Sticks & Stones

Sticks & Stones was the thirteenth episode of FMF Season 1, it premiered August 28, 2013. It was written by Salvatore Guerisoli and performed by Phil Spruner who also shot and edited the visuals for the episode. It can be viewed Here.

Summary
Our narrator explains that he used to live near the Wildcat Canyon, that he was overweight back in those days and one day decided to turn his health around and so he began jogging through the canyon on a regular basis. He explains that occasionally he would see a dead animal on the trail and would use it as a motivator to run faster so he wouldn't have to smell the death and decay. As he got more fit he noticed more and more dead animals appearing on the trail. One day he becomes curious and decides to investigate one of the dead animals. He notices that while dead, it was still intact as though it were sewn together by a taxidermist. He picks it up and finds that it is heavy and as he turns it on it's side, rocks and small sticks fall out of its open wound.

The visuals depicts the remains of a dead animal covered in it's own blood with a pile of blood covered sticks and stones protruding from it. The visuals were achieved using forced perspective.

Reception
The episode has not been well received with even members of Frosted Mini Fears saying they consider this to be one of their worst episodes. FMF producer Phil Spruner even responded to fan comments with his own criticisms:

"What?  Was that even supposed to make sense?﻿"

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say...no, no it wasn't ~PS﻿"

"I am not getting this....﻿"

"Heck I narrated it and I don't get it. ~PS #OddIsNotAlwaysScary﻿"

and

"I find it sad you're doubting the quality of this story because some take issue with it not having a simple and definite conclusion... "

"ambiguous endings are fine, we doubt it's quality mainly because we feel we are capable of better.﻿~PS"