The Man in the Black Mask - Introducing: The Man in the Black Mask

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

A rising young director is shooting a frightening film about a serial killer in a hockey mask. But when a man goes missing near the set, a real-life horror story unfolds. Keith Morrison’s latest Dateline original podcast series takes us into a mysterious netherworld of illusion, fantasy, deception and death. Follow The Man in the Black Mask now and get two new episodes a week, starting October 15 -- completely free. Or subscribe to Dateline Premium now, for early access and ad-free listening.

Okay, we're ready for the killer stuff. We're on the set of a movie, a horror movie. They're about to film a killing. Okay, we are rolling. Killers, take a slight step to the right there. There you go. And... Action.

Frame. Zap. Ah! Ah! Cut. Okay, Zap. Cut. Okay, that was terrible. The writer-director is an emerging artist. His specialty, the terrifying world at the dark end of make-believe.

I love what I do. From the first day that I stepped on the set, that was what I knew. I just slept down. There's no going back. Nothing else would make me feel fulfilled in what I was doing, and I love what I do, so I just chased it with everything I had. But now a man had vanished, perhaps from that very movie set, and police were involved. As soon as they called me on the phone, I got this weird chill. Strange events, even beyond the soundstage.

I have never in my life felt fear like that. He looked at me and said, I'm being robbed, can you help me? It's like every nightmare you had as a child after watching a scary movie, every nightmare you've ever had, all of a sudden it's right here, like this masked guy is standing there. It felt like a horror movie come horribly alive. I was terrified. I didn't know what to do.

It was like, oh my God, I think I'm going to die. Even the detective was drawn in, obsessed. I was sitting there listening to his story and I had chills going up my spine. But then it was just a movie, wasn't it? What better way to start a movie off than to have your name on the tip of everybody's tongue? I'm Keith Morrison. Our latest A-Bind podcast will take us into another world where fantasy seems very real,

and reality, well, who knows? Did you feel sometimes like you're in the middle of, you know, Alice in Wonderland or The Matrix or something? I always believed that story to be true right from the start. I'm thinking he killed him and he had filmed the murder. I'm Keith Morrison, and this is The Man in the Black Mask, an all-new podcast from Dateline.

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