Wendigo (Lost Tapes)

"It's like something's inside me!"

- Matthew Gaahl in Lost Tapes

The Wendigo is a Native American demon, which they said, could possess humans and make them cannibals. Such a creature, the Wendigo, features in the TV show Lost Tapes, as an antagonist.

Origins
The Wendigo means "evil that devours" and comes from the legend that, during times of famine or drought, the Natives would inevitably have one of their member go mad, kill and eat his companions, and then say he was possessed to get away with his evil actions. The Wendigo was invented to curb this myth, a beast that possessed and caused humans to eat each other; but it was believed fiction.

That is, until 2007.

The Applachian incident
A team of park surveyors were sent to rescue a group of missing hikers - including Lane Corey, April, Vince and Matthew Gaahl - in the Applachian forests. The hikers were students and were reported missing from classes so they had a party look for them consisting of Dorsey, Nash and Voss. They find a ruined tent soon enough, with Vince's decomposing body in it. Vince had been eaten by some unidentifiable creature. The team discount bears, because of Vince's chewed flesh, much like a human.

Voss hears a monstrous wail, but although shaken she cannot see anything which would have made such a noise.

Dorsey is sent for water, but he gets lost. Soon, he comes upon the Wendigo's shrine, where it has hoarded all its stolen gear. He wonders who would do such a thing when he finds human skin in the shrine, and is repelled, but when he tries to back off and run, the Wendigo sneaks up behind him and kills him with its axe.

Voss and Nash find Lane, who is terrified. She warns them of the Wendigo, believing they were the beast when they found her cave, because the Wendigo can mimic human noises. The Wendigo uses this power to pretend it is Dorsey and call out Nash, who is killed by the Wendigo.

Voss runs to rescue Nash, but Lane says he is dead. So the Wendigo lurks waiting for Lane, and when she comes upon the camera, she tells of her danger, but then the Wendigo appears and roars at her, cutting off her transmission  before her death.

Recovered footage
Footage from the Incident shows that the Wendigo possessed Matthew Gaahl days into the hike. He was eating animals, became aggressive and murderous, discussed eating April when she was injured, and later did kill and eat her.

Matthew was transforming into one of the Wendigo: his face became monstrously deer-like, bloody saliva hang from his jaws, and he held an axe.

The search party wanted to return with more officials to kill the Wendigo - Matthew killed them before this could happen.