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- [Narrator] It's a small comfort that we're not alone
in our fear of the dark or even of our own shadows.
Wherever we go, a small bit of darkness follows us.
Whether it's a natural effect of light
or something more sinister remains uncertain.
This October, on Friday the 13th,
from an executive producer of The Walking Dead
and an executive producer of The X-Files
comes six terrifying tales based on
the podcast phenomenon, Lore.
Until then, we offer you this short film
inspired by the series.
- The worlds of shadow and light
can be very frightening for children.
(thunder rumbling)
I'm Dr. Michelle Golland, and I'm a clinical psychologist.
We all have a shadow.
We have dark parts, we have aggression, we have impulses
that can hurt people.
- [Narrator] Carl Jung referred to the shadow
as the darker parts of ourselves.
The part we keep safely hidden by our conscience mind.
But for some, the shadow is an all-together
real embodiment of evil.
One that goes by many names.
- I think when we talk about shadow and shadow people,
we're inherently talking about psychology and our soul.
A spiritual sense that there is something
beyond the physical realm.
- [Narrator] An obsession with the shadow realm
is what fueled the depraved desires
of 15th century nobleman, Gilles de Rais,
who lured little children to an unthinkable doom
behind the walls of his castle and the French countryside.
An avowed fan of de Rais' perverted handiwork,
Edward Paisnel, the Beast of Jersey,
terrorized the Isle of Wight from the early 1960s
until his capture in 1971.
Donning a rubber mask, Paisnel broke into homes
to attack 13 women and children
as they lay innocently sleeping.
It is the echoes of haunting stories like these
that inspired the deadly myth of the Slenderman,
a tall figure who is said to reach through computers
to beckon his victims out of the safety of their homes
and into the darkness of the woods.
- It's a vanishing story and who hasn't wanted to vanish?
But then also, how scary if you're taken.
- [Narrator] His choice of attire is appropriately
the dark suit and tie favored by undertakers.
Though unlike his contemporaries, to look into his face
is to stare into a pale, featureless void
that drives survivors to the brink of insanity.
But can these shadow people really be
the physical embodiment of evil from the world beyond?
Or are they just a story we tell ourselves
to cope with the darkness that lives within us all?
- We develop shadows from the time we're born.
And it's a defense system.
The shadow people are the embodiment
of these defenses that we have.
- [Narrator] Our innermost fears and twisted curiosities,
it seems, will arrive at one of two conclusions.
We are the leery prey of the shadows
or we stalk the prey with them.