"The Severed Feet of the Salish Sea" is the first short in the mini-series True Terror With George Takei, a series of The Terror shorts narrated by George Takei, focused on real-life terrors. It was released by AMC on YouTube on August 7, 2019.
Summary[]
Since 2007, numerous severed human feet -- typically wearing running shoes or hiking boots -- have washed up on the coastline of British Columbia, Canada. Who do these feet belong to, where are they coming from, and why won't it stop?
Recap[]
The Pacific Northwest may be home to something more benign than seashell - a strange object that keeps washing up on it shores. A news report speaks of severed feet which keep washing up in the Pacific Northwest. A number of theories were floated, ranging from a serial killer to aliens. It began in August 2007, when the first foot was discovered by a young girl on a sailing trip with her family. Another was found six days later, 30 miles away. Over the next year, five more were found on various islands in the Salish Sea, always in running shoes. By 2009, the entire world was captivated by the story, but authorities insisted no crimes were being committed. Residents were not reassured and the feet continued to be found over the years.
Residents soon became used to the stories, and as of 2019, twenty severed feet have been found. However, this is not the first time the region has been visited by strange phenomena. The first people to settle there believed dark forces lived atop the mountains, evil spirits that would do harm to those who came near. The region has more serial killers per capita than any other region of the United States, including the Want Ad Killer, the Boxcar Killer, the Green River Killer and Ted Bundy. This has led some to suspect that the region may be cursed by a dark force.
The official explanation for the phenomenon is that the waters around the region are filled with corpses from various incidents, including accidents and suicides. The running shoes function as a floatation device, causing the feet to disconnect from the bodies over time and eventually rise to the surface. This, however, does not explain why the feet were not seen before 2007. Furthermore, such drownings and suicides occur elsewhere, yet no feet have been found on the beaches of other regions like Nova Scotia or New Jersey, where one would expect the same thing to occur if this explanation were true. The feet are now part of the region's dark history. Whereas residents would once simply pass by a shoe discarded on the beach, they now always stop, checking to see if perhaps it could one of their neighbors.
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