1) Tom has a bad day at school where he is bullied by David. While walking in the nearby woods to clear his head, he loses track of time and becomes lost. 2) Night falls and Tom's phone is broken, leaving him unable to call for help. He hears strange noises and encounters a masked man. 3) The man chases Tom, who falls and breaks his leg. When Tom asks for help, the man stabs and kills him, claiming to be seeking revenge for his mother's death years ago. 4) The story ends with Tom's phone ringing unanswered as his mother calls, unaware of her son's fate in the dark woods.

1. “FORBIDDEN FOREST”
By
Bradley McGonigle
PARSONAGE BARN LN,
RINGWOOD BH24 1SE
01425 475000

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FADE IN:
SCENE 1: INT: SCHOOL CLASSROOM - AFTERNOON
INT: location #1
The bell rings to signal the end of the school day
for Tom, as he is packing up his school stuff into
his bag he plugs in his headphones and walks out
of his classroom. We can see from his face that he
is happy to be leaving sixth form.
Cuts to;
SCENE 2: EXT: SCHOOL GATE - AFTERNOON
We see Tom as he is approaching the school gate to
leave, he is still listening to his music and is
still alone. As he approaches he sees that there
is someone waiting by the gate.
As he is close to the gate it becomes clear to Tom
that the person standing near it is David who is
also a student at the school that has been bullying
a lot of people in the school with Tom being one of
them. Tom doesn’t want to approach David because he
knows that he will say something mean but he has to
as this was the only way out of school. Tom looks
up at David shortly before looking back down at the
floor.
David
Who are you looking at?
Tom
Sorry I’m not looking at anything
I’m just trying to leave school.
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3. 3
As Tom is walking past, David sticks out his leg
and trips over Tom and he stumbles and falls to the
ground. David starts laughing at Tom whilst he is
on the floor but Tom looks very embarrassed and
upset because he hadn’t had a good day and he is
fed up of David bullying him. Tom gets up and walks
off.
Cuts to;
SCENE 3: EXT: NEAR SCHOOL - AFTERNOON
Tom is still walking in a location not by the
school and he is still listening to his music, he
pulls out his phone and he realises that his phone
is damaged from where David had tripped him over.
It still works however it is on the brink of
breaking and it doesn’t look like it would work
for long. Tom calls his mum to explain what
happened.
Tom (on the phone)
Hi mum I won’t be coming straight home from school
because I have not had a great day and I’m going
for a walk before dinner.
There is a pause between Tom speaking and his mum
replying as we can’t hear what she is saying to
him.
Tom (on the phone)
I haven’t had the best of days because David has
been bullying me again, he tripped me over when I
was walking out the gate.
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4. 4
Toms mum replies but we don’t hear what she says to
him and then he hangs up the phone, Tom still
looks upset but he plugs back in his headphones
and continues walking.
Cuts to;
SCENE 4: EXT: OUTSIDE WOODS - AFTERNOON
After walking for a while Tom stumbles upon a
relatively large forest area that intrigues him
so he decides he will walk round it for a little
bit before going home to see his mum. He gets his
phone out to send a text to his mum.
Tom (texting)
Will be home in about an hour mum.
He puts his phone away and approaches the woods.
SCENE 5: EXT: ENTRANCE TO THE WOODS – AFTERNOON
Tom walks towards the entrance and sees a big
sign on the side of the walkway, the sign says
“Jubilee gardens” the name of the forest area.
Further down the sign it says “Police warning, DO
NOT ENTER”.
Tom looks at the large sign for a few seconds
contemplating whether he should go into the area.
He looks around to see if there are any dangers to
him and doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary
so he carries on walking into the forest area
ignoring the police warning.
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5. 5
Cuts to;
SCENE 6 EXT: INSIDE WOODS (4 hours later)-
EVENING
Tom is walking through the forest with an unhappy
look on his face, it is dark around him and he
looks at his watch which reads “20:00”.
Tom (under his breath)
Jesus its 8 already.
Tom gets out his phone from his front right
pocket to see if it is working but he discovers
that it is broken when he tries to send a message
but it fails
Tom (sighing)
For god’s sake
Tom puts his phone back into his phone and keeps
looking around. At this time he is starting to
panic.
Cuts to;
SCENE 7 EXT: BENCH - EVENING
In an opening in the forest that Tom has been
walking around in he spots a small bench next to
some bushes.
When Tom first sees the bench he sighs in relief as
he has been walking round for a long time and wants
to sit down.
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6. 6
Tom approaches the bench and sits down which brings
an expression of relief onto his face. He reaches
into his school bag and get out a bag of crisps
that he had left from his lunch and starts eating.
The scene cuts to Tom an hour later.
Tom is lying down on the bench that he has been on
for a while. He is starting to get tired and
scared.
As he is closing his eyes he starts to hear a
rustling noise coming from the bush that is behind
him. He sits up in relief as he thinks someone is
there who will be able to help him but when he
turns round he sees nothing.
Tom
Excuse me? Hello?
There is no reply so Tom lies back down.
Tom suddenly hears the noise again coming from the
same area so he gets up off the bench and despite
his fear goes towards the noise to look for some
help.
Cuts to;
SCENE 8 EXT: FOOTPATH IN THE FOREST – EVENING
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7. 7
Near the bench where Tom has been sitting there is
a parting between the trees that almost looks like
an alleyway in the forest.
Tom hears the noise from near here and he pokes
his head round the corner.
Tom
Who’s there?
As Tom is speaking a scary looking masked man
appears round the corner down the other side of
the path and walks towards Tom
Tom
Hi can you please help me?
The man starts sprinting at Tom which causes him
to start running away because he doesn’t know the
man.
Cuts to;
SCENE 9 EXT: TREE STUMP - EVENING
Whilst Tom is running away as fast as he can
from the mysterious looking man he runs into a
tree stump and breaks his leg. Tom is now
screaming in pain whilst the man is now no
longer running but walking towards Tom whilst
he is on the ground.
Tom (In pain)
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8. 8
What’s going on man? Is this David pranking me?
The man reaches into one of his pockets and pulls
out a long sharp knife.
Tom
Please don’t I’ve done nothing wrong.
Masked man
Someone decided to rob and kill my mother years
back. Now I’m just getting the revenge that she
deserves.
The man stabs Tom as the screen fades to
black.
Cuts to;
SCENE 10 EXT: WOODS - EVENING
The screen is fading to black in and out and the
masked man is dragging Tom’s dead body to get rid
of it
Cuts to;
SCENE 11 EXT: PHONE - EVENING
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9. 9
Toms phone is on the floor where he got stabbed and
it has just started to work again.
The phone rings and it is his mum calling but it
doesn’t get answered.
THE END
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