Howlingween 5: Trip Along

Synopsis

In Howlingween 4: Beastly Mist, the Forran family sees off the now-mortal Wolf lead a pack of wolves into a Montana forest, from whence the story began in 1891. The series of four feature screenplays has come full circle: a seemingly perfect ending to the project. But with life, expect the unexpected. To my surprise, I wrote Howlingween 5: Trip Along. Here are the story's highlights …

After seeing off a now-mortal Wolf happily join a pack of wolves, the Forran family is determined to embark on a road trip from Montana to Florida, from where the family will sail to Hawaii, then catch a plane back to Sydney. From Montana to home, Sandra and Thomas's only wish is to enjoy holidaying with their daughters Belle and Tracy.

Thomas first trades-in the motor home for a new one. The seemingly always-jovial salesman becomes for a moment serious in warning Thomas and Sandra of people going "astray" along the highway. However, Thomas and Sandra take the warning with a grain of salt.

Along the highway, the motor home approaches a homeless man, who flags it for a lift. The motor home swerves to by-pass him.

At Walmart, the Forrans shop for provisions for their long journey. There, Sandra sees way-too-many leaflets of missing persons tacked on the community noticeboard. Tracy points to a leaflet giving notice of the salesman's family having gone missing.

The Forrans stop at a restaurant where they are met by an elderly woman canvassing help in finding her missing daughter, Adrianna. The Forrans are sympathetic and promise to be on the lookout. Here, Sandra ponders over the motif of missing people: first, the salesman's warning, then the leaflets on Walmart's community noticeboard and now the story of Adrianna's disappearance.

Continuing its journey along the lonely highway, the motor home is parked opposite a farm, which is open 24 hours-a-day providing services useful to long-haul travellers.

The homeless man catches up to the motor home and is determined to cause misery to the Forran family, accusing it of nearly killing him. Soon a storm arrives and the homeless man insists on being let into the motor home, but Thomas and Sandra, despite cries for compassion from their daughters, refuse to let him in. But they do offer him money to buy accommodation offered by the "24-hours-a-day" farm on the other side of the highway. None of the Forrans, however, witness him cross the highway or is to be seen anywhere.

Tracy, who, despite her other father, Wolf, becoming mortal, still has remnants of other-worldly power and believes Adrianna is somewhere in the forest, "dying". Thomas discovers Adrianna in the forest and, after escaping a wolf-like biped, a creature of the night, he brings her to the safety of the motor home, where she is cared for by Sandra, a nurse by profession. However, the motor home is stuck-in-mud and thus the Forrans are unable to take Adrianna to a hospital.

In the morning, the storm gives way to a bright winter's day, Thomas and Tracy visit the farm and are greeted by its friendly owner and his grandson, seven-year-old Billy, whose rare translucent orange-like eyes are the same colour as Tracy's, which hints to Tracy that they share Wolf as their other father. As Thomas and Tracy eventually walk away, Tracy turns to see Billy's eyes glow yellow, like those of Skull, the spiritual leader of wolves (see Howlingween and Howlingween 4: Beastly Mist).

A pickup truck stops by. From the safety of the motor home, the Forrans try to warn the driver about the marauding night creature. Thomas is about to go out to warn him in person, but is stopped by Sandra – but the family's warnings don't stop the driver getting out of his truck and walk towards the motor home. The wolf-like biped appears from the forest and kills him, taking his body into the forest.

When Thomas goes to the pickup truck, he discovers a girl's dead body in its tray. Thomas now believes the driver's intention had been to murder his family. He philosophically questions the role of heroism, triggered by how close he came in risking his own life to save this murderous man and wonders about the moral compasses of the lives the family saved in the past.

Adrianna regains consciousness and tells the story of her survival in the forest. The Forran family take her to her mother and there is rejoicing.

Thomas and Adrianna lead the town's sheriff in the search for the murderer's body in the forest. What they come across shocks them: an open pit full of bodies, among them is the hobo and the salesman's family.

The Forran family finally leaves the town to continue the journey to Florida. After hours of driving, the motor home parks at a truck-stop.

That night Tracy has a dream which associates Billy with the wolf-like biped. Unknown to the rest of her family, Tracy sneaks out of the motor home in search of the wolf-like biped in order to talk to it, believing it to be Billy.

Thomas saves Tracy from the creature but they are trapped in a mini-cavern with a lit fire separating them and the wolf-like biped. But wood for the fire is running out. Thomas realises in order to save Tracy's life he must give up his. He attacks the creature, so Tracy can make her escape. Just as the creature is about to kill Thomas, Tracy calls out to Billy to stop, believing him to be the creature.

Instead, the wolf-like biped leaps at Tracy but is crashed into by a leaping Wolf. Assisted by six other wolves, they tear into the creature, who escapes by evaporating.

At the memorial held for the many dead, the Forran family sees the salesman mourning the loss of his family, of which until now he has been suspected of murdering.

Finally, all is revealed. Billy lost his parents to a deliberately lit house fire. When Wolf becomes mortal (for which transformation he blames Tracy), Billy is left without any parent. While Billy is asleep, the wolf-like biped would materialise and wreak vengeance on people, accounting for the many dead discovered in the pit. Skull, who forever hates humans for their genocidal campaigns against wolves in early America, assists Billy by giving his dreams the power to be real.

Once Wolf decides to stay at the farm and be Billy's father, all is okay. But for Thomas and Sandra a moral dilemma looms large: do they tell the authorities the true story and bring closure to the victims' loved ones or stay silent? Thomas and Sandra conclude only more confusion and misery would come out of them telling a story too incredulous to believe. So the story ends.