In the Garden of Rot (2 page)

Most of the professors who taught Sam Carpenter at Virginia Commonwealth University had moved on. A couple had brief interactions and could vaguely remember him, certainly not by name, except one who had worked with Sam as recently as 2008, months before the infamous video.

KEVIN N.: He and his friend were their own team. I think his friend was in the Kinetic Imagery department. I don’t think he was in photography and film. But if they were working on a project for class then both were involved.  His name was something, I can’t remember.  But all their films were done together. In 2008, they were trying to make a feature length movie or something. They asked me to play a homeless guy in the background. It was fun. They had a lot of special effects planned.

(Sam) had done quite a few ones. Before muzzle flashes were an app you could drop in, he and his friend figured it out in Adobe Photoshop, and would alter frame by frame. They did a sword vs. assault rifle video. It was pretty good stuff. This was all before HD cameras and stuff really would’ve probably shown the rough edges.  But he did little practical. He’d super impose castles into backgrounds, or use layers to add texture to locations and such.  It wasn’t top-level stuff, but it was impressive given the tools he had at his disposal. It looked better than the effects in a SyFy Channel movie. That’s for sure.

Kevin N. had not seen the video clip in question, but he did agree that it could be part of a viral marketing plan or something. He’s seen a lot more filmmakers; especially independent ones who are taking the approach studios did with Christopher Nolan’s
The Dark Knight. 
The successful blockbuster film utilized a series of short clips, websites and eerie phrases to spark interest in the film’s villain, the Joker. The film grossed $534,858,444 according to the website
Box Office Mojo
.

KEVIN N.: You want people to be interested in your work. You give them a glimpse and a trail to follow.  Earned knowledge is more rewarding. It feels cool to be apart of something no one else has caught on to just yet. And today, with the information for everything out there already on the web, you kind of have to find a way to be mysterious. Show just enough that they want to ask what it was they saw and how can they see more.

In 2009, Sam Carpenter and Will Castle posted a casting call in the Virginia Commonwealth School of the Arts buildings. The flyer mentioned  “real-life horror” in the description and was looking especially for actors who were interested in “performance art.” Kevin recalled this and said it was part of Sam’s foray into using real footage in fictional stories. For instance, Kevin referenced a science fiction short film where Sam used footage from the fire that destroyed an in-construction VCU dorm in 2003. Sam lived about a block diagonally away in the 1100 West Broad Apartments, presently referred to as the Ackell Residential Center. The footage elevated the production value of the short film by providing it with an action sequence of rescue workers in the background as a massive blaze, that looked surreal to those who had become accustomed to the more Hollywood fashioned blazes.

KEVIN N.: It looked like the apocalypse.

Kevin noted that Sam continued this method, shooting at fairs, or outside of events or in busy public places. In comparison most other students were cautious, only using private locations and only actors.

KEVIN N.: (Sam) was near the head of his class in sound design as well.  Most students would avoid shooting on a busy street because of the need for ADR (additional dialogue recording) but (Sam) was using layers and layers of sound in the editing suite to create the right textures and learned from his friend how to shoot so we didn’t have to see the actors’ mouths not matching up to their voices. His projects were always thought out to avoid budget restraints. He was a problem solver, which is what a filmmaker has to be. It’s kind of a shame we haven’t seen what he could do with a real budget.

Sam Carpenter has not been involved in film production since 2009, I confirmed that with him in my interview, his tone was disappointed as he stated:

SAM: It just became too much to try and do. I lost interest in movies. I couldn’t afford to keep my technology up to date. Maybe one day, but for now I don’t have any interest in making more films, nothing to do with the clip, just more dealing with the stress of a production. You need people who will be as invested as you are otherwise you’re just spinning you wheels.

Sam Carpenter and Will Castle met and formed a bond in 2008 over a mutual interest in the progressive rock band
Yes
, the history of Richmond, Virginia, and a love of storytelling. They met on all things, a tour of Richmond from the Haunts of Richmond called
Shadows of Shockoe
.

SAM: It was a very inspirational night. (Will) had all these stories from having grown up in Richmond. I was from Nelson County where we had stories but not really. You could tell they were just repackaged urban legends and stuff. I talked about doing a film and Will was very interested. You need enthusiastic people to get a film made so right away I knew I needed to stay in contact with him and we started emailing pretty regularly and meeting up in The Fan, where I lived back then. We’d go to the Commercial Tap House and drink beer and discuss what scared us the most. It wasn’t small talk. We got into each other’s heads and really knew each other. He was a great friend.

In my first interview with Will, he said similar things.

WILL: We drank a lot of beer and bullshitted a lot about the things we wanted to do. I’m an old man. There was so much I’d left on the table, just sleeping through life I guess. Meeting Sam was a wake up call, he was almost half my age and already accomplishing so much it seemed. We’d just get drunk and then walk around The Fan coming up with all these stories he wanted to film.

Eventually these talks turned to the eastern Richmond neighborhood, Church Hill.
*Please note all of Will’s answers come from my first interview with him.

WILL: Church Hill is better than it was.  It’s still bad in spots, real bad. But it had this rich history where it seemed like only bad things could ever happen there. I told him the stories I’d heard growing up and he became obsessed with this idea that it was the center, a beacon for evil—For the story.

SAM: (Will) was real obsessed with Church Hill. He said that’s where the evil was. And it made sense, the crimes and such. It was all there, like there was some unseen cancer plaguing Church Hill. And I remember being a little scared to go there, but one day he got me drunk enough and we cruised on up there and I just saw all this potential. It is such a great location overlooking the city of Richmond. The view of the James River on a moonlit night, I was in love. So naturally the story was about good versus evil and this fight for a sacred piece of ground that no one else knew was right under their feet.

What was the plot of the film you were trying to make in 2009?

WILL: Just this creepy urban legend type story. We wanted to mix fact with fiction so people really believed it— like (the movie) Candyman.

SAM: A good horror movie, that’s all. Something that was spooky without all the torture porn that was occurring at the time.  Get back to the basics, like what James Wan ended up doing with
Insidious
and
The Conjuring
, that’s what I would’ve liked it to be.

Do you believe in the supernatural?

WILL: Sure. Father was a preacher.

SAM: Yes, but that shot wasn’t, if that’s what you’re asking. It was just meant to be spooky, okay. I think that when it was posted I didn’t say it was fake and people thought it was supposed to be proof of something. And it’s not. And then when they realized it was fake it got even more backlash.

Sam Carpenter was raised Catholic, attended a Catholic Private school from kindergarten through the eighth grade.

SAM: Fire and brimstone, religion was real cool. There weren’t any video games quite like today so closing my eyes and imagining fighting actual demons was real cool, so I did take stock in Catholicism. But then you grow up and part of the mystery and the fantasy goes away. Priests start emphasizing the Christianity parts of religion instead of the fight against Satan with all the archangels of Heaven. You’re kind of left with sunny Sunday mornings and droning homilies.

Sam no longer practices his religion.

Will Castle was raised Methodist and after his father retired from the U.S. Army, senior Castle became a preacher.

WILL: Always, there was always religion in my house. You kind of rebel a little from that. My sisters did, I did. You come back after a while because it is definitely a part of you. I don’t know if that was wrong on my parents’ part but I think in the long run a little religion can’t hurt you. I mean if it all turns out real at least you’re saved, right?

Were you religious when you two first met?

SAM: No, still wanted to be but I wasn’t practicing. I think I might’ve told people I was, but, no, I don’t think I really believed. I think (Will) understood that. We kind of bonded over this idea that we’d both been forced to believe something. He was real into
the Matrix
movies and sort of the question if all this around us was even reality. Working a dead end job will do that to you.

WILL: Yes, I was going to mass to see my father preach every Sunday.

On April 22
nd
, 1995 Will Castle was arrested on the charge of possession of bomb making material with the intent to use. The charges were reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor and ultimately dropped.

WILL:  It was gasoline in a glass bottle—a Molotov cocktail as they call it. I got pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving. I hadn’t been. I had this real crap car and couldn’t afford to get it fix. It was leaking gas so I filled up a soda bottle, they still had glass ones back then if you’re too young to remember. I had to go from Richmond all the way out to my house in Goochland and I didn’t own a gas can. Well I got pulled over and I guess they thought I was high or something and they wanted to search the car. So I told them (Henrico Police) ‘Go right ahead.’ You know, I was real obedient cause you don’t want to give them no cause.  And so they found it and freaked out before I got to say a word. They had a Fire Marshall there, asked if I had intended to use the gas in the bottle. And I said, ‘Yes.’ So I was arrested and real confused I can’t remember how long after the Oklahoma City bombing* it was, but that’s what did it. My ex-wife used to say it was because I was almost as handsome looking as Timothy McVeigh. Thank God we got a divorce, right?

*The Oklahoma City bombing was just 3 days earlier, April 19
th
1995. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols carried out the bombing. The domestic terrorist attack killed 168 people who worked in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and injured almost 700 people.

WILL: They realized I wasn’t on drugs or drinking and as soon as I explained and one of the officers had taken another look at my car, which was impounded and had no gas by the time they let me pick it up the next day. He saw I wasn’t kidding. But it was too late. I had a court date and had to get a lawyer and everything. Real embarrassing. I thought for sure I was going to go to jail or something. The judge I had was real pissy. And my court appointed attorney was some jackass. It was like he was trying to get me put away. Kept interrupting the judge. I’m there sweating bullets thinking I’m going to be butt raped for the rest of my life. But thankfully the Henrico Police officers testified on my behalf. It was real stand up of them. I cried a little. Real swell guys. Case was dismissed and I was free.  But then 9/11 happened and when I tried to fly to Atlanta in 2002 to see my Uncle, I was on a no-fly list. Had to do with that charge I’m sure of it. They don’t really wipe your record.

By law, the charge should’ve been removed from Will Castle’s background. A paid background check does not show the charge, however it does show the date of the arrest.

Sam Carpenter’s arrest came in 2011. He was charged with reckless endangerment of a child and found guilty. He paid a fine and served an undisclosed number of community service hours.

SAM: I was speeding like everyone does. I think I was doing 80 on I-64.  It was late and I got pulled over. I didn’t need to be speeding that’s just kind of how people drive on the interstate and they say you’re supposed to be safe if you’re only ten over. So it kind of ticked me off that I was getting pulled when I know tons of other people were flying by me that night.  I did everything right. I turned on the light in the car, had my registration ready and hands on the steering wheel so that the cop could see I wasn’t gonna do anything. But I also had my brother’s kids in my car that night. I’d taken them to see a (Richmond) Flying Squirrels game and they were exhausted and so when we stopped I think (Jeffrey) was five at the time, flipped. He woke up and just panicked because he didn’t know where he was or what the flashing lights were all about. So I looked like the worst uncle on the planet.

I did learn of where Sam spent the bulk of his community service hours and spoke with the director of the operation who had not been fond of the experience.  Per her request her name has been omitted along with the facility at which she works.

DIRECTOR: We get lot of people with community service. Most do it and move on, some are nuisances, lazy and just there to watch the clock tick. (Sam Carpenter) was memorable. He showed up drunk a couple times. Was belligerent and hateful.  He claimed our work was ‘evil.’ That I was ‘evil’. They’re not supposed to tell us why people are there but most times you can guess. I can only imagine he was there for being an asshole. And I shouldn’t be telling you this but I was just so sick of him that I said he served his hours after about a week. I’d just had enough. He was some kind of paranoid—very paranoid. It wouldn’t surprise me if he is schizophrenic.

SAM: Community service wasn’t so bad. Inconvenient, but probably better than a bigger fine or jail time. At least I was helping people.