Fear the Woods (2017) s01e02 Episode Script

The vast
North American wilderness
is home to evil forces
thought only to exist
in nightmares.
The terrible creatures
that roam here
are all too real.
Many think
ghost hunting is fun and games.
They're wrong.
Treating spirits without respect
can have dire consequences.
I'm the most scared
I've ever been in my life.
My only instinct was to run
Shot toward us,
was coming to get us.
'cause I was terrified.
The worst thing that can happen
when you go looking for ghosts
is that you find them.
There's always been something
about that night and scared me.
With the whole development
of all of the paranormal shows
and all of the ghost hunting,
it's become almost, like,
a hobby for a lot of people,
to go out and interact
with this paranormal energy.
Let me tell you,
it can be very dangerous.
Not many people
come out to the lake
at this time of year,
not unless they have
a good reason,
like Josh and his wife Carol.
The plan was for me and my wife
to go out for a night
that we wouldn't forget.
I remember it was dusky,
and there's, like,
this fog that was on the lake,
and I do remember that.
That was kind of eerie.
Josh has agreed
to meet with his friend Bob,
who has promised
the adventure of a lifetime.
- Hey, man.
- Hey.
Nice night, huh?
He's the one that had
all the knowledge.
I didn't know anything
about the area.
He didn't tell me
a whole lot ahead of time.
All right. Let's do it.
- Hop in.
I just kind of went
with him and trusted him on it.
He promised a good, scary night.
Too cold for this crap.
The whole idea
of exploring haunted areas
without being reverent
to the spirits that are there
can end up in a very, very
dangerous type of situation.
But he told me going out to
that area, Sugar Loaf,
that I'd be guaranteed
to see something that night.
I can tell ahead of time
it was gonna be
an interesting night,
one way or the other.
And the car ride is quiet
at this point.
We're in the middle of nowhere.
It's dark.
There's no houses,
nobody around.
Great.
No service. Wonderful.
This was 2003.
We're out
rural area in Oklahoma.
There were, like,
no cell towers.
None of us had a signal.
My wife was a big nonbeliever.
She was the exact opposite
of my friend Bob.
My wife is really
getting frustrated, you know,
"This is really boring.
I could be sitting at home."
Going out with him,
I just really felt like
I was in my element there.
I've always wanted to
find out the truth
in what's really out there.
There were some things
that happened in my childhood
I couldn't explain, and I had
a real religious family,
so I really never got to seek
those answers.
All you could really hear
on the drive over there
is the crunch of the gravel
under the tires.
He had stopped the car
in a manner
where we're actually facing
this field and hillside,
and he's got
his bright lights on.
I've heard about this place.
I really wanna
check it out, you guys.
Come on.
- This is just a bad idea.
- Come on.
- Let's go! Come on!
They head up
a deserted hillside
Or rather, supposedly deserted.
Local legend has it
that ghosts reside here.
As much as I wanted to take it
seriously, at this point,
I'm just trying to have fun
with the night.
Crazy stories about this.
Now I regret feeling that way
because the way I was acting
is probably what led
to why it scared me so bad.
Guys, I really
don't know about this.
Come on. You'll be fine.
It's important for you
to have your energy
in the right place
before you do this.
If you don't, some of
the dangers can be being
physically or energetically
attacked by spirits.
I think we're getting close.
Come on. Come on. It's okay.
Come on. Come on.
You okay?
- No.
Looks like a good spot.
My wife is talking about
how it's a bust.
Nothing's happening.
Be patient, Carol.
This is such a joke.
Okay?
Guys, can we just go, please?
We came all the way here.
- It's so cold.
- Come on.
Bob is trying to shush us
and telling us, "Wait a minute."
You're not gonna want to
miss this. Trust me.
Exactly at midnight,
this light comes on
in the middle of the hillside
and it just kind of stays
in one place at first.
What's that?
I remember it hushed my wife up
pretty quick when it came on.
It hushed me, too.
And the light began swaying
kind of back and forth.
That's when I mentioned,
"It kind of looks like
"an old lantern,
like an old kerosene lantern,
somebody walking through
the woods."
I don't know if it's
because I had a attitude,
"Nothing can touch me,"
but I scream out to it.
Let's find out.
Hello!
- Shh! Shh!
- Who's down there?
Shut up. Shut up.
Oh, so scary, a little light
in the woods.
Is that all you can do?
Real funny, guys.
- Josh
- Come on out!
- What are you doing?
Shut up.
You crazy?
And I look up,
and the lantern light is now
coming down the hillside
at a unhuman pace.
It's coming fast, the way it
just kind of came down the trees
and shot down the hillside
and across the field.
- Aah!
- My wife screams.
All of us at the same time
were all thinking, "Flight."
Go, go, go!
I knew it couldn't be human.
Josh La Rue and his wife Carol
and friend Bob are
hunting for ghosts in the woods.
I've heard about this place.
I really wanna check it out,
you guys.
Come on.
- This is just a bad idea.
Now they wish they weren't.
You'll be fine.
There can be a lot
of different dangers
that appear when
you're interacting with spirits.
All right. Down. Down.
I've seen people
go through possession.
I've seen people have
their energy taken away.
- Real funny, guys! Come on out!
- Josh
I've seen people physically
attacked by spirits as well.
I got a feeling of terror
as soon as it started
coming across that field.
Come on! Go, go, go, go!
And we just booked it
into the car.
Go, go, go!
I feel in the pit of my stomach
almost the same fear
I was feeling that night.
This is creeping me out
more than I thought it would.
Come on, man. Let's go.
Go, go, go, go, go!
- Drive!
- What the hell?!
- Come on! Get out of here!
- Oh, my God!
- Let's go!
- Hurry up! Go!
- Keep going, man! Keep going!
- Go, go, go!
We're in the car,
and they're all getting on me
about yelling at this ghost,
calling it out like that,
so all the blame goes to me.
In retrospect, I probably
shouldn't have done what I did.
And I could see
that she was scared, too,
and at that point,
she was really ready to go home.
- Will you just relax?
- I told you this was a bad idea!
Get in the car!
Just get in the car, okay?
No one listens to me!
No one listens to me! Great.
Bob's asking, "Why did we run?
We should've just stayed
to see what it was."
We got to get out of here.
All right?
- Seriously?!
- What?
It's not starting.
Try it again.
Try it again. Try it again.
And the truck won't come on.
Not only will it not start,
just completely dead,
and no lights were left on,
anything like that when we left.
- We got to get out of here.
- I want to go back.
I wanna find out what that was.
- No, man.
- You're not
- I've got jumper cables.
We're gonna use
the jumper cables. Got it?
We raise our hoods
and we connect jumper cables
from his car to my truck.
Ready?
All right, Carol.
Start it up.
As soon as we connect
the cables,
the battery cables
just go up in flames
- Aah!
- Like flash paper
Oh, my god!
Just a flash of fire, ashes,
melted rubber on the ground.
- Are you okay?
- Yeah, I'm fine.
You okay?
- My god.
And, you know, me and Bob
are looking at that,
talking to each other like,
"What the heck
just happened there?"
When the truck didn't start,
and especially
when the jumper cables
went up in flames,
my first thought
was something paranormal,
something that we tapped into
that night,
you know, was keeping us local.
We hear this motor off
in the lake.
It's after midnight.
It's November. It's cold.
Somebody is out on the lake,
but as the noise got closer,
me and Bob both stop talking.
And this boat is
coming at us fast at the dock.
This bright spotlight came on.
These two men step off the boat
and start walking towards us.
They don't turn the light off,
and without the light,
they would still be able
to see us.
The moon was out, so it wasn't,
like, pitch-black at this lake.
You got a problem here?
Car trouble?
Nothing we can't handle,
guys. It's okay.
Looks like
your pretty little cables
couldn't handle the shock, huh?
Before me and Bob can say
anything, the guy says,
"Well, we got some stuff
in our boat."
I was already feeling uneasy
the way that he turned his head
towards my wife
We'll get you fixed up
real good.
And says,
"Yeah, fix 'em right up."
Me and Bob can't decide
which is creepier,
the lights or these two guys.
You guys, wait here.
We got something for ya.
Turn, walk slowly back
to their boat,
and they're fidgeting
with stuff,
and we can't really see 'cause
the spotlight is blinding us,
and the same thing that was
going through my mind
was going through his
We're gonna have to fight
these guys.
Me and Bob, we're not
exactly fighters,
but we're ready to fight
at this point, you know,
wanting to protect my wife.
I had tire tools,
and I gave Bob one. I took one.
So we're standing there.
We got our tire tools, like,
next to our legs,
trying to conceal them.
We start hearing chains rattling
around, like, heavy chains.
The chains rattling was
the last straw.
Really, I don't believe
any words were spoken.
I think we just kind of
looked at each other,
and we both just got in the car.
There was a big enough
creep factor that we didn't want
to stick around
to see what happened next.
Drive! Come on!
Get out of here!
- Oh, my God!
- Let's go!
- Hurry up! Go!
- Keep going!
- Go, go, go!
- Keep going.
Come on!
I knew that it had to have been
something paranormal
at that point.
See them?
And I was like,
"There's just too much.
"I never want
to come here again.
I don't have any interest
in seeing ghost lights,
"finding out who these guys were
on the boats.
I just want to go back
to my normal life."
I wasn't seeking
paranormal anything.
After
this blood-chilling experience,
Josh vows to give up
on his quest for answers.
But vows have a way
of being broken.
Felt so terrified,
and my body was shaking.
I was white as a ghost.
It was the most terrifying
experience of my life,
and we thought it was over.
- Go! Go, go, go!
- Keep going, man! Keep going!
Josh barely made it
out of Sugar Loaf Lake alive
three years ago.
He promised never to return,
yet the lure
of the paranormal hunt
proves too difficult to resist.
Unfortunately, he hasn't
learned his lesson.
If you're going to interact with
spirit or spirit energy,
you should have
a very defined intent
and purpose for what it is
that you're doing.
This is not recreation.
This is not something to do
for fun.
Bob contacted me in 2006
and said he had
a group of Wiccans
that wanted to go out and do
paranormal investigations.
"Do you remember that lantern
that we saw back in '03?
"Told the story about that night
to my group,
"and they're really interested
in going out there
see if they can't communicate
with the spirit."
He's like, "All you have
to do is film it.
"You don't have to get involved.
If things start going south,
we'll get out of there."
There is a danger.
If people don't know
what they're doing
or what they're
getting themselves into,
they can open up a spirit
or something to let it out.
We get there a little bit
before midnight,
and just like before,
there's no cell service.
His friends sit in a circle.
And I remember them
pulling out a book.
It wasn't, like, an old creepy
witchcraft book.
It looked like a new hardcover.
And just like 3 years ago,
the spirit returns
at the stroke of midnight.
And terror come back
in the pit in my stomach.
And I remember filming
their group, their chanting.
There was, like, no wind,
but their candle just goes out.
Everybody gets quiet.
Bob asked me to cut the camera
until they can get
this candle lit
And I remember
cutting the camera,
seeing the light in the field,
turning around to face them,
and as they're fidgeting,
they're trying, like,
four lighters,
and none of the lighters
are working.
And I start hearing
a rustling noise behind me.
I feel like, in the few moments
that I turned my back
to the light,
that it came down the hillside,
across the field,
was right behind me.
I turned and see
the brightest light
that I'd ever seen
in my entire life,
a blinding light,
and just as quick
as it's there, it's gone.
You know, I'm shakin',
I'm freaking out.
In the next moment,
way off in the distance,
we start hearing what sounds
like children laughing.
The best way I can describe
it is, like,
how kids will sing "Row, Row,
Row Your Boat," the song.
One will start singing
the first verse,
and a few moments after
they start,
another kid starts
at the beginning of the song.
One kid would start laughing.
A second or two later,
another would start laughing
a different way,
and it was all around us,
way off in the distance.
It sounded like hundreds
or thousands of kids
just laughing,
but the laughter
is getting louder and louder,
and it's getting closer
and closer
and to the point
that it's deafening.
You know, I'm the most scared
I've ever been in my life.
It's the fear that really
controls the situation,
and that's what spirits
tend to use to control people,
to to possess people.
All I thought about was getting
in that car,
getting out of here,
and never coming back.
Go! Go!
Bob peels out on this dirt road,
gravel flying.
For about 3 miles, we could
still hear the laughter.
Bob was having
a hard time driving.
That's how shaken he was.
And about a mile after that
we all hear a snapping noise
from the front of the car,
and the car stopped dead
in its tracks.
What? What's going on, man?
I don't know. It just stopped
working. It's dead.
What are we going to do?
Everybody is terrified
at this point,
and as we're sitting there
asking each other
if we heard what we heard,
if we saw what we saw,
"Was that children?"
We're sitting there
so enthralled
in this conversation
that it takes us a minute
to realize
that this laughter is
coming back,
way off in the distance
but getting closer and closer.
It's following us.
We can't just sit here!
Can't Just let me
think for a second!
They are now sitting ducks
for what's coming for them.
It was the most terrifying
experience of my life.
Hunting ghosts
at Sugar Loaf Lake
was never a good idea.
Guys, I really
don't know about this.
The first time
Josh and his friends
came investigating, they were
chased away by a spirit
- Come on! Go, go, go, go!
- Aah!
And narrowly escaped
two mysterious men.
Now they return
three years later,
and things are a lot worse.
The terror
just is hitting me so hard.
I really felt like everything
was just closing in on me.
I felt like
the laughing children
can just reach out and grab me.
Go! Go!
He and his companions
are stuck in the middle
of a deserted road
and scared out of their minds.
- What's going on, man?
- I don't know.
It just stopped working.
It's dead.
We realize that
he's not gonna be able
to get this car going again.
What are we going to do?
And now the nerve-shredding
laughter of children returns.
We can't just sit here!
Can't Just let me
think for a second!
Bob suddenly gets
a signal on his phone.
What is it?
- I have a signal!
- Well, like, go, go, go, go!
- Okay.
- Call somebody!
Bob dials up his friend Jess.
Hello? Hey.
It's me. It's Bob.
There's You gotta come.
You gotta come pick me up.
There's there's four of us.
We're on the road.
We're pulled over to the side.
He asked if she can come
pick us up,
and he gives her the location,
and she says, "Yes."
Just come as fast as you can.
They realize, to their horror,
they're not the only ones
on this road.
And about 5 minutes goes by.
We see these headlights
coming down the road towards us.
And they're going really slow.
It's going to take his friend
probably about 15, 20 minutes
to get there,
so we know it's not her yet.
And there's two guys in it,
heavily bearded.
Both, at the same time,
look at each other and say,
"It's the boat men,"
and they just stare at us.
Just like how they showed up
at the lake,
they had showed up again.
And they drive by.
We're really freaking out
at this point.
We're emitting fear.
We're emitting that energy,
and unfortunately,
that's kind of the worst thing
we can do
if there is spirit activity,
because that's what
they feed off of.
We see headlights coming
from the other direction,
and it's them again.
We got the laughter going on.
We got these creepy guys
doing God knows what,
and then they come by,
both of them, in the truck
and the one says
You guys look like
you need some help.
But he doesn't offer help.
He just keeps on going.
And here we are
in the middle of nowhere,
in a car that won't move.
I can't even begin to explain
the terror
I'm feeling at this point.
And the truck comes by
one more time.
I remember thinking,
"This is it."
I can see the headlights coming.
All I'm feeling is dread.
It was the most helpless
I've ever felt in my life.
You guys look like
you need some help.
Josh and his friends
are paying the price
for hunting ghosts unprepared,
stuck in the middle of the road,
surrounded by spirits,
and under attack.
I can see the headlights coming.
All I'm feeling is dread.
I really felt like everything
was just closing in on me.
I felt like
the laughing children
could just reach out
and grab me.
And if they didn't
reach out and grab me,
that these guys would just
stop their truck in any time
and do whatever
they wanted to do,
and we would have
no way to stop 'em.
This laughter all around us,
and we can't run this time.
I only see one of them.
Where's the other guy?
This time,
the passenger is gone.
It's just the driver.
It was the most helpless
I've ever felt in my life,
and the laughter is
the loudest that I heard it.
Are they going to do
something to us?
They're getting closer.
What do we do?
I remember thinking,
"This is it."
There's another light!
Before anything else
could happen,
we saw another set
of headlights coming.
My first thought was,
"They're both in a vehicle now."
All I'm feeling is dread,
terror.
One way or the other, this is
not gonna end well for me.
It pulls up and stops.
It's Bob's friend.
That's her!
You ready?
- I didn't feel safe.
I still felt like
another shoe would drop
until I was actually in the car.
Let's go.
Go, go, go!
Go, go, go, go, go!
Come on! Let's go!
Go, go, go, go, go, go!
I was just so relieved we were
going to make it out of there.
I don't think she really
had a chance
to really ask any questions.
She was just reacting
out of fear.
She was driving.
She was getting us out of there.
She went from zero to 60
on the terror meter.
Faster, come on!
She went from showing up to
help some friends out
to showing up
to help some friends out
and to get the heck
out of there.
They're still with us! Go!
And she's driving as fast
as she can on this dirt road,
and they're keeping right up.
A lot of us thought that we were
going to meet our end
in some form that night.
What is that back there?
And as soon as start driving us
back to civilization,
we can no longer hear
the laughter
off in the distance.
They're gone.
- What?
- They're gone.
None of us had any thought ever
of going back out there
for anything for any reason.
Josh drove for miles
into uncharted forest
searching for ghosts,
but sometimes you don't have
to go very far to find trouble.
You can discover it lurking
in your own backyard
as happens with Alicia
and her friends.
I was never really
afraid until that one night,
and then it kind of changed
the game a little bit for me.
It wasn't until that night that
I even thought it was dangerous.
My house sat at the base
of a hill,
on kind of empty dirt road.
If you followed the dirt road,
you'd reach
a old family cemetery.
The graves are not
really legible but 1800s.
They all kind of bear
the same names.
Not a lot of people even know
that graveyard exists.
My whole life, I've never
seen anyone there visiting.
I'm not even sure if there's
any current graves
that could be visited.
There was always kind of
weird stuff,
especially around my house
and kind of the dark forest
behind my house.
So we had just stuff being
stacked up in front of doors.
My father, who is a skeptic
and doesn't even
really like to think
about that sort of stuff
'cause it scares him,
and he found a string.
It was outside of the yard,
followed it, followed it
until he got to the back
of the graveyard.
The string kind of
angled upwards,
and he thought
it was a balloon string,
but when he followed it
all the way out,
there was nothing there.
But I think that
was first story I told,
and that kind of got
my friends interested.
We kind of gathered at my house,
and I know it was dark.
Are you scared?
We usually waited
till midnight or 1:00 a.m.,
until it was completely dark.
Don't worry. Dave and I have
done this dozens of times.
All without a night-light,
so you're okay.
I think David was
one of the first people
that I went ghost hunting with.
He was the one
kind of looking for evidence
and trying to find
something there.
Just try not to stare
into the dark for too long,
or else something might be
staring back at you.
I've had experience with
the paranormal from a young age,
so this was something
that fascinated me
and terrified me
at the same time.
You know, one time,
we even heard voices
coming from one
of the gravestones.
It was awesome. I mean,
bone-chilling, but awesome.
Yeah, we screamed so loud.
Tonight, Alicia and David
are making the same mistake
as Josh and his friends,
treating something lightly
that they should respect.
I've seen spirits
that are very territorial.
If people don't have respect
for their territory,
the spirits, they will use
their energy to push people out.
This time, we brought
a newcomer, Brian,
who had decided to come with us.
I don't remember if he asked
or if he had just heard
so many stories
he had to see it for himself.
Oh, but be careful
not to scream too loud.
You never know who's listening.
He was more religious, I think,
than both of us,
but it's not something we really
thought about before we came.
Come on, Brian.
You first.
Until we got there, we realized
how scared he really was.
Meant something different to him
than it did to us going in.
Dear Lord, we ask You
to protect us as we walk
amongst the graves
of these departed souls.
It wasn't that we were
against him doing it.
It's just something
we hadn't done before,
and it kind of upped the ante
a little bit,
made it seem more real.
We pray for Your forgiveness.
We wish peace and eternal rest.
When that happened,
I immediately was on edge.
It changed the game
a little bit,
and it was no longer
kind of thing we do for fun.
We say this in Your name.
Come on!
Alicia has always
known there was something
lurking in the cemetery
in the woods behind her house.
Tonight, she and her friends
go hunting
and tempting fate
to find out what it is.
So as soon as Brian
finished praying,
he was a little more bold,
but me and David
were definitely more nervous
than we had been before.
At least, I felt uneasy,
which wasn't very common
going to the graveyard.
We got into the grave,
maybe one-third
into the graveyard
when we sort of started
to smell that foul smell
Is it always like this?
No.
Really, really strong,
kind of real putrid.
And looking around, and I really
couldn't see any shapes.
I could barely see the trees
silhouetting the back.
Felt David next to me
go a little bit still.
David
what's wrong?
And I said, "What is it?"
And he said, "There's something
in the corner."
I don't see anything.
And it just looked like
murky darkness
and maybe like it was moving,
and at that point,
I wasn't sure if it was
my eyes playing tricks on me.
It's just a tree.
It's not a tree.
It's just a tree.
It definitely
sent a chill up my spine.
You know,
your heart rate increases.
You get the goose bumps.
It's just that, you know, almost
shudder through your whole body.
You just know
on an instinctual level
that something's not right.
So I was staring at it
and trying to make out
any movement,
but I couldn't really find
any movement in the shape.
I stared at it longer.
I kind of saw some sort
of shifting or movement.
I felt like I was kind of
making out a shape,
maybe legs,
maybe shoulders, maybe a head.
All at once, I could see that
it was a real physical thing.
It took form,
shadowy silhouette of a figure.
That's when a chill
kind of fell over me.
Had the form of a human,
but it definitely was not human.
It felt like something
was going to hurt us,
and that's exactly the feeling
I had was,
it was an aggressive
like we had done
something wrong being there,
and it was gonna
make us pay for it.
Shot toward us like it
was coming to get us.
My only instinct was to run.
Hurry! Come on! Oh!
I remember just running, being
so afraid to turn around
- Go!
- Let's go!
- Go!
- That thing is right there!
Because I was terrified to turn
and see something back there.
We just kept running
until we reached the house.
- Go, go, go!
- Go, go, go!
David! David!
I knew that we had seen
something,
and I knew that I felt
a real sense
of anger and menace
in the graveyard,
and we were all shaken.
I remember Brian was worked up.
I don't think he said anything.
And it took couple minutes
to kind of relax and cool down.
I don't think Brian said much.
He was definitely afraid,
and especially having prayed
beforehand and being
a little more religious,
I think that it affected him
maybe differently
than the rest of us.
Are you okay?
Think I should go home.
Brian
Looking back, I definitely felt
I'd crossed the line.
Though we only had
innocent intentions,
we kind of kept going back
and trying to find more
and trying to find more.
I mean, I felt like
we were trespassing,
like we were somewhere
we shouldn't be,
and I don't know if it was
the prayer that riled it up
and made it angry,
or what it was.
Ghosts do have emotions
in the same way
that human beings do.
They're essentially
a human being without a body,
so we can piss off the ghosts
just as easily as we could
piss off a person.
After that night,
I never went back.
The ghost hunting
pretty much ended,
and I just didn't feel like it
was safe for us to return.
Alicia and her friends
found out the hard way
You don't go hunting for what
you don't understand or respect.
To this day, Josh still doesn't
know how the light,
the children,
and the boat men are connected.
The territory of spirits varies.
Spirits will create
different groups,
and they might not have been
together on the Earth,
but they've found each other
in that earthbound world.
I would tell anybody
going out to do
their own investigations
that you don't know what
you're doing.
There's no way to be prepared
for what's unknown.
I think that Bob and his friends
got in over their head
that night,
and whatever they were doing
brought forth something
that they just didn't expect,
that they weren't prepared for.
Provoking spirits, I don't
think that's a good idea.
You have to treat
these energies with respect.
And if that doesn't happen,
you do open yourself up to
a lot of scary stuff.
And I think a piece of
whatever it was stuck with me.
To this day,
it wakes me at night.
I still have nightmares.
It haunts me
during the day, too.
Any time I hear kids laughing,
fills me with terror
'cause I'll hear
what I heard that night.
Just because you can get away
doesn't mean that it's gone.
Just because you escape
physically
doesn't mean you will mentally.