There is something lurking between the trunks. There is something hungry below the soil. Waiting for you.
—
You can go missing in the forest.
It’s something that’s just kind of accepted: that forests are places where things become lost. There is a dark and tangled history that grows in the shadow of the woods: weaving through myth and legend — through stories we’ve told and warnings we’ve whispered into the night. The forest is the void of the unknown, a ravenous mouth that picks clean the bones of trespassers. Because the forest has a stomach.
And that stomach has never been full.
0:00 How a Forest Digests You
0:42 Over the Garden Wall
2:03 Cruel Digestion
3:01 Tolkien and Princess Mononoke
3:54 The Witches in the Woods
6:06 The Lost Wood(s)
8:24 Alan Wake II
9:26 Point of No Return
11:28 The Forest (Game)
13:12 Wolves Don’t Live in the Woods
15:47 Endless Undying Trees
18:13 The Green Knight
19:58 Whispers of the Beast
22:02 Last Gasp of Green
Media Shown: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Over the Garden Wall, Alan Wake II, Alan Wake (Remastered), Bright Falls, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Subnautica, Limbo, The Green Knight, The Witch, Annihilation, The Revenge of Plant, The Fountain, Antichrist, The Blair Witch Project, Blair Witch (Remake), Blair Witch (Game), Princess Mononoke, Appalachia Unsolved, Bramble: Hall of the Mountain King, My Neighbor Totoro, Twin Peaks, Book of the Dead, Maleficent, Snow White and the Huntsman, Snow White, Jumanji, Journey to the Center of the Earth, King Kong, Kong: Skull Island, Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Sleeping Beauty, American Gods, Fantasia, Flowers and Trees, Babes in the Woods, The Wizard of Oz, Minecraft, Red Dead Redemption 2, The Sopranos, The Wolf House, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Forest, Sons of the Forest, Avatar, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars, Super Mario Odyssey, Horizon Zero Dawn, Silent Running
Copyright Disclaimer: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/image content is edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary.
I do not own the images, music, or footage used in this video. All rights and credit goes to the original owners.
♫ Music Used – Cave (The Forest), Main Theme (Sons of the Forest), Main Theme (Left 4 Dead), Burning Man (World of Goo), Promise (Silent Hill), The Timefall (Death Stranding), The Path to the Door (Dredge), Little Nightmares II Main Theme (Little Nightmares II), Die Toteninsel Emptiness (Signalis), Lost Woods (Tears of the Kingdom), Sevastopol Abandoned (Alien Isolation), The Sun Station (Outer Wilds), Alien Reveal (Alien Isolation), The Factory Gates (Amnesia), New Year’s Eve (Amnesia), Turned Around (Signalis), Promise (Okami), Ghostlight (Iron Lung), The New Century, The New Century (Amnesia), All Gone (The Last of Us), An End Once and For All (Mass Effect 3), The Choice (The Last of Us)
♫ Additional music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio:
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Sources:
“The Wild Places” by Robert Macfarlane
“Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer
“How long does it take for a body to decompose?” by David Volk https://www.livescience.com/how-long-bodies-take-to-decompose
“Exploring the underground connections between trees” by Oskar Franklin and Ansa Heyl
https://iiasa.ac.at/news/may-2023/exploring-underground-connections-between-trees
“Giant Sequoia Slab” – Arizona State Museum Exhibit: https://ltrr.arizona.edu/giant_sequoia_slab
“Pando – (I Spread) – US Forest Service: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/fishlake/home/?cid=STELPRDB5393641
source
I saw new curious post, and flipping JUMPED!
I went to school at Bennington college, and sometimes there would be this crazy fog seeping out of the forest on the edge of campus. It was always spooky, but inviting. Plus the Haunting of Hill house was based of the music building, Jennings.
Fun fact, the places where the most people have gone missing in America is also where the most caves are
Very similar vibes to “The Fear of Getting Lost”
The woods are always fun for me. I lived near them for years after a certain age. I’ve never gotten lost, but I’m lucky like that.
0:50 Nice use of l4d2 music fits well
how long this video shows how old forest have been around and sharks are still older
16:49 there are some indigenous Australian tribes who plant trees over the graves of their dead and treat the resulting orchard as sacred groves, so it’s not as unpopular an idea as you think
i really love these videos. Just an interconnected web of thoughts looseley centerd on a theme. super cool and unique style of video. thanks for the content man
AGAIN! YouTube hates me I swear! It doesn’t happen too often but when it does, it’s always when I’m awaiting an upload but get distracted but figure “it’s all good…it’ll notify me” but NOPE 👎 😅🤷♀️🤦♀️
Anyways I’m stoked for what I’m sure will be another awesome Curious Archive video!
Very thought provoking stuff! I absolutely love your content – please keep up the good work!
I hope James Mangold watches this video and reads the swamp thing comics before starting to film
Re: 6:31
American forests and those in the Northeast in particular were experienced by European settlers as so overwhelming and vast in part because prior to the settlers’ arrival, much of the region had been depopulated of humans by the mass deaths of indigenous populations from introduced infectious diseases. Those people not only lived in more places that the first European settlers later found to be “virgin wilderness”, they also made interventions in the landscapes where they lived, though most of these were reclaimed by nature after most of the natives had died or fled.
Sources: “Changes in the Land” by William Cronon, and “1491” by Charles C. Mann
The Wolf House is a chilean, not a colombian movie.
Signalis ost hits like a flashbang
I feel that the consuming metaphor to be so interesting. You mentioning how Horizon Dawn portrays a world consumed by green, because that's what post-apocalypse tend to do: consumption by the Desert, by the Glacier, and by the Forest (there was a game that portrayed the world consumed by the Swamp, but I forgot its name), biomes just losing patience with humanity or claiming their place in their demise
"… Oh well, you'll join us someday." -Enoch
Ugh this video was amazing. You just make banger after banger bro
The video should have been called the "Fear of the Green"
I wonder if there are any other biome with just as much fascination?
Oceans were mentioned but could the same fear be applied to grasslands, deserts, and mountains?
Your videos are sheer poetry. You pair storytelling and analysis so well, it is both entertaining and educational.
One of my favorite creepypastas is Search & Rescue Woods by Kerry Hammond. This video has helped me further understand why that is 🌸
In case anyone was wondering, the song played in the opening is the Sons Of The Forest main theme.
great video!
This is amazing. Thanks for creating.
Over the garden wall creeped me out so much when i first watched it around a year ago, its just the whole vibe, music, aesthetic whatever you want to call it- just unnerved me a lot, it kinda reminded me of an old disney film from when I was a kid, but just… darker, like nothing is really right? Uncanny? I honestly have no idea it just creeped me out a lot I guess.
When it comes to the longevety of trees, I will always remember one tree in a local forest. It mostly looked like any other tree, except a bit larger. You wouldn´t know from just looking at it that it has been standing there througn two world wars, when Napoleon came through, when the 30 years war happened, also during the 100 years war. It being nearly 700 years old. The sheer amount of history that happened around it is quite awe inspiring and really weird. While I have seen cut offs of sequias that where already hundreds of years old when Jesus lived, those are dead and in museums. But seeing a living tree in a forest that has probably "seen" medieval knights pass by, is quite a different thing.
No disrespect but I think you read Miyasakis and Tolkiens forests frong
6:15 "remember our promises"
ah damn its a shame that you almost understand.. almost
Just a small correction – "The Wolf House" is a Chilean production, not a Columbian one.
Despite Colonia dignidad ceasing it's functions long ago, it's still relevant nowadays thanks to the discover of illegal buring of human remains on their fields. Those are "detenidos desaparecidos", basically victims of the dictatorship that were murdered then forcibly vanished without informing the family of their location. In a way, you could say their bodies were "fed" to the forest and wilderness, hoping they would leave no trace behind. And yet, people are still looking for them, and some of them were found.
Best channel on YouTube.
a forest that eats you is a really cool fictional concept. thanks for the idea
also you should check out sauria (i think it's called) from Dead Sound
I hadn't really realized how liminal and frightening forests really were, it is a perfect setting for horror seeing as how it is difficult to not hide if you try to be quiet
Another banger as always 😌
The first half of this video is fantastic–and the second half is a full on masterpiece. I worried you were going to leave us in a dark place, but then that ending . . . yeesh–so lovely. Also, shout out for including The Green Knight.
This was really very lovely. I'd love to see more videos along these lines. I love the woods; I walk there every day, and someday in the distant future, I shall go there and not leave.
16:55 I’ve actually always wanted to return to earth when I die
As a Norwegian, I feel we yearly have at least one tourist tit who is sheepishly rescued of a mountain. Usually brought no water, and is wearing flip flops…
I'm surprised Darkwood didn't come up in this video, but maybe you haven't played that one yet! To be fair, I haven't either, I've just seen Mandalore's video about it.
Goodness
WAIT HOW DID YOU NOT MENTION DARKWOOD THE HEART OF THE FOREST LITERALLY EATS YOU. Missed opportunity, but amazing video as always
I grew up in Vancouver, a city near forests and I never found the woods scary. It makes me wonder if these tales of woods being a hostile or at least apathetic entity in western fairytales would be resonate in cultures and places where the urban and natural is more intertwined and co-exists relatively peacefully…
The idea of an ancient forest reminds me of eldritch horror, a collection of beings beings older than most of human history, indifferent to our presence at the moment but a force of unending hunger that will eventually consume us all and an infinite maze of trees and branches that repeats itself over and over again concealing its truth and breaking the weak human mind
dang i just rewatched over the garden wall yoo
I would love to see curious archive do a video on the concept of "The flesh is weak".Ive always found it interesting that so many pieces of media like WH40K,Cyberpunk, Murder drones, Lancer, focus on the blurring of lines between flesh and steel.
Bears are terrifying.
the rot consumes all
the fungus amongus
You consistently produce some of the most fascinating, well-written and thoughtful videos on YouTube! I LOVE Over the Garden Wall, and much of that love stems from how perfectly it conjures both the wonder and the danger of the woods, especially through the eyes of a child.
The silent hill music ❤