Original subtitles

Sorry, ma'am.

Unless you're a resident, I can't let you in.

Okay, um, Officer McCoy called me.

About my mom.

- I'm, uh, sorry for your loss. - It's okay. It's fine.

You have five minutes. Room 304.

Okay. I remember.

Thanks.

Hey, kid! Where you been all day?

There's some mashed taters for you. I made them.

So eat up.

Oh, hey, sweety!

Oh!

How cute! You're having dinner together?

Can I-- can I join?

Smile! Say hi to the camera.

- Where did you get that?! - I traded my chain for it.

I thought you'd like it.

We can, like, make films and stuff.

Like, you know, like Family Dinner.

We said we were saving that, you fucking idiot!

It's okay. We've got enough for the week.

I'll sort it out.

I'm not going back out on the streets again!

Okay, okay. I know, I know. Chill.

Chill? You're telling me to chill?

You... you fucking idiot!

Come on, let's go!

Abby?

Make sure you put Betsy away.

Idiot!

-What did I tell you? -It's not a big deal!

It is a big deal! We don't have enough money!

Now, take that back, you hear me?

One, two, three,

four, five, six, seven,

eight, nine, ten.

Ready or not, here I come!

I'm coming to find you...

Where are you?

Tiff, come on home, honey!

Dinner's ready! Time to come home!

Now, please! It's getting dark!

No, wait!

I have something to show you.

Hey!

You're still it.

I have to go. Don't you have dinner time?

Bye!

Bye.

The Fairy in the Forest.

"Once upon a time, there was a girl named Elle."

"Who wished for a better life but was under a spell."

"Until one day, a fairy heard these cries

and swooped down to find her from the skies."

"The fairy said, 'Elle, follow me.'"

"'I'll teach you to make your dreams a reality.'"

"So off they went, down a winding river,

but what they found would make Elle quiver."

"Hidden in the woods, there was a cave."

"To pass through, she'd have to be brave."

"The fairy said, 'Follow your heart

and it shall light the way,

or in the darkness forever you shall stay.'"

"For even things that are dark and scary

can still be fit for girls and fairies."

"So Elle went through the cave, following the stream."

"She followed her heart and chased her dreams."

"And what she found would break the spell,

for on the other side, she met the new Elle."

Hurry!

Where are we going?

You'll see! Come on!

Don't worry. Come on

Tiff? I told you not to play by the river!

- It's fine. Come on. - I can't!

Why not?

I'm not allowed.

Why? Wh-- Where are you going?

Wait up!

Betsy?

Where are you?

Betsy!

Don't be scared.

It's okay.

Can I tell you a secret?

A secret you can't tell anyone?

I found a cave in the forest.

There's a fairy.

She took me there, just like Elle.

It's our secret, okay?

Fuck! Oh, fuck, fuck!

Fuck! Fu--

How could this happen?

Zed? We're gonna have to pawn!

No...

Oh! Uh, Abby?

Mommy's gonna need to borrow your book

for a little while, okay?

No. No, I need it.

I'll get sick if I don't take it.

Oh, I-- I need my medicine, okay?

You don't want Mommy...

- Please! -...to get sick, do you?

This can go, I guess.

Just let the kid keep the book, all right?

I don't give a fuckin' bullshit.

It's all gotta go.

And it's your fault!

Mommy, please.

That's enough, Abigail!

- Please, please. - Don't be so fuckin' selfish!

- Please... -Zed, get the box!

I'm sorry, kid.

Please, Zed, please. Don't let Mom take it.

Please, Zed, please! No, no, Zed, please!

Hello?

Hello?

Hey, kid! Get outta there!

It's not safe!

Geez, what are you doin' in there?

Where are your parents at?

It's not safe for kids to be playing down here.

Let's try this again.

Why don't you just tell me your name?

Abigail.

Okay, Abigail. Where do you live?

In one of the complexes?

Why don't you show me?

Hey, kid!

Which apartment is yours?

304.

Betsy...

Thanks, mister!

Betsy?

"Hidden in the woods, there was a cave."

"To pass through, she'd have to be brave."

"Follow your heart and it shall light the way,

or in the darkness forever you shall stay."

You shouldn't have to be here.

Forest...

Abby!

Oh. What is she doing?

Abby, come back here!

Go get her right now!

Oh!

Down here!

I love you, Betsy.

Follow your heart.

No, no!

No, no, no, no!

No, no, please! Please, please!

Wait, no! No! No, Betsy!

Betsy! No!

Zed?

Smile! Say hi to the camera!

Where did you get that?

Pretty cool, right? I traded my chain for it.

- You did what? - I thought you'd like it.

We can, like, make films and stuff.

Like, you know, like Family Dinner.

No, no.

"Hidden in the woods, there was a cave."

"To pass through, she'd have to be brave."

"Follow your heart and it shall light the way,

or in the darkness forever you shall stay."

No, no.

No, no, no, no. I'm sorry.

Welcome back from The Void.

Thanks for watching.

I'm David Cummings, the creator and host of The NoSleep Podcast,

and today, we're joined by author Rebecca Klingel,

author of the NoSleep story, Betsy the Doll,

which we adapted into the episode, "Plastic Smile."

Welcome, Rebecca. Thanks for joining us today.

Thank you. It's great to be here.

We've just experienced your story.

It's been around now for, I guess, almost ten years.

Um, what inspired you?

Where did that twisted story come from?

With Betsy the Doll, I believe, like with a lot of my stories,

especially in those first few years on NoSleep,

I reverse engineered it.

Um, you know, dolls are very kind of scary to me anyway,

um, and I thought, maybe I could make a story

with a doll that has a really good twist,

since I love twists.

So, I kind of started with the twist

and then worked backwards

trying to see, like, what characters

would fit that really well,

like, how can I economize the space that I have to just

give them enough to... to... to... um...

be invested and then just hit them

with that sucker punch at the end, that, you know...

And I do this a lot

with the "humans were the monster all along,"

but Betsy was really the start of that.

Right. I was so hoping your answer was going to be,

"Oh, that's exactly what happened to me

when I was a girl."

Um, now, on NoSleep,

and not just the subreddit, but the podcast,

you have written some of the most popular stories,

some of the classics, Room 733,

which was so fun to do on the podcast,

and I know a lot of your stories tend to have

that... that twist at the end

or that completely change-- completely changed directions.

Do you tend to go into stories thinking always of a twist,

or is that just-- that's just something

that sort of naturally evolves in the story?

Uh, no, the twist is the first thing.

With me, the twist is the first thing,

and then I build around that.

Um, character is really fun, it's not very hard,

you know, but the twist and the kind of mechanics of it,

and how you're going to hide it

and how deep you're going to twist the knife, um,

those are really where I start with a horror story, is there,

because if you can land all of that and you're not worried

about having good characters, then you're done, you know?

So, you're a parent, you have kids,

and I'm curious how you... how you start to craft stories

where there may be children who are going through trauma

or experiencing some dire situations?

Do you feel like you want to lean in

to that kind of trauma?

Hmm, yeah. I would say,

people that read my stuff probably wouldn't...

...would-- probably would say that I do lean into it.

Um, and-- But I think there's a line,

and it's really a balancing act.

You know, Betsy is-- It deals with a lot of trauma,

but it's really about kind of the fog of childhood,

and realizing things in adulthood

that kind of horrify you about

what was really going on back then,

but you were too young to understand.

So, I find that really relatable

across the board.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Now, we'll transition from the, uh,

the morbid children being in peril,

to the great news, which is,

you have taken your writing career

from NoSleep and you've published novels,

and now you've transitioned into writing for television,

writing for the screen.

Uh, what has that journey been like for you?

You know, it was a bit bumpy.

Um, I had never written a screenplay

before writing for The Haunting of Hill House.

And I had to look on YouTube how to do it.

I found it difficult, because with prose,

you know, it just-- It flows out of you,

you can write whatever you want,

you don't have to worry about shoot-ability,

or budget, or anything like that,

and location management. Um, and then with script,

you can't get into characters' heads,

you have to find different, um, interesting,

sometimes experimental, ways to show things.

Uh, so it was actually

a challenge, because I went from writing whatever I want

to now I have notes, and I have to write

in a specific way, and you know, "You can't end it that way,

and we can't have that character,"

so, um, it was difficult, but I really enjoyed it.

There's really something about writing something

and then seeing a large group of people

bring it to life on the screen.

I mean, that's just, um, it's wonderful.

It's wonderful.

That's right. Now, you've done a lot of writing

with director Mike Flanagan.

What happens with a lot of people

when they watch shows like that,

they don't necessarily realize

that it's not just necessarily one writer,

and you work in what we call the writers' room,

and so you're collaborating

with a bunch of different people.

How has that process been for you?

Uh, I love it. But I really think

that NoSleep kind of helped prep me for that

because I had been writing on my own.

And then finding NoSleep,

there was a lot of collaborations,

and projects, and fun things

that you would do with other writers,

so it wasn't too different from a writers' room.

But writing in a writers' room is a lot of fun

because you can-- You are free to throw out--

Even if you have a crappy idea, you can throw it out there,

because people can kind of understand

what you're getting at, and then it develops from there.

So, it's just a lot more

brains' creativity going into a story than just one.

So, I mentioned earlier that the story Betsy the Doll

was written almost ten years ago,

and it's been adapted a number of different times.

It's been on The NoSleep Podcast.

I'm sure there are other horror narrators

who have done it.

And now, it's been brought to the screen.

What is it that you think is...

that has made this story so compelling?

What is it that the audiences have really kind of latched onto

with this story, that people want to perform it, express it,

and that obviously people enjoy consuming it?

Yeah, you know, I think--

I really think with Betsy with Doll,

it's because people would have been satisfied with a story

about a haunted doll if it was scary enough,

but what they got was even worse.

Um... And I don't think, well, I hope,

that a lot of people didn't see that coming.

So, it is a bit of a double-dip, because you have a scary story

about a haunted doll, and then you have, you know,

that you get to enjoy about,

you know, the first and second act,

and then the third act it's just

a totally different pivot that is kind of

a different scary feeling in your stomach.

So, I think that's probably

a lot of what Betsy the Doll is,

is that it's kind of two things that are twisted into one.

Well, Rebecca, we thank you for joining us today.

Thank you for sharing this great story with us,

and we hope you love how it turns out,

and continued success in the future.

Thank you, David. It was great to talk to you,

great to be here, and to discuss my favorite thing in the world,

which is horror and twists.

Thanks for joining us for this exclusive interview

with our NoSleep writers.

We look forward to you joining us next time.