I have been friends with Swedish fantasy artist and independent film-maker Richard Svensson for many years, and his diverse, prodigious output of amazing work has always delighted and mesmerized me – but never more so than now, courtesy of his brand-new short movie, If You Go Down The Woods Today. For it dramatizes one of the weirdest alien encounters ever reported in the annals of ufology, and which has long fascinated me.
The encounter in question, which took place during 1968 in West Virginia, USA, featured a truly unique entity that for reasons which will soon become obvious was subsequently dubbed Vegetable Man.
So, to put Richard's movie in context, here is what I wrote about the Vegetable Man incident quite a while ago in a published magazine article of mine documenting my personal choice of the 10 strangest alien entities ever reported, which I later uploaded onto my ShukerNature blog (and where you can read the full article here):
Never trust anyone whose body resembles the green, slender stalk of a plant, and who sucks out your blood through three 7-in-long fingers with needle-like tips and suction cups – that's what I always say! And Jennings Frederick would certainly agree, because he allegedly met just such a being while hunting one day in a West Virginia woodland during July 1968.
According to American paranormal researcher Brad Steiger, Frederick suddenly became aware of what he later described as "…a high-pitched jabbering, much like that of a recording running at exaggerated speed", yet which he could somehow understand, and which was informing him that it came in peace but needed medical assistance.
At the same moment, Frederick saw beside him the extraordinary quasi-botanical entity described above, with a semi-human face, long ears, yellow slanted eyes, and two stick-like arms. Before he had time to be surprised, however, he felt a pricking sensation in one of his hands, as if it had become entangled in some thorns - but when he looked, he discovered to his horror that the entity was draining blood from it, through its own fingers. Moreover, its eyes suddenly changed colour, becoming bright red and yielding a rotating, hypnotic effect that rendered its blood-sucking operation painless.
A minute later, Frederick's enforced transfusion was over, and his mesmerising recipient fled, bounding away rapidly up a hill, each leap covering a distance exceeding 25 ft. Unfortunately for Frederick, however, once the entity had disappeared, the pain in his hand reappeared. And as he set off back home, he heard a strange humming sound, which he believed to be the entity's craft, transporting it back from whence it had come.
Frederick was so disturbed by his grotesque experience that he did not speak about it for several months. Some researchers have speculated that it may be a hoax, but those who have spoken to him seemed convinced that his account, albeit highly unusual, is genuine.
Now, this surreal encounter is recreated with superb visual éclat in just 3.24 minutes –courtesy of Richard's beautifully-crafted live-action/animation movie short, If You Go Down The Woods Today. His evocation of Vegetable Man is a sinister study in macabre, preternatural potency, vibrant with ambivalent pathos and antipathy. Was the creature truly ailing, in need of medical assistance as it claimed to be, or was all of that merely a devious, artful pretence, a cunning ploy to deftly deflect away from this eeriest of alien entities' true intent – its vampirish desire to extract a sizeable sample of blood from its petrified human victim?
As Vegetable Man departs our world in its airborne craft, satisfied and satiated with human blood, it leaves the viewer with an almost palpable feeling of horror, of shock, that such an outlandish, phantasmagorical occurrence could ever take place. And indeed, we have only the word of sole eyewitness (and unwilling blood donor?) Jennings Frederick to vouch that it did. Then again, they do say that fact is often stranger than fiction, which if this sighting is indeed true, would certainly be the case here.
But don't take my word for it. A few days ago, Richard uploaded his mesmerizing mini-movie on YouTube, where you can view it here on his bluworm/The Lone Animator channel, together with many other fascinating films by him too (click here to access a full set of directly clickable thumbnails of all of his movies' videos presently viewable on YouTube).
So be sure to check out If You Go Down The Woods Today, and experience for yourself Richard's engrossing rendition of this thrilling but decidedly chilling incident.
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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