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KINDLING

By Lucy BELGUM

Horror - Development 2025

The crew of a survival tv show are forced to fight for their lives as they are hunted by a terrifying creature deep in the Canadian wilderness.

- Year of production
- 2025
- Genres
- Horror, Environmental, Social issues
- Countries
- CANADA
- Languages
- ENGLISH-CANADA
- Director(s)
- Lucy BELGUM
- Producer(s)
- Jennifer PUN (Edge Entertainment), Rosalia CHILELLI (Edge Entertainment)
- Synopsis
- Independent producer Sam needs his next project to be a hit. He enlists social media star LACEY herself looking to break out of the influencer box she’s made for herself, to star in his new reality show: WOMAN VS WILD.
  
  The issue is they don’t really have a budget. To get the show off the ground, Sam has called in some favours. Eli, he’s cash strapped and a little desperate, which is why he took this lousy cam-op gig.
  
  Next, Sam enlists his other buddy Drew and his girlfriend Kirsten. Kirsten does sound and Drew handles the cam gear. Next, Sam finds filmmaking newbie Jess and offers her an unpaid PA gig.
  
  Finally, they need a guide, so, Sam hires Tawley. He's definitely an ass, but also the guy you want around when shit hits the fan. All together the forge deep into the Canadian wilderness.
  
  Things go off rails pretty much immediately. Lacey can’t pee in the woods, and is tentless. Sam and Tawley are bullying her. Eli and Tawley butt heads, taking pity on Lacey and helping her out.
  
  On the second morning, the crew realizes Lacey left to go pee one night and never came back. They search for, and quickly find her hoisted up into the canopy, impaled on a bough, body decapitating itself as they try to get her down. Huh.
  
  Sam forces the crew to keep filming the woods, hoping to catch whatever this is. They can’t carry her body, and at this point they’re closer to the end of their route than the end, so they decide to push forward.
  
  Drew reviewing Go-Pro footage sees something weird: a tree… with a face? Jess, whose wife is wiccan, says that looks like a Dryad…but the crew assures her that can’t be real. But things go from bad to worse. Kirsten busts her ankle, Tawley and Jess see the Dryad (turns out she was right), and they all learn that Sam knew people had died up here. The crew implodes, he loses control.
  
  The crew takes a moment to collect their thoughts. Tawley plans to escape. Eli looks around. Jess tells them what they’re dealing with. Sam goes off to record a final message for his kids, Drew keeping an eye on him. Eli notices some deer bowing to the treeline…and then he sees it.
  Things happen quick.. Sam flees. A Dryad rips Drew’s face off, crushes Kirsten’s chest. Eli barely survives when he bows to the Dryad, showing his obeisance. Then a second Dryad shows up and kills Tawley. Eli grabs Jes and the two flee into the woods.
  
  The two find Sam hiding near the car. A Dryad has implanted itself, dormant, in the middle of the lot. Eli draws the Dryad away, hobbling it with a bear trap. In that moment, the second Dryad appears—it grabs Jess. Using gas from the car, Sam sets both the Dryad and Jess aflame. Both die screaming as Sam jumps in the car and escapes, leaving Eli to haplessly chase after him.
  
  Soon, Sam’s gas runs out and his car stalls. The next morning, the car has been smashed, and blood stains the seats. Eli, meanwhile, stumbles out of the woods, onto a main road, and regains cellphone signal.