother puts her hand on her shoulder. Her mother signs to Jordan that she had been calling her and she needs to put in her hearing aid. As Jordan does so, her mother signs that she needs her here, and that she can't lose Jordan, too. Jordan signs an apology and promises her mother that they will find Max.

Jordan and her mother rejoin the group and go around a bend, where Jordan sees her brother Max. However, when an adult walks past him, he is gone. Jordan then begins to hear a strange flute song, and as she gets on her knees for a moment, she sees wisps of black smoke coming towards her. Jordan's mother then turns around and sees that Jordan has disappeared. She becomes frantic, and the adults frantically begin to call for Jordan in hopes she still has her hearing aid in and has a chance of hearing them. Jordan goes through the cave, and she continues to hear a faint pipe song. As she comes through the other end of the cave, she sees all the missing children -- Max included -- standing in a circle around a large cloud of black smoke.

The smoke suddenly swirls into an upwards cloud, eventually clearing to reveal a tall, black skeleton playing a strange pipe. Jordan realizes that the pipe is controlling the children, and she goes up to stand by her brother. The monster notices her standing there, and starts to play its pipe towards her, narrowing its eyes as Jordan shows no reaction to its song. Jordan then removes her hearing aid from her ear and tosses it on the ground, which serves to agitate the skeleton, before stepping on it and destroying it. This only angers the monster further, and it roars loudly as Jordan grabs Max and they run for the cave. The siblings stop in the cave to catch their breath, only to see the other children running past them. The search party sees the missing children running out of the cave and goes to them, overjoyed that their children have returned to them. Max then speaks for the first time, and says "Oh, no."

Outside, the children viciously attack the search party, ripping them up and eating their flesh. As the siblings watch in horror, the monster appears behind them, and roars once more as the episode cuts to black.

## Cast

 Max and Jordan's Mother
 The Kinderfänger
* Avery McGeary
* Hudson Kinley
* Isaiah Morgan
* Jonathan Wilson
* Natalee Tebbit
* Mason Moghimi
* Presley Reese
 Search Party
* Daniel Drabinsky
* David Sperry
* Jim Coyle
* John Hoffman
* Kai Klose
* Mario Medellin
* Natasha Bickle
* Sarah Moore
* Tim Fisher

## Trivia

* Before officially becoming part of the Crypt Monster Universe, the short was released as part of the *Crypt Fables* webseries. Despite being released far earlier than the other episodes in the series, it is categorized as the fourth episode in the series.

## References

1. ↑ Crypt TV. "Kinderfänger | Following the MUSIC leads to DEATH.... | By Crypt TV." Facebook, Crypt TV; October 17th, 2017.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Crypt TV. "Kinderfänger | "Piper's Song" | Crypt TV Monster Universe | Short Film." YouTube, Crypt TV; October 17th, 2017.
3. ↑ Merrett, Robyn. "The Haunting of Bly Manor and 11 More Horror Series to Binge (If You Dare)." People; October 12th, 2020.