The Beast of the Moors

The story

The Broken English Films production, “The Beast of the Moors,” revolves around a town’s fear of a nocturnal creature lurking in the Shetland Archipelago.

Production title: “The Beast of the Moors”

Writer/Producer: Hugo Lunny

Genre: Mythological drama

Format: Feature film

Synopsis: In the mystical Shetland Isles, an ostracized man known as “The Beast Of The Moors” dwells. He lives living a solitary existence, sleeping away in his knowe during the day and fishing in the lakes at night.

A group of young men return from a violent local conflict and reunite with Effie Helmsen, a childhood friend of theirs. They ask her to join them for drinks at the local alehouse and their power hungry, barely-adult minds descend into the gutter quickly.

Inebriated, one of the men decides their bond with her is greater than that of siblings. They attempt to prove this in the nearby wooded bogs.

Effie desperately flees but doesn’t know the terrain in which she’s running. She is soon caught by one of her attackers until the “beast” interjects.

She develops a relationship with the alleged beast but knows she has to leave him. Effie tries to adapt back into society, leaving her experience in the woods behind her and attempting to process her trauma.

Her attackers don’t welcome her return and the risk her presence carries.

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Behind the screenplay: The Beast of the Moors

The Beast of the Moors

In the rugged isolation of the Shetland Isles in 1510, a small community survives on a daily miracle: fresh fish mysteriously left at the mouth of a sacred well each dawn. But in a world steeped in folklore and fear, the villagers whisper a haunting question: what manner of being, divine or demonic, provides this strange providence?

The Beast of the Moors is a gothic folktale exploring the thin line between man and monster, and the dark secrets a community will keep to survive.

Life in this village is a delicate balance of piety and pragmatism. Crop failure and distant war have emptied their granaries, making the fish their only defense against starvation. Rules govern the well: approach alone, only in daylight, and whisper a confession into its depths. Yet this quiet reverence contrasts sharply with the criminals’ heads impaled on twelve-foot spikes around the village perimeter. Theirs is a community held together by shared miracle and shared terror.

He is legend: the wulver, a solitary man-wolf glimpsed only as a silhouette against moonlit moors. Covered in thick black hair, he moves with a hunter’s stillness, his light green eyes glowing in darkness. He communes with wolves, his mournful howls releasing profound sorrow. From his hidden knowe carved within a hillside, he ventures out only at night. A gentle soul who apologizes to the fish he spears.

Three eighteen-year-old warriors return triumphant. Scipione, Derek, and Morris are celebrated as heroes, welcomed by adoring wives and families. Yet beneath Scipione’s charm lurks a vulgar bully’s disposition. The village celebrates their saviors, blind to the truth: these young men will become catalysts of catastrophe.

Fueled by ale and bravado, the trio lures their childhood friend Effie Helmsen into the forbidden moors for a night of adventure. What begins as a dare descends into a terrifying chase. Effie flees desperately, her blouse torn, trust shattered in a single night of violation.

As Effie is cornered, a figure explodes from darkness. The “beast” intervenes with swift force, shoving her attacker’s face into mud and spiriting her to his hidden knowe. Terror gives way to awe. Her savior is no mindless animal but an articulate, gentle man. His home is a marvel: a spacious, fire-lit cavern carved from earth. Every preconceived notion shatters. As a complex bond forms between outcast and survivor, the villains race to rewrite the story.

The trio returns as victims, not perpetrators. They craft a masterful lie, leveraging their heroic status and the village’s fear, they paint their silent benefactor as a rabid predator. Derek’s bruises become proof of unprovoked attack. Gratitude turns to fury. The man who fed them becomes a scapegoat, hunted by those he kept alive.

Can one woman’s truth stand against celebrated heroes’ lies? What happens when peace-seekers are hunted by those they saved? When a community chooses between comfortable lies and devastating truth, which monster will it feed?

The Beast of the Moors examines prejudice, hypocrisy, and the true nature of monstrosity. Is a monster defined by appearance or actions? The answer waits in the windswept hills, in a tale of tragic, inevitable confrontation.