Shadows of Fear

Beneath a starry night sky, Malcolm, a bearded bushman in a broad-brimmed hat, and Ben, an athletic backpacker, sit before an outback campfire when a shriek cuts through the cold night air like a scalpel. Megan, a young woman in a nightie, leaps onto Ben’s lap and tells of lizard outside their tent which changed shape. All she saw was it shadow, and Malcolm explains that aboriginals in these parts speak of shadow spirits that feed on fear, and only by confronting them do they lose their power. Ben has had enough of ghost stories and leads Megan to their tent. Once inside, Megan points to the tent wall where light from the campfire casts the shadow of an enormous goanna. The lizard has grown! Convinced the shadow makes it look bigger than it really is, Ben goes outside to prove it and appears to be devoured. Megan turns on an electric lamp, banishing the shadows from the tent with light. She clenches her eyes shut as she holds the lamp to her chest as giant reptilian claws tear through the tent wall behind her.