The vast North American wilderness
is home to evil forces thought only to exist in nightmares.
But the terrible creatures that roam here are all too real.
And the deep, dark forest is home to another evil...
Satanic cults.
Probably not a good idea to get involved in it.
We chose Friday the 13th on purpose.
Those who seek them out may not live to tell the tale.
A punishment by death.
Hey!
It didn't seem real. It seemed like a dream.
What have we gotten ourselves into?
Is the Devil real?
Whether you believe or not,
there are those who seek to commune
with the dark power of evil.
I can't give you an exact figure,
but satanic rituals and cults certainly do exist,
and from what I understand, they may also be on the rise.
Sean Seebach and his friend, Joe,
are about to find out some things
are better left to the imagination.
Things aren't always what they seem, I suppose,
and maybe sometimes the cookie-cutter places
can be some of the most strange and dangerous.
The story is kind of the coming-of-age story.
Growing up in a small town surrounded by forest,
there really isn't much for a kid to do,
except maybe get into trouble.
It's just a typical, you know, American small town.
I think the population at the time
was just over 200 people, so a very small town indeed.
But such places are full of dark secrets.
Hey!
You start to hear stories from the "outer" classmen,
so to speak...
The guys in leather jackets
who'd smoke cigarettes and drink beer.
So you guys think you're pretty cool, huh?
I bet you're not tough enough to go up
to the old Girl Scouts camp.
Why would we go to the old Girl Scouts camp?
There's devil worshippers up there doing sacrifices.
Well, first, when we heard about the abandoned campsite,
we just thought that it was them trying to scare us
and spook us, jerking around, trying to have fun with us.
You've been?
Yeah, I've been.
- We'll go. - And we'll get proof.
To be honest, I think that there was a part of us
that wanted to go back there and prove our worth,
prove to not only the older kids but to ourselves as well
that we're courageous enough to face this,
and if we can get proof, even better,
and then we'll have something to show
the other kids in this town.
Maybe you shouldn't take on every dare,
especially when it comes to satanic cults.
Well, cults, by definition,
or, historically, they are very secretive
and then don't want to have their secrets
revealed to the rest of society.
We chose Friday the 13th on purpose.
I mean, it's Friday the 13th.
When you're younger, that's a big deal.
We didn't tell our parents at all, absolutely not.
We had no idea what we were going to find,
and nobody knew that we were going back there.
Just got into his car and drove there at night.
We took a drive, a long drive, around some back country roads
just to kind of make sure that we wanted to do this.
The longer we drove, the more we got ourselves psyched up
and the more real it felt and became,
and then the question kind of fell upon us.
Like, what if they really are back there?
Perhaps what's most disturbing after one finds
a small cult, satanic cult, within your small town,
your next thought may be, "Who else in the town?
Who do I know may be part of that cult?"
We needed proof that we actually saw something,
so we decided to bring a disposable camera
with a flash with us.
This was before the days, of course,
of, you know, cellphones and all that.
This camp has been deserted for decades.
Sean and Joe have to leave
the car behind and hike almost a mile...
Here we go. To get to the woods.
Completely ignored the no-trespassing sign.
What are we doing?
This is so stupid.
Even though the camp is abandoned,
the friends get the sense they aren't alone.
Once we started on foot and as we approached the forest,
we're walking very slowly, tiptoe-ish
so we wouldn't be seen.
That's when we started to hear tribal drums.
Do you hear those drums?
Yes.
Okay. Come on. Why?
Shh!
Maybe heading deeper into the woods is not a good idea,
at least, not without weapons.
The question is, where do they find them?
The boys luck out and stumble upon the defenses they need.
There was, like, a tire iron.
There was, I think, maybe a baseball bat.
My palms were sweaty. My heart was racing.
The adrenaline was just pumping through my body.
It kind of seemed like a dream as we started to approach
the actual entrance to the woods.
They may be armed, but that doesn't mean
they're ready for what's out here.
On Friday the 13th,
Sean and Joe head to an abandoned
Girl Scouts camp in search of a satanic cult rumored
to conduct rituals here, and as they get closer,
they start to suspect something evil is lurking in the woods.
Well, cults, by definition,
or, historically, they are very secretive,
and should any member of society outside of the cult stumble
across one of their rituals,
there would be a consequence to that.
The woods are very thick.
The trees are very tall,
and there's, like, an entrance to the forest,
but where the trees start, they kind of branch
over each other, creating, like, this weird tunnel.
It's really cool and fascinating
but really kind of creepy at the same time
when you're back there at night, and you see the moon.
As the boys near the source of the drumming,
their fear grows stronger.
It was kind of like an out-of-body experience,
I guess I could say.
It didn't seem real. It seemed like a dream.
That's when we started to hear a woman screaming.
I've never heard any woman ever shriek like that
except for in the movies
when they're being chased by somebody in a mask.
Then we saw torches bobbing up and down going across the trail.
It all happened really fast,
and it was really just a rush of excitement and fright.
What is that?
I don't know.
We got to get a picture of this.
Let's go around.
Sean and Joe find a hidden vantage point
and finally catch a glimpse
of what outsiders are forbidden to see.
There was a statue of the Virgin Mary,
a decapitated deer head sitting on top of it
where her face would be...
and there was dinner cutlery stuck throughout the statue,
like, dinner forks, dinner knives,
and there was, like, blood running down the statue.
And in our minds, we thought,
"Maybe she's being sacrificed to Satan, something like that."
My first thought when I saw that was,
"This is absolutely 100-percent real.
What have we gotten ourselves into?"
It's not just the cult they have to worry about,
but also what horrors they may summon.
What can come out of a satanic ritual,
the conjuring of a figure representing Satan
or the Devil or an evil energy
would be the endgame,
and how that energy is used afterwards is anybody's guess.
Yet there is an even greater danger these kids face...
getting caught.
Hey!
Sean and Joe went looking for devil worshippers on a dare.
Now their mission to find a satanic cult
has led them down a dark and dangerous path.
If this cult did manage to conjure an entity
or a physical being through their ritual,
that would probably scar the minds of the kids
who witnessed it in the first place,
and their worlds will undoubtedly
be turned upside down.
They want to return with proof of what they've seen.
I've got to get a picture of this.
Before the photo can be snapped,
they are caught seeing what outsiders...
Hey! Are not supposed to witness.
They spotted us.
They must have seen the flashlight.
If you're ever in a situation where you're being chased
by a large predatory animal,
that's the only way that I can describe the way I felt.
It must feel like being chased by a lion.
We just booked it.
The last thing they want is to be captured
by people who worship Satan.
Consequences can range from a stern
but scary warning to a punishment by death,
and not just of the witness
but to their family, to their loved ones.
We got in the car. We dove in, and we peeled out of there.
It was frightening and exhilarating,
and we were just kind of like, "Hol... What was that?"
They've escaped with their lives
but not with the proof they need.
What the hell?
We have to go back and get a picture.
Nobody is going to believe us.
Fine.
It was not my idea to turn back, but I was all for it.
I think at that moment, we're brothers in arms,
and we decided to just go back there and do it together.
All right, I got to get back in there, I guess.
That was a bad idea.
They discover their return has been anticipated.
We never got the photo.
Our intention 100 percent was to just get in
and get out as fast as possible
and snap as many pictures as we could.
That is not what happened.
When we saw those headlights, we said, "Oh..."
The passenger door swings open,
and this real squirrelly guy comes out
and just immediately runs toward the car.
"Why did we come back? This was a stupid idea."
Hey!
His eyes are bloodshot red, and he's just...
He's going crazy.
What do you think you're doing here?
Smacking the driver's side window
and just starts beating on the windshield with his hands.
Huh?
What are you doing here?
Cussing, swearing up and down...
- Hello? - Threatening us, telling us
that we made the biggest mistake of our lives.
So we just see this large silhouette
of a man slowly walk, very calm.
Hey!
The driver is very tall. He had broad shoulders.
He also had a beard, blue jeans,
just the typical blue-collar type of guy in a small guy.
What are you doing here?
We were just, um...
We were looking for a party. We got lost.
We're just looking for a place to turn the car around.
Uh-huh. Sure. You got ID?
Yeah.
Give it here.
"Joe, don't give him his license.
"He's going to know where you live.
He's going to get your address. Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh."
And Joe, you know, he takes out his wallet,
slipped it through the window.
I'm like, "No. What are you doing?
Don't do that! Don't do that!"
Get out of here.
Consider this a warning.
You come back, I've got my shotgun ready.
It all sends a message that, "You don't mess with us.
"You don't mess with what we believe in
and what we're trying to do."
My friend said, "Didn't this used to be
an old Girl Scout camp?"
Without missing a beat,
the driver, the big tall guy said...
Girl Scouts?
Boy, there hasn't been Girl Scouts
running through these woods in years.
That's all been taken care of.
We absolutely knew
that it had to have been part of the cult.
How else would those guys...
I mean, it's too coincidental for two random...
hillbillies to just
drive back there on a whim in the middle of the night.
Ahh!
Their eyes were just staring at us all the way back.
Ah!
And we drove forward and never looked back.
After tonight, it's impossible for Sean
to look at his town the same way again.
Once we found out that there was indeed a cult back there,
it did make me look at things in a different light.
To know that those people
weren't just from out of town,
that they actually could possibly be our neighbors,
was pretty scary.
Sean and Joe now understand
that you don't mess with devil worshippers,
let alone the Devil himself.
But many still haven't learned that lesson.
Zach and his friends are about to experience
what can happen when you call forth the Dark Lord.
Sean and Joe risked their lives
seeking out a satanic cult.
Consider this a warning.
You come back, I've got my shotgun ready.
But that's nothing compared to what happens
when you engage with the dark one himself.
Locals call this the Devil's Turning Point.
It's a piece of dead land in an isolated forest.
The air is thick with decay.
Very little manages to grow here.
Paranormal investigator Peter Roe
has studied the legend.
The Devil's Turning Point, it's an area of cleared land
in the middle of this naked forest
in Chatham County, North Carolina,
and the legend has grown since 1903.
They say Satan prowls this spot in the dead of night
ever since mankind ushered him forth.
Because of its sinister reputation,
the clearing has been the site of many satanic rituals.
That has opened the door for evil to come and stay.
Our best guess is that,
at some point in the not-too-distant past,
a ritual has taken place in this area,
and it may have created what's known as a portal
for demonic entities to come through
from one realm into our reality.
People avoid this place like the plague,
but every now and then, someone comes looking for trouble.
Everything that's happened, it was definitely like an omen
to stay away from this place.
Zach, his girlfriend, Lisa, and friends Colby and Tyler
went out in search of a thrill.
None of them was willing to go on camera to share their story,
but Peter Roe is very familiar with their case.
Well, Zach was a local resident
who had obviously heard of this legend
and wanted to see if the Devil does indeed show up
at the Devil's Turning Point.
This was a very dangerous experiment to try,
even with three or four people.
It was very, very, very risky.
So when Zach and his friends arrive,
they noticed a white cross was painted nearby,
just outside the clearing.
Come on, guys. It's just a bunch of lines.
- Hey. - Okay.
Now the cross could've meant one of two things...
Either safety for anyone who was about to enter the clearing,
or it could've been a symbol
that was keeping whatever was in the clearing
from leaving the clearing and keeping it caged.
If anything weird happens, you come back here.
Think this is the safe spot.
Okay.
Zach's good friend, Colby, came along as a skeptic.
He didn't believe in the legend at all,
thought it was all garbage
and wanted to be there to prove that to his friends.
But the rest of the gang believes the legend is real,
and they want to get proof that the Devil walks this land.
So Zach and his crew brought along
a couple pieces of equipment,
a digital camera and video camera as well,
and hopefully capture some sort of phenomena
that they could take back with them to show the world
that, yes, the Devil does indeed visit the Devil's Turning Point.
Colby brings his own test
for the fabled turning point, a sapling.
Going to these places, it's hard.
You definitely have to keep an awareness.
Messing with these things,
even no matter how experienced you are,
can get out of control.
Ooh, jeez. Whew!
So the group very tentatively
stepped into the clearing.
- This is it. - This is cold.
- This is it? - Yeah.
It's a bunch of dirt, guys.
- Ooh, it's spooky. - Here, take this. Ha ha!
- I can start a fire up here. - Yeah, it's freezing.
Hey, Zach, tell us what you're doing.
Well, we're starting a fire before it gets too dark.
We're going to try and see the Devil.
Apparently, he roams these lands.
I think we'll see Tyler pee his pants if we're lucky enough.
Dude, shut up. I'm trying to make a fire over here.
Colby had a bit of a jerk streak in him
and wanted to use this opportunity
to mess with his friends
and have a bit of fun for his own sake.
Yo, what's that?
Oh, you know, they said that nothing can grow here.
I want to prove them wrong.
What if it sprouts a tree demon?
Whatever, man. You're the one that believes in demons, not me.
Dude, why'd you even come
if you're going to be such a buzzkill?
Not being a buzzkill.
Grow, save the planet, prove you guys wrong,
that demons exist.
That's the spirit. Thanks for that.
Yeah, no problem.
Colby, was that lighter you gave me earlier empty?
Ugh. No, man.
I just bought that at the gas station.
It should be full. It's not working.
The group soon realizes something is
preventing them from building a fire.
- Yeah. - Just won't start.
Lisa was already feeling nervous going into this,
but once inside,
she reported feeling that they were being watched
from the perimeter of the circle.
I don't think we're alone.
People may also feel like they're being watched
or that there's just kind of a shiver sort of behind them.
That's...
Aah! You're such a bad boyfriend!
I got that on tape.
Oh, yeah, great.
Tyler and Colby and Zach and Lisa decided to split up.
Be up to you boys in a second.
All right.
And it turns out that that wasn't a very good idea at all.
All right.
We've braved our way through the woods all by ourselves.
How you doing back there, Lis?
Um... feeling a little weird, actually.
- It's kind of creepy. - Yeah, man.
Their search leads to something highly disturbing.
Don't laugh! It's not funny!
There were several paintings and images carved into the tree line
just outside the perimeter that were very creepy.
What is this?
Let's get out of here, yo.
Whew.
Let's just go back to camp, please.
All right.
Come on! I'm coming.
So as Zach and Lisa explore their side of the clearing,
Lisa feels a push from behind.
Aah!
And this freaked her out.
They are definitely not alone in the woods tonight,
and the Devil has plans for them.
I think something wanted to be found out there.
What is that?!
Hold my hand!
Zach, Lisa, Colby, and Tyler
head out to a site where satanic rituals
have opened a door for the Devil to walk through.
There are a lot of different types of things
going on behind the scene as far as evil rituals,
as far as cults, as far as people summoning
some of the darker energies that are out there.
And now the group has a sense that evil is here with them.
Aah!
What the hell was that?! I... What?
Why'd you push me? Babe, I didn't touch you.
An unseen force has nearly knocked Lisa over.
Something is out here, Zach, I swear.
And this prompts her to pull out her digital camera
and start taking photos of the area immediately.
Let's go. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Wait a second.
The flash seems to bounce back at them
as if it had hit a wall along the perimeter of this clearing.
This suggests to me that there may have been some sort of
a border or a wall of some kind that reflected the light.
Look at this. What is that?
And when Lisa looked down at her camera screen,
she noticed that there were several orbs
flitting about each of her pictures.
They began to think that perhaps there really
was something to the legend after all.
- Let's go back. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good call.
Wait for me.
Zach and Lisa turn back and head towards the clearing.
They start to see shadow figures up ahead of them
through the trees and voices as well that they figure
are Tyler and Colby's voices.
They see the clearing up ahead.
Through the trees, they see a shadow pacing around.
But when they reach the clearing, they're not there.
Tensions were pretty high at this point
when suddenly Zach felt a hand on his shoulder.
Where is... Aah!
Oh, my God!
Funny, Colby!
- Thanks, Colby. - You didn't have to do that.
Colby was having a grand old time at his friends' expense.
It's getting too dark. It's freezing.
We're not staying here all night, are we?
Of course we are.
This is funny. Yeah, hilarious.
You guys don't actually believe in this nonsense, do you?
Despite strong apprehension,
they decide to camp out for the night.
The longer they stayed there, the stranger things got,
and a sense of dread was palpable.
Yo, so I was trying to light this.
It wasn't lighting.
That's a new lighter, isn't it?
Yeah, Colby just got it.
Something is still preventing them
from building a fire.
And now, more trouble.
Hey, man, what's going on?
Zach started to feel sick to his stomach.
Zach, get up!
- Ahh! - Come on, Zach. What's wrong?
- My stomach! - Tyler, concerned for his friend,
started toward him.
Tyler! Tyler!
As he was moving to Zach,
he suddenly fell flat on his face and broke his nose.
Blood splattered everywhere.
Tyler, come on, man.
Jesus.
Here. Here.
- Guys! - Aah!
Wake up!
Because Tyler had dropped his flashlight
inside the clearing,
Zach returned to retrieve it, and as he did,
he felt a burning sensation on his lower leg.
You're okay, man.
Zach immediately rolled up his pant leg,
and by the light of the flashlight,
everyone could see what looked like bite marks
forming in red on his leg.
I have no explanation for bite marks of this nature.
These are not unheard of in areas of paranormal activity
where demonic entities or even Satan
is reputed to be present.
Oh, my God! I don't want to do this anymore!
Let's go! Come on, guys! Let's go!
At this point, Lisa is absolutely freaking out,
and she wanted to leave.
Fear is what is used to control people.
It happens a lot more than we really know about.
- What's the matter? - Are you kidding me?
Are you actually kidding me right now?
- There's nothing here, guys! - Look at his leg!
Colby had a different reaction.
The Devil does not exist!
There's something here!
He started to get more angry,
and the skeptic in him also came out,
and he decided to use a bit of provocation.
- Hello, Devil! - Colby!
Come on! Hello! Hail Satan!
Are you out there? Hmm! No!
There's no Devil here!
Calling out the Devil, asking him to show itself,
everybody else thought that was a bad idea,
and in most cases, that is a bad idea.
Hello, Devil!
Colby, stop messing around, man! It's not funny!
- Guys, look at this. - What?
Colby?
Lisa took another photo of him,
and when she looked at her screen,
she noticed a bright light seemed
or appeared to be entering Colby's body at the same time.
Get out!
And then that's when Colby started to change.
- None of this is... - Colby, you okay?
- Colby! Colby! - Ugh! Aah!
Come on!
Get off me!
And he began speaking in tongues,
languages that he wouldn't have known
and his friends have never heard him speak before.
It would seem that Colby,
by provoking the Devil or calling it out, got his wish.
Zach and his friends went to a clearing in the woods
where the Devil is said to prowl.
Zach's friend, Colby, called out the dark one.
Hello, Devil!
And it came for him.
Colby employed provocation, which is never a good idea.
- Colby! - Hello!
- Colby, stop! Colby! - Hello!
Now evil has Colby in its clutches.
- Guys? - What?
And he's turned on his friends.
Colby!
You just don't know what's there,
and challenging it on its own turf
is never a good idea.
At this point, Colby's eyes snapped open,
and they were no longer his.
They were glowing red.
Possession is the phenomenon
where we have our body and our mind
and our soul all occupying one space.
Another being actually moves into our physical body space
with our soul still being there.
And amazingly, Colby began to levitate
about 2 feet into the air.
Tyler rushed over to help Colby.
Both fell to the ground.
Tyler was now affected, writhing, screaming in agony
as if he were being ripped apart by an animal.
- Aah! Aah! - Get Tyler! Get him!
Lisa, his back's bleeding.
Zach and Lisa pull Tyler to safety outside of the clearing.
The word "Hell" has been scratched into his back
as if something with a claw had etched it there.
I want to go! Let's get out of here!
Let's get out of here, guys! Get him back to the car!
Tyler still had enough energy to help
Zach and Lisa drag Colby back out of the clearing.
Colby is pulled past the sapling
he planted mere hours ago, and it's already dead.
Luckily, that's not Colby's fate.
And almost as suddenly as it began,
Colby seemed to return to a normal state.
It's okay. We're at the...
They pass the white cross
that they'd passed on the way in.
The group hopes reaching the white cross
means they are finally safe.
This didn't turn out to be the case.
Oh, my God! Oh, my God! What is that?
Lisa looked up down the road.
A black, tall, thin figure of a man was standing,
watching the group.
Seeing this ominous black figure
watching them from just up the road was the final straw.
- Zach, get the keys! - I am!
- Let's go! - Go, go, go!
- He's going to find us! - Go, go!
And the four of them tumbled into the car,
and the car would not start.
Please hurry! Just please hurry! Come on!
- Come on! - Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
Go! Start! Let's go!
- Start this car! - Come on, man!
The last time the friends spot the figure,
it's but a few yards away from the car,
and that's when the car started,
and they tore out of there as fast as they could.
Go, go, go, go, go! Come on!
Five or six miles down the road,
Zach pulls the car over so that everyone can get out
and have a breather and reflect on what had just happened.
But there is no evading the Devil.
- Go, go, go! - Drive!
Go!
This time, there was no stopping the car,
and Zach drove everyone to the safety of their own homes.
Zach, Tyler, Lisa, and Colby have never been back.
Even though they escaped that night,
the ordeal doesn't end.
After that eventful evening, strange things happened
to all four of the friends for months,
and all four of them have experienced visions
of the thin dark man in their own homes.
The sighting of the thin man after the event
is not unheard of in paranormal circles.
Usually when an entity does this,
they're sending a message,
and that is, "You've come onto my territory.
I'm coming onto yours."
Like Zach and his friends,
Sean and Joe are also left scarred by their ordeal.
I went back a couple of years ago
because I wanted to write about the experience,
and I got as far as the gate,
and I'm not going to go back there.
I mean, I'm 36 years old now.
You know, I don't have any ghosts to chase.
It brought back a lot of the same feelings
that I had that night, and it's still pretty terrifying
when I think about it, and I think about how lucky
we actually were to get out unscathed.
I don't advise anyone to go looking for the Devil,
asking for the Devil, let alone provoking the Devil,
just for kicks especially.
From what I know, it's a life-changing experience.
It's one that comes with dire consequences,
and you just shouldn't do it.