The UnXplained (2019) s01e01 Episode Script

WILLIAM SHATNER:
Deadly forests.
Haunted houses.
[children laughing]
Mountains where visitors
never return alive.
Are there such things
as evil places?
Places that are really born bad?
There are those who believe
that not only is such
an incredible notion possible,
but that there are literally
thousands of these places
all around us.
But how could
a seemingly harmless destination
like an amusement park
really be thought of as cursed?
[chuckling]:
Well
that is what we'll try
and find out.
♪
SHATNER:
In central Japan,
60 miles southwest of Tokyo,
lies the Aokigahara forest.
Located at the base
of Mount Fuji,
it is considered by the Japanese
to be sacred.
Although, in recent years,
many believe
that these woods have become
not a holy place,
but a place of evil.
Each year,
shockingly high numbers
of people come here
to end their own lives.
So many, in fact,
that the place has become known
as the Suicide Forest.
If you ever walk through
any other woods or forests,
you always hear the birds,
and you hear rustling,
and you hear
all sorts of things,
but not in Suicide Forest.
In Suicide Forest,
it's just completely
and absolutely silent.
[silence]
I didn't see a living thing
other than those plants,
and I certainly didn't
hear anything.
So, it's the silence
that really hits you at first.
It definitely had
a different feel to it,
and that kind of raises
the anxiety.
A lot of locals will tell you
that as they grew up
near the forest,
they were told
never to go there.
It's a dark, scary place.
It's not a place for you.
Stay away from it.
DOMINIC STEAVU: Aokigahara
literally translates
as "the field of green trees."
This forest is also known
as the Jukai,
"the sea of trees."
Many people go
and commit suicide,
typically by hanging, or also
by prescription drug overdose.
Officials have stopped
publicizing the numbers
so as to not encourage
more people to go there,
but it really has become
a magnet for suicides.
SHATNER:
At the entrance to the park,
signs are posted
advising those who enter the
forest with suicidal thoughts
to stop and turn back.
It is a warning
meant to prevent people
from being swallowed up
by the darkness of this place,
a darkness
from which there is no return.
These signs tell people,
please don't commit suicide.
Think of your parents.
Think of your family.
They give you information
on who to call
if you need some help.
It's very clear that this
is a concern of theirs.
They know it's a problem,
and they ask you,
"Please don't do this."
And you'll see
those signs everywhere,
which remind you
of how prevalent the problem is.
STEAVU:
Aokigahara is also
a non-camping forest.
So camping
is strictly forbidden,
yet people
who contemplate suicide
sometimes bring their tents.
We do have lots of these traces
of the departed
that remain in the forest,
from personal effects
to thread marking the paths.
ONO:
Part of the mystique
of Suicide Forest is
quite often people
who want to commit suicide
will bring these ribbons
because they haven't figured out
whether they really want
to do it or not.
So they'll tie the ribbon,
and if they change their mind,
they could find their way out.
But if they don't change
their mind,
at the end of that ribbon,
you may find a body.
SHATNER:
The Suicide Forest
has one of the highest
suicide rates
of anywhere in the world.
But unlike other such places,
like the Golden Gate Bridge
or Niagara Falls,
where people jump
to their deaths,
here they come to experience
a different
and arguably more disturbing
method of release.
In Japanese belief,
any person who dies
has to receive a proper,
um, ritual treatment
in order to transition
to the world of the dead.
If they don't receive
these very specific--
generally Buddhist-- rites,
there's a belief that the soul
of the deceased person
will linger in the physical
plane of existence.
If someone commits suicide
in the spot, it's believed
that the yurei,the ghost,
will be hanging around that spot
where they committedcide--
they're tied to it there.
So it becomes
a potential danger spot
if other people
are just walking through it.
They can get lured by the yurei,
who's gonna
influence them somehow
to commit suicide themselves.
Aokigahara becoming
a suicide spot
is a relatively
recent phenomenon
that started in the 1960s.
It can be traced back to a novel
called The Tower of Waves,
in which two of
the main protagonists
could not live out their love,
and then decided
to commit suicide
This is one of the reasons
towhy the forest became.
a very famous suicide spot.
DAVID WHITEHEAD:
It's rather strange
that they say
around a hundred bodies a year
are found in that place.
And it begs the question,
is there something
about the place itself
that attracts people to go there
to commit suicide?
GEORGE NOORY:
It probably started off
as just a dense forest,
but as more and more people
killed themselves in this place,
I think the evil permeates
all over the place,
and it's probably affecting
people who go in there.
SHATNER:
Evil
permeating the atmosphere?
Could such an extraordinary
and frightening notion be true?
I think everybody has gone
to a certain spot
and they feel uncomfortable
with it.
They just don't know
exactly why,
but they just don't feel right.
They feel like,
"Something's wrong here."
"This doesn't feel good to me."
"It's kind of evil."
There are certain regions
that have had bad things
happen to it.
And you can feel it.
We have to realize
that the human body
is one of the most ultimate
pieces of scientific equipment.
You have so many different types
of sensors on your body.
You can see, smell,
hear, taste, feel.
And all that information
that you're receiving
from your environment causes you
to feel the way you do
at any given second.
So, if your body
is not feeling right
and your brain is telling you
something's not right here,
it is possible that
it's an evil location, right?
SHATNER:
In recent years,
scientists studying
the morbid phenomenon
of Japan's so-called
Suicide Forest have suggested
that the answer
to the mystery might be
not a paranormal one,
but geological.
One of the really interesting
things about Suicide Forest
is it didn't exist, uh, until
the last massive eruption
of Mount Fuji,
which was more than
a thousand years ago,
and that's what laid out
this enormous bed of lava
that eventually hardened.
There are chambers
within the ground.
And in these chambers
is where people will go into
and commit suicide.
Some of them will
just take pills and lie down,
and eventually,
you'll find a body
inside one of these chambers.
There's a possibility
that the volcanic region--
the rocks, the basalt--
might have some sort
of piezoelectric-type material
within them
that could generate electric
and magnetic fields.
And it's also known
that electromagnetic fields
do impact the brain activity.
I would think,
from the evidence,
that this geomagnetic field
is having some impact
on mass depression.
The connection
between magnetic anomalies
and chemical reactions
in the brain could lead
to a type of depression
that would enhance suicide.
You can imagine a person
who is suicidal
or thinking about suicide,
but is fundamentally
uncomfortable with the idea,
moving into one of these areas.
And this interaction makes them
just comfortable enough
that now they will carry through
on the suicide.
SHATNER:
Could hundreds
of ritual suicides
really be the result of
magnetic anomalies in the brain
caused by the unique properties
of volcanic rock?
Or, as many Japanese
themselves believe,
could the cause be something
even more incredible?
There's an old saying that says
what we do in life
echoes in eternity.
And if we have a forest
where hundreds of people
have gone to that forest
to commit suicide
for over 60 years,
could the dark energy
of all of the departed souls
be lurking there?
Could that energy
be what is attracting people
to come to the forest?
SHATNER:
Tragic souls of the departed
luring others in
to join them.
A far-fetched notion, perhaps.
But no more bizarre
than what has been happening
at the Aokigahara forest
for the past six decades.
And no less disturbing
than what happened
to a group of hikers
on a mountaintop
nearly 4,000 miles away.
A mountain that the locals
have named
"Don't Go There."
SHATNER:
January 1959.
Nine mountaineers from
the Ural Polytechnic Institute
embark on a perilous journey
through Russia's Ural Mountains.
Their destination:
a remote mountain peak
known as Otorten,
which in the local
Mansi language means:
"Don't Go There."
STONEHILL:
They went out on this very
strenuous trek, or mission,
to show that the mountain
could be conquered.
As far as we know,
they were all experienced.
Igor Dyatlov,
who was in charge of the group,
had about seven missions
to his name.
Similar missions.
They were supposed just
to study the mountain,
to show that they can withstand
the incredible cold
in this desolate place,
and come back.
SHATNER:
A few days into their trek,
the hikers move through a
mountain pass with high winds
and poor visibility,
causing them to veer
miles off course.
Realizing their mistake,
and faced with the bitter cold
of the coming night,
they choose to stop and camp
on a slope called
Kholat Syakhl,
which in Mansi translates
to "The Mountain of the Dead."
[wind whistling]
STONEHILL:
It's a really windy area.
When I say "windy,"
the winds are horrible.
And they should not have
put the tent on that slope.
They could have done it easily,
what, 100 meters away,
in the forest.
They went against
all the knowledge
that experienced trackers
should have.
So, why would they
put it out there?
What drove them?
Nobody knows for sure.
[wind whistling]
SHATNER:
Weeks later,
when it becomes clear
that the group has failed
to return from its expedition,
a military search and rescue
operation is launched.
They find the campsite abandoned
and a tent
that has been torn to pieces.
Curiously, the investigators
determined that the tent
was cut and ripped open
from the inside,
and the hikers appear to have
fled in socks, or barefoot.
We're dealing with a group
of experienced hikers
who escaped their tent
in the middle of the night
without any reason,
unless something happened
to their minds.
SHATNER:
In search of the hikers,
the investigators move
to the edge
of a nearby forest.
What they eventually find
has defied explanation
for more than 50 years.
STONEHILL:
Four of them were
discovered initially,
and five of them
were found later.
And they all died differently.
Some of the bodies died
from exposure, and were intact.
Some of them were
dressed completely.
Most of them were naked,
so to say.
Others had horrible wounds
on them.
Their bones were crushed
inside their bodies.
Others, their skull was crushed.
One woman lost her tongue
and parts of her face.
Others were burned,
like somebody put
their feet in the fire
or they put it themselves.
[alarmed shouting]
They escaped like some force,
something scared them.
SHATNER:
The official causes
of death for the hikers
claimed that six had died
from hypothermia,
and the other three
from fatal injuries
caused by an unknown
compelling force.
But the inquiry was forced
to an abrupt end
by the Soviet government,
and the chief investigator
refused to sign off
on the final report.
STONEHILL:
There were two investigators,
initially,
and they were told to shut up
and close the case
with the determination
that the cause of death
was an invisible force of nature
that killed them.
NOORY: In some cases,
the fact that some of them died
from the bitter cold, okay,
that makes sense.
They're in a region
that's freezing.
But what about the other people?
Fractured skulls, crushed lungs.
There's something weird here.
SHATNER:
What was the "compelling force"
that inflicted such brutal
and grotesque harm
on these victims?
While some have speculated that
it could have been an avalanche
or even an attack
by Mansi tribes,
there was virtually no evidence
to support these claims.
Others point to local legends
of some kind of monster.
A creature capable
of tearing people apart
with its voice.
There are descriptions
of Mansi warning people
not to go to this mountain,
not to go to this area,
because the sounds that come
from there can kill you.
The entity that lives
in that mountain
emits horrible
shrieking sounds
[shrieking]
that can destroy
human beings.
[shrieking]
SHATNER:
Recently, a new theory
has surfaced.
One that suggests
this mountain pass
may be just as deadly as
the Mansi name for it implies.
Not because of some
supernatural monster
[wind whistling]
but for a surprisingly
scientific reason.
So, this is a very windy pass
in the Ural Mountains.
Uh, in 2014, there was
some study that was done
that showed that the wind
kind of whipping through
because of the topography
caused low-frequency sound--
kind of a hum.
And low-frequency sound can
cause the eyeball to vibrate.
It can cause people
to see shadows
out of the corner of their eyes.
Especially if you're in
an environment
that is desolate, which is what
that was to begin with.
DENNIN: The dimensions and
the physics of the actual pass
are likely to lead
to very low frequencies,
which is exactly what
infrasound is.
Infrasound is just referring
to any sound
that's below our normal hearing.
But sound itself is just
pressure waves
and vibration of the air.
So your body is still
detecting it,
your ears are still
reacting to it,
your eardrums are moving,
and that's still generating
electrical signals
in your brain.
So there's an impact
of the infrasound
that we don't fully
understand yet.
TAYLOR:
Being exposed to this sound,
it's fatiguing your body.
Any type of fatigue
that's long-term
can cause significant
psychosis.
In fact, there were
several cases
on the Mirspace station
where the Russian cosmonauts
were exposed
to various vibrations,
and it caused them
to actually have psychosis.
I have a friend who worked
on consoles for Mir,
and he said that once,
one of the cosmonauts
actually pulled a knife
on one of the other cosmonauts
because of this type
of exposure.
STONEHILL:
It's not like, uh, a rock
falling on somebody's head.
It's happening inside
their minds.
And infrasound
is a powerful weapon.
And, apparently,
it's affecting those
who are coming to the mountain.
That's why it is
a hypothesis now
that is being explored
more and more in Russia
as to the cause of death
of the Dyatlov tourists.
I don't subscribe to the theory
that heavy winds
created an atmosphere
where these people went nuts.
I think there was
something else afoot,
something very evil and strange
that happened
to these nine hikers.
And I hope we get
the answers to it.
But again, maybe we don't want
the answer.
Maybe because it's so hideous
and so evil,
we don't want to know it.
Did the harsh windsof the Dyatlov Pass
really create
a low-frequency noise
that caused the hikers
to lose their minds
and brutally kill each other?
Or could it be that
a mysterious, unknown monster
was responsible
for the hikers' deaths?
For the nine men and women
whose bodies were found
horribly mutilated,
the question is academic.
As far as they were concerned,
evil happened here.
And it's an evil
that isn't only found
on remote mountaintops,
but right next door.
And often in
the unlikeliest of places.
Mercer County, West Virginia.
Here on the bank of Lake Shawnee
stands the abandoned remnants
of what was once a simple,
wholesome family amusement park.
[carnival music playing]
Opened in 1926,
the park thrived for decades,
until it was abruptly closed
in 1966.
According to local historians,
the reason for the closure
was that what started
as a playground for children
[children's laughter echoing]
became the site
of numerous tragic
and disturbing incidents.
[children's laughter echoing]
In the 1940s, a little girl
was riding the swings,
to the concession stand.k
delivered soda
[children's laughter]
And whenever he did,
he backed up
into the path of the swing,
and it killed the little girl.
SMITH:
They tried to play it down
because it was a child
getting killed.
She wasn't the only child
killed here.
There were several kids
that drowned.
One was a really sad story,
and I would hope
it wouldn't happen nowadays.
[splashing, children's laughter]
A mother brought
her nine-year-old here
and dropped him off
to go swimming.
And she went on her merry way.
She came back
when the park was closing,
and she couldn't find her son.
And they looked for the son
until 10:00 at night,
when they found him.
His arm was stuck
in the drain
of the swimming pool,
and it had sucked him in,
and he couldn't get out,
and he had just drowned.
There was another incident
where there was a family out
on an outing.
They was riding a canoe
in the lake.
-The canoe overturned
-[boy screaming]
and a little boy drowned
in the lake.
SHATNER:
Before its doors were closed,
six children had died
in the park.
And that might have been
reason enough for the park
to remain closed
but it didn't.
In 1985, local resident
Gaylord White
purchased the property
with hopes of reopening it.
JEWELL WHITE:
In the 1950s,
Gaylord, my husband,
worked here
when he was in high school.
He fell in love with it.
So that was his wish,
that someday he would
own the park.
And somebody had sent us word
that the heirs
d finally decided
they were going to sell it.
That's how we bought it.
We wanted to have
a children's ride park.
SHATNER:
For years, locals believed
that the park was haunted.
Maybe even cursed.
Then, in the late 1980s,
the White family
made some curious discoveries.
CHRIS:
We started finding
a lot of pottery
and Native American tools
and arrowheads, stuff like that.
So we stopped doing
the bulldozing.
We called Marshall University.
They put together
an archaeological team
that would come down
to the park.
They started uncovering bodies.
So that's when we knew we had
a Native American burial ground
on the property.
I know that one
of the burial sites
was a Native American
14-year-old girl,
and the belief is that she died
from giving childbirth
because the child was buried
next to her.
SHATNER:
A series of tragic deaths
at an amusement park
built on the site
of a Native American
burial ground?
-A coincidence?
-[children's laughter echoing]
As far as paranormal
investigators are concerned
not a chance.
SPINKS:
The first time I stepped foot
on Lake Shawnee Amusement Park,
I felt like I was being watched.
It was an ominous,
just negative feeling.
I don't necessarily believe
that places are born bad.
I believe that things
have to occur
for a place to become
negative in nature.
CHRIS:
People said whenever
they come to the park
that they see the swings
move on their own,
or maybe they see an image
of the little girl
that's riding the swings.
SMITH:
Seeing only one swing move
when I look at it,
and no one else sees it,
or it stops as soon
as someone else is looking,
that's pretty scary.
More than scary,
it's unexplained.
We tend to be scientists now,
all of us.
We know everything
that's going on.
And when you see something
that you don't understand,
it gets to be creepy.
AUERBACH:
Millions of people
have had these experiences.
Not just hauntings,
but also of ESP experiences
and-and related experiences.
These are questions that science
should be looking at
very carefully and closely.
And to say,
oh, it's mass hallucination
or it's this kind of explanation
without looking into
the experience itself,
either the singular
or the general patterns,
is not scientific.
It's highly unscientific.
SHATNER:
Is the dark history
of the Lake Shawnee
Amusement Park
the result of a curse
placed upon anyone
who dares to desecrate
this sacred ground?
Or was the area always
a place of evil?
A place where bad things
will always happen,
regardless of what
is built there?
Perhaps the answer can be found
by examining a place
where some people believe evil
not only happens
but can actually be measured.
Not only in fear and suffering,
but scientifically.
And can be proven
to be as tangible
as flesh and blood.
SHATNER:
Cayuga, Indiana.
February 16, 2019.
Paranormal investigator
Dave Spinks
and his associate Haley Sharp
have traveled here
to this small town
to investigate a house
that many consider
to be the most evil place
in North America.
Referred to as Willows Weep,
it has been the site
of a series of gruesome deaths
since it was built
in the 19th century.
Brenda Johnson
owns Willows Weep.
-Hi, Brenda.
-Hi, Dave.
SHATNER:
She dismissed the rumors
about it being an evil place
and purchased it
only a few years ago,
with plans to renovate it.
-This is my assistant, Haley.
-Hi.
-Hi.
-It's nice to meet you.
SHATNER:
But recent events
have convinced her
that she may have made
a terrible mistake.
To this end,
she's invited Dave and Haley
to come and investigate
the house,
and see if her strange
experiences can be verified.
SPINKS:
So how are you doing?
[chuckling]:
Not good standing here.
All night last night, I was sick
thinking about coming over here
around this house.
So tell us a little bit
about the house,
some of your experiences here.
Well, when I bought the house,
we started working on it,
and then my son was
working on the ceiling,
the boards come flying off
at him and hurt him, and
I've been scratched in there.
Six claw marks down my back.
Doors slamming on you,
banging underneath the floors.
SPINKS:
I understand there's been deaths
in this house.
Can you kind of go
through those a little bit?
Yeah.
The man that built the house,
he died in the bathtub.
There was two suicides,
and then another hanging.
And I heard that three men
had been poisoned.
About six months prior
before I bought it,
there was a man that,
he committed suicide in there.
He fell into the chair and
SPINKS:
That's where they found him?
They found him, what,
a couple days later, right?
-JOHNSON: A week.
-SPINKS: A week?
Week later. Okay.
Do you think what's
in that house is evil?
Yes, I do.
-Without a doubt?
-Yes, I do, without a doubt.
If it wasn't evil,
it wouldn't be hurting people.
I don't think there's
nothing good in there.
-The house was built
in the late 1800s, correct?
-Yes.
-SPINKS: So, regarding
the shape of the house,
it's in the shape of a-a cross.
Upside-down cross.
-SPINKS: Strange.
-JOHNSON: Yes.
[chuckling]:
Very strange.
SPINKS:
Do you think the guy was
into some weird stuff,
like occult stuff,
that built it?
Why would you build
a house like that
if you wasn't into something?
SPINKS:
Absolutely.
So we're getting ready
to go into this house
and investigate it.
Would you like to join us?
No. No way.
Never go back in there again.
-Ever.
-All right. We're gonna
-get in there and investigate.
-All right.
-SPINKS: Here we go.
-SHARP: All right.
Pretty heavy in here.
SHARP:
Definitely.
Well, where do you want
to get set up?
-Right here.
-Okay.
SHATNER:
To see if the house
might contain strange anomalies,
Dave and Haley will use
a temperature sensor,
which can detect fluctuations
in both temperature
and electromagnetic fields.
All right, 41, 40 degrees,
and it's going down.
SHARP:
It really likes this area.
SPINKS:
Yeah. It's going nuts.
SHATNER: The temperature sensor
has been dropping steadily,
by as much as nine degrees.
But why?
So, this room is appearing to be
-pretty active so far.
-Yeah.
I mean, the whole house
really is.
But we've got a lot of hits
right here, uh, on this device.
SHARP:
This is the chair
that Brenda was talking about.
SPINKS:
Yeah, look at the blood on it.
It's a really sad,
heavy feeling right here, too,
in the pit of my stomach.
Almost immediately, the device
started going off in the chair,
where a man who killed himself
in the house several years ago
-was found in.
-SHARP: Something there.
SHATNER:
Could the strange changes
in the temperature of the house
be caused by some
explainable force?
A sudden drop
in barometric pressure
caused by the presence of a deep
underground well, perhaps?
Or could it be caused by
something else?
Something that can't yet
be explained?
I'm getting the sickness,
the headache.
Definitely something negative
in here, in my opinion.
-I agree.
-All right, so let's
get out of here.
-Let's go.
-All right.
SHATNER:
Dave and Haley are beginning
to suspect that the stories
of Willows Weep
being an evil place
might be based on more
than fear and superstition.
SHARP:
The house is scary.
I wouldn't want to be
in this house alone.
I'd say this house
does have some evil in it.
It does not give you
a good feeling.
It wants to suck the life
out of you.
SPINKS:
I've been to many locations,
and this one stands out
above all of them so far.
In my personal opinion,
there are many spirits
and entities in this house.
There are human spirits
and possibly demonic spirits
that influenced the humans
that have lived in this house
and quite possibly have
caused them to harm themselves.
SHATNER:
Once outside, Dave and Haley
give owner Brenda Johnson
a report on their findings,
but not before
Dave makes Brenda
a rather surprising offer.
I know you really don't
like this place.
-No.
-And I know that you want
to get rid of it.
-Yeah.
-Because I'd like to purchase
the house from you.
[laughs]
-Mm-hmm.
-Okay.
-Yes.
-SHATNER: Dave is willing to be
-the next owner of Willows Weep.
-All right.
-All right. Thank you.
-Thank you, hon.
SPINKS:
I told Brenda,
if I owned this house,
I could investigate it
much further
and much more in-depth,
and possibly come
to a conclusion
as to what's causing the evil
that lurks within its walls.
That is, if something
doesn't happen to me first.
JOHNSON:
You, too.
SPINKS:
Luckily for me, she agreed.
She really couldn't wait
to sell the place.
Was Willows Weep really built
to attract evil spirits?
For Brenda Johnson,
Dave Spinks and Haley Sharp,
the answer
is a very disturbing yes.
But why would someone
deliberately want to construct
an evil place?
Unless, perhaps, it wasn't meant
to attract demonic spirits,
but to entrap them,
in an effort to create
a deadly warning
that demons are real.
SHATNER:
Honduras, February 2015.
[birds chirping,
insects trilling]
Deep in the heart of the jungle,
a team of American explorers,
journalists and archaeologists
make a dramatic discovery:
evidence of an ancient city
that has been lost
for more than 500 years.
We were standing there
on the banks of this river,
and the archaeologist was
pointing to this wall of jungle
and saying, across the river,
"That's the beginning
of the lost city."
So we crossed the river
with the soldiers with machetes
cutting a path for us.
And all of a sudden, there it is
rising up out of the jungle.
Just straight up, practically.
It was the most amazing thing.
And then what we saw
was a cache of sacred objects
carved out of stone
that had been left
at the time
the city was abandoned,
and this was a gigantic mystery.
Why did these people leave
all of a sudden?
SHATNER:
The expedition announced
that they had uncovered
the top level of a vast city
which has been buried under
centuries of jungle vegetation.
Soon afterwards,
many began to speculate
as to whether the ruins
were those of a legendary place
known to Hondurans
as Ciudad Blanca,
or the White City,
a place that was believed to
have been deserted centuries ago
because of a deadly curse.
When we went to do
our ground expedition in 2015,
many of the local Hondurans and
the Honduran Air Force people
that were with us
and the special forces people
said, "Oh, yeah, my grandmother
or my grandfather told me
"all about the lost city
when we were kids,
and they said it's cursed."
They said, "If you go there
and you pick any of the flowers,
you will die,
you will never come back."
TOK THOMPSON:
In the case of the White City,
there is a very interesting
tradition of a Tawahka Indian
who came to live there
with them,
uh, and they refused him
shelter, chased him out.
And in turn, he cursed the city,
-and he cursed that area
-[man screaming]
so that it became, basically,
a poisonous area to live in
and the people had to abandon
their city and leave.
PRESTON:
You know, we heard
these stories,
but, you know, we're scientists.
We're anthropologists,
archaeologists, ethnobotanists.
You know, we don't believe
in curses.
Or so we thought.
But, you know, sometimes curses
are based on the truth.
♪
ELKINS:
After we completed
our first ground expedition,
everybody came back alive,
nobody got injured.
We're shaking hands,
tipping a beer and going,
"Great, we made it."
You know, everyone survived.
We all had hundreds
of bug bites.
Didn't think anything of them
until about a month later.
And 60% of our crew,
including the Hondurans,
they had a bug bite
that didn't go away.
It got bigger.
Eventually, it became a big
open wound, a big open ulcer.
A couple other people
became very, very ill.
Two of them almost died.
And then we had them diagnose it
at NIH, and they said, yes,
you have leishmaniasis, but not
even just regular leishmaniasis.
This is an entirely new one.
We just did a genetic sequence,
and it's a really virulent one
we've never seen before.
SHATNER:
More commonly known
as "flesh-eating disease,"
leishmaniasis is a rare
parasitic disease
that is spread by the bites
of certain sandflies.
The affliction eats away
at the skin
of the limbs, nose and mouth.
The new strain
that infected the explorers
is particularly aggressive
and, if not treated properly,
fatal.
But even so, a parasitic disease
is hardly proof
of an ancient curse.
Or is it?
WHITEHEAD:
What's interesting
about the legend of this curse
is that it actually does
appear to be true.
How can we explain that hundreds
of years ago,
a man left a curse saying
that, forevermore,
people will be ravaged by
disease and all of these things,
and then we actually
see it happen?
SHATNER:
Was it merely a coincidence
that the American team
happened to contract
a deadly and previously
unknown disease
at a site believed to be cursed?
Or could the curse
have been real?
As far as journalist
Doug Preston is concerned,
the answer is obvious.
PRESTON:
I used to think that curses
were just kind of silly,
but not anymore.
Next time I go somewhere
and I'm told that it's cursed,
I'm really gonna
think twice about it.
SHATNER:
If evil places really do exist,
is it possible to cure them?
To rid them of the pestilence
that infects anyone
who gets too close?
There are those who believe
the answer is a profound yes.
And it involves fighting fire
[man screaming]
with fire.
SHATNER:
Dogotuki Village, Fiji,
July 2018.
Members of a church group
set two houses on fire
and burn them to the ground.
The blaze is intended
to purge the village
of evil spirits believed
to have been responsible
for the recent deaths
of 20 people.
These houses were older houses,
but they had been
traditionally associated
with magical practices
and the reports of witchcraft
being practiced.
WHITEHEAD:
And as they burnt the places
down to the ground,
some of the villagers reported
seeing a demon
come out of the ashes.
And they've reported all kinds
of really creepy things
that happened once they tried
to burn down those houses.
So the question is:
Were they successful
in getting rid of evil
in that place?
Or did they actually just
aggravate it more
by burning those houses
to the ground?
THOMPSON:
Fire is a very common means
of spiritual purification.
And so many different traditions
incorporate fire in some sense,
very often
for its destructive properties,
and yet at the same time,
cleansing properties.
I've had a lot of people on my
radio show who have apparently
cleansed haunted houses
and haunted areas.
They talk about putting sage
around the perimeter
of the house
and things like that that chase
away the evil spirits.
But by and large,
I'm not sure that works.
I think once a place is haunted,
it's gonna haunt,
it's gonna do what it does.
ONO:
I think there are energies in
life that we don't understand.
Either created
through our own minds
in our own physical energy,
or perhaps
the physical energy of a place.
There are places where people
have died either violently
or tragically, and that creates
this dark energy.
There might be some
negative spirits, some ghosts.
And that force
that's happening within it
could also affect people.
SPINKS: I've been to some of the
most evil and nasty locations
one could imagine, and I've seen
people's lives ruined
by these negative evil forces.
And in my opinion, some of these
locations are stained forever
with the blood and the energy
of these tragic events.
These murders, these suicides.
And to me,
that can never go away.
Fire,
cleansing the evil that infects
certain cursed places.
Nonsense, right?
As far as you're concerned,
there's no such thing
as evil places.
Well, then maybe you'd like
to spend the night
at Willows Weep, hmm?
Or ride the swing set
at Lake Shawnee Amusement Park.
Or perhaps you'd like
to have a picnic lunch
at Japan's Suicide Forest.
No?
What's the matter,
are you frightened?
Or are you just too smart
to tamper with things
in the world
that are The UnXplained?
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A E NETWORKS