The Carriage

***The Carriage*** is a Canadian 1982 animated horror fantasy film directed by Noelle Bradford and written by Bradford and Victor Yearts. The film follows two kids who unleash a set of horrific monsters from a supernatural horse carriage.

## Plot

In a village somewhere in England in 1929, a young boy gets trapped in a park while walking his dog, and soon after is approached by a horse carriage, from which a woman emerges, she goes to the boy, and offers some help to the boy, who accepts, but before anything can happen, the woman's face splits in half to reveal a large bear like creature, which proceeds to "eat" the boy, bringing them to another world known as the carriage world.

After an uncertain amount of time has passed, we are brought to a small house, where we are introduced to one of our two protagonists, Jacob, a teenager who is currently sleeping in the attic, he awakes and heads downstairs to the kitchen of his house, his two parents are down there, cooking breakfast. Jacob's father calls him over, he gives him the task of going out to get some vegetables for that day's dinner.

Jacob heads out to a local farmers market to get some of the said items, while there, he meets a close friend of his who is working a stall, her name is Serena, despite being close friends, they haven't seen each other in quite a while. Jacob asks what's been going on in her life, nothing much has seemed to have happened since they last met, except that her brother mysteriously disappeared a few days ago while walking their dog, she adds they haven't been able to find him. Jacob shares some remorse for her, followed by buying some of the things she has to offer.

As Jacob walks home, he accidentally bumps into a boy around his age, Jacob apologizes, but the other boy pulls out a knife and threatens him, the boy then sees his bag of vegetables, but Jacob runs off before the boy can do an exchange, a chase ensues, during it, Jacob falls down, and the boy manages to pick up the bag and run off, Jacob gets up, but the boy has already gotten away. He returns home vegetableless, his father is incredibly furious at Jacob at first, but he explains himself, and his father now becomes only disappointed. His father heads to a nearby drawer and pulls out a knife and hands it to Jacob, telling him to use it as a weapon in case this happens again, Jacob declines at first, but he is urged to keep it.

Back to the thief, he is now in a secluded area, the abandoned park from the beginning, he looks in the bag, but is underwhelmed when it turns out to be just vegetables, annoyed at this, he gets up and heads off to look for a exit, he comes across a gate, it seems to be locked. As they look around for another route to take, more sounds of rustling emerge. The carriage reappears, thinking it may be some guards, the thief runs away from the carriage and he seems to have lost it. But then he trips on what seems to be a root, but he can't get up. He looks down, and sees a tree root attached to his leg, growing longer and longer. In a short amount of time, his body is engulfed in roots, he is then dragged into the ground into the carriage world.

Back to Jacob, he tries to sleep, but the shame he feels for the vegetables keeps him awake, a knock is heard on the door, Jacob ignores it, but it keeps going on. He gets up and heads down to the front door and opens it, it's Serena, he lets her in, wanting her to be quiet as to not wake his parents. Serena is brought into the house's living room, she finds a record player and decides to ask Jacob for a record to put, he objects to her request, not wanting to wake up his parents. Serena finds a record and puts it on, albeit on a low volume.

She takes a seat on the living room's couch. She ask Jacob why he's awake at this time in the first place, he explains what happen with the vegetables and Serena becomes shocked, she says she would of gladly replaced the stolen food, Jacob then asks her if she wants to go outside, as he's afraid he may wake his parents, Serena decides to go along with it. They head outside, it's pitch black outside, but they don't mind it. They walk around town for a bit, walking by dark houses and closed shops, they stop by a bench, Jacob asks Serena about her brother, wanting to know more about what happened.

She doesn't want to, not wanting to spoil the night with her personal life. He apologizes for asking. They walk around town more. Serena wants to go home, but she lives quite far away, they take the trip anyway, but quickly become exhausted, as they stop to take a breather, they just so happen to be by the park. Jacob thinks it could be a shortcut to Serena's house, they enter the park. They walk across it's dirt paths, a good few steps in, Serena trips and falls down on the ground.

He pulls her up, and when they get back to walking, they see something very unusual. The horse carriage has seemingly spawned out of thin air. A confused Jacob runs over to the coachman of the carriage, he calls out to him, but the coach acts like Jacob doesn't exist. Back to Serena, the carriage doors open, and Serena's missing brother walks out of it. Now back to Jacob again, he keeps on calling out to the coachman, and gets very frustrated to the point where he gets up and tries to pull the coachman off the carriage, but when he puts his hands on the coachman, he immediately takes them off in pain, his hands burned from even touching him.

Jacob falls to the ground, he then puts his eyes on Serena, who is approaching her brother. Jacob, knowing something is up, calls out to her, but she doesn't respond. Her brother then opens his mouth, after which his tongue whips out of his mouth and wraps itself around Serena's neck, dragging her into the carriage. Jacob immediately gets up and runs after the two, but Serena has already been put in the carriage. Jacob gets to the doors of the carriage and is ready to get in but, he's taken aback by the inside. It's a tunnel, but Jacob gets back to his senses and crawls inside the tunnel.

The tunnel at first feels like velvet but soon it starts to become fleshy and soft, he seems to be entering another world. He eventually finds an exit, which is on the side of a hill. He jumps out and makes a rather bad landing, he looks back at the hill, the hole has now closed up. The world he is in now seems to be like earth, but different. The sky is pink, the trees have dark red leaves and it is oddly warm. Jacob walks around this area for a while until he comes across a creature, it looks like a normal quadruped mammal, but it's head is like a elephants, with a trunk with a elongated tip. When this creature sees Jacob, they spit an orange fluid from their trunk. Jacob dodges the attack, and as the fluid hits the ground, it immediately dissolves the ground it's on.

Back to Serena, she is unconscious and is being dragged by the neck by the monster that posed as her brother, she is brought to a temple. Inside the temple is a large horned beast, standing on an alter in a state of hibernation, only awaking for the most important events. This is Lucifer themself. When Serena is brought to them, they open their eyes, they are a brownish orange. They gaze their eyes towards Serena, who is on the floor, still unconscious, she then however awakes, confused at where she is. She is horrified by the sight of Lucifer, she gets up and looks around the temple, it is white and covered in bones of past victims. Lucifer declares that Serena is perfect for their "plans". The monster that was posing as Serena's brother starts to shed it's skin, uncovering it's true self, they look like a black-green, molar shaped creature. Serena is then cast into a white cotton like cocoon by Lucifer.

Back to Jacob, still exploring the forests of the new world he's in. He comes across a lake, it has green water with eel like creatures swimming around. As he looks into the waters, some trees in the background start to move, they are monsters that are camouflaged as the trees of this world. They creep up towards Jacob but as they are ready to attack him, he turns around and immediately avoids their attack. One of the monsters falls into the lake, this scares off the rest of the monsters as they run off into the depths of the forests of this world. Jacob, like the monsters, runs off into the depths of the forest, he keeps at it until he comes across a cave, which he retreats into. He decides to stay inside it for the rest of the day.

At the temple, inside the cocoon, we go into Serena's subconscious thoughts, represented by a lush field on which she sits upon, compared to the carriage world, the skies are clear and the grass is green, all is nice, but she feels a sense of loneliness and danger, she was once with another person, but now they're gone. Maybe soon they'll visit her, but it doesn't seem likely.

As Jacob sleeps within the cave, within the ground snake like creature wriggle under the ground and go near him. Two burst out of the ground, and approach Jacob, as they get ready to attack, they make a lot of noise, which wakes Jacob. They charge at him, but Jacob gets up in time for them to miss, in a bout of fright, he runs out of the cave, going through the depths of the forests and eventually falling down from exhaustion. As he starts to sleep again, two of the elephant like creatures from when Jacob first entered this world emerge from the darkness. They sniff him a couple of times, a molar creature from earlier then arrive, which scares off the elephants, the molar whips out it's tongue around Jacob's neck and starts to drag him to wherever it's planning to go. Jacob of course wakes up, and tries to get the tongue off his neck, but it's no use.

After a while of being dragged around the forest, he is finally at the molar's destination, the temple. He is thrown inside, where Lucifer has been waiting. Jacob is picked up telepathically by Lucifer and is asked who he is. Jacob doesn't say a word but Lucifer expected this. They tell Jacob his full name, how many family members he has, his date of birth and his year of death, which is the current year. They ask him how he got here, Jacob, completely shaken by the details Lucifer knows, just says that he and his friend, Serena, were attacked by some thing and that he was just transported here. Lucifer gives a grim smirk, they drop Jacob to the ground and as he tries to get back up, the ground starts to turn liquidus, and he sinks down into it, it then becomes solid after Jacob is completely submerged. Jacob floats around in the substance he's in, sinking gradually. He eventually blacks out.

A while later, he wakes up. He's in a hut, laying on a table. He sits up and looks around the hut, it's empty. He gets off the table and walks outside. He's in a village, other huts surround the one he's walked out of, beyond the huts are a forest, and beyond those are large, jagged looking mountains. Many creatures roam the village, from small grey skinned dwarfs to tall, thin humanoid canine creatures. Astounded by this sight, one of these dwarfs comes over to Jacob and introduces themselves. They are the one who put Jacob in the hut he woke up in, he asks him to go inside the hut with him. Inside, the dwarf tells more about himself, his name is Ailill, and they work as a blacksmith and medic, and explains that he found Jacob in the forest, unconscious.

Jacob asks where he is, Ailill explains, he's in what could be only be described the underworld of the "Carriageworld", as Ailill calls it. He explains further, the carriage that Jacob and Serena encountered is nothing more then a portal to the world, and that it appears in all possible worlds, even in different forms. Ailill's ancestors were originally from another world, but they came to the Carriageworld from one of the many portals that has been set up for them. They were caught and banished by Lucifer into the world we are in now. Jacob mentions that he had a friend with him when he arrived, Ailill is surprised by this, and asks why it's only him who's here. Jacob says that he lost them when he arrived. Ailill feels like there is a reason why. He says they have to take a little trip.

Jacob and Ailill leave the village and travel into the forest, during their travel, Jacob notices a green, bipedal insect like creature flying in the skies. Ailill points out that they're demons created by Lucifer, sent into the world to act as the underworld's natural predator to the creatures that were banished here. They eventually arrive at another temple, similar to Lucifer's.

They walk inside, it's dark and infested with moss, in the middle of this temple is a large stone chair. Sitting in it is a human like being, Ailill says he and everyone else calls it "The Omniscient". This being looks upon the two. They say hello to Ailill, and then ask who the thing next to him is. Ailill introduces Jacob to the Omniscient, they ask why the two came, Ailill lets Jacob explain. He tells the Omniscient about everything that has happened so far.

***More coming soon!***