In the Garden of Rot (3 page)

According to friends and co-workers Will Castle regularly held bonfires at his ten-acre property in Goochland County. Local bands that didn’t have a gig that evening provided loud rock music. The jam sessions were casual and lasting from sundown to about 3 o’clock in the morning on a regular basis. They were far enough from neighbors that no noise complaint was ever filed. Though the parties had been busted up Goochland Sheriff deputies a couple of times.

WILL: I think sometimes there’d be someone there that wasn’t supposed to be and their jealous girlfriend would get mad and call the cops. It was all good fun. No drugs. Never drugs. We were all too old for that.

In 2010, the Sheriff’s department responded to a call of a domestic disturbance. They arrived at the party after midnight and were informed the fight wasn’t anything and the involved parties had vacated.

WILL: I don’t know who called. I was busy trying to get Sam off the dude. Everything had settled down before they got there. A lot of people left, so it just looked like this casual get together. We were all polite and that was that.

SAM: It was a little misunderstanding that night. We were all drinking. Nice thing was no one sold us out when the cops came. You know, we were both standing there and I think sometimes people just get mad and some people freak when they think there’s going to be a fight. No punches were thrown. It just got intense for a moment. I know I wasn’t that drunk. I knew to back off.

Speaking with an attendee to Will’s bonfires the reason for the fight was actually far more interesting than just a slight misunderstanding.

ALISON P.: (Sam) was trying to tell ghost stories or something and it was creeping out some of the college girls that were there.  He wouldn’t stop. He was real drunk. I think he started drinking real early that day. He was drunk since he got there. And so when Brandon told him to stop, he wouldn’t. And Sam went off about what he knows and what he’s seen and that he had proof. It was pretty intense and they ended up wrestling. Sam kept saying he knew judo and was going to rape (Brandon) and yeah drunk guys.

BRANDON: He was just drunk and being an ass. You know. That’s all it was. I’ve gone to a couple more. Don’t think I’ve seen (Sam) there in ages. Probably for the best. No one really liked him.

WILL: Sam wore out his welcome, sure. Sure, that sounds about right. But no one would tell him to leave if he had come. He was busy with his kid after that I think. I think people, mankind as a whole, we’re always growing away from each other. I think if more people just moved on there wouldn’t be as many problems. Maybe we’d be more understanding if we kept walking in other shoes instead of trying to put the same ones on for a lifetime.

SAM: I got married, had a baby, and really if you’ve had a kid, you’d know. You don’t have that time to kill anymore. Any second you get you want it to yourself. I guess I missed going to (Will’s) bonfires but you know other things were going on. Maybe the next one.

Are you two still friends today?

SAM: Yeah don’t know why we wouldn’t be. He’s one of those guys I can call up and it’ll be like old times. Just a matter of finding time you know?

WILL: No.

When I started researching this video I only personally knew one person who had seen the video. He dismissed it as an Internet hoax.  There was a popular video that defied the special effects we were accustomed to in movies at the time in which a cellular phone is microwaved and suddenly reveals a demon’s head before it smashes through the microwave.   I sought it out because the same person who said it was a hoax still said,
“It’s still creepy as all hell.”
And as I started digging into the story, I definitely saw myself becoming obsessed with the idea that it could be real and that’s why it was removed.  But if you can find any comments or anyone who saw it, the reaction is always unanimously the same. It is fake. But the fight Sam started at the bonfire in 2010 was instigated by him claiming to have ‘proof’ of the supernatural. These were the same comments he allegedly made when the video was originally posted on Vimeo and later on YouTube.  That it was
proof
.

Here’s where things get interesting. The location they chose to film their special effect video was actually a well-known spot for paranormal activity according to me people and even websites detailing hauntings in the Richmond area.

Orbs were the most reported instance. Orbs are the spectral phenomenon of translucent spheres moving erratically through the air. They have been linked to dead souls (as they are often photographed in cemeteries) and even Dryad Fairies. But most orbs, as any professional photographer could tell you, are merely a result of camera flash and or how the camera lens picks up light off of dust or moisture in the air.

Other people have stories about this specific location.

Andy Rayford is a youth minister at a Hanover County parish. He is a favorite of many of the youth because he loved ghost stories and had given many tours of not only Hanover’s most haunted attractions but has even been a guest speaker for ghost tours in Richmond.

ANDY R.: I have been there. You know the one thing all haunted places have? The second that someone tells you that place is haunted you can feel it. I’ve never seen a ghost, but every spot that had ever had any kind of spectral occurrence feels different. But, I’ve only heard stories. I’ve never seen a ghost or orbs or even heard noises. It just feels different. But if someone had video? In a heartbeat—I’d believe it in a heartbeat. That would be proof.

Now, not even Sam Carpenter and Will Castle will tell you that. As I sat there in the first interview with Will, I couldn’t believe him as he told me it was just a special effect. That Sam knew how to do all kinds of stuff.

WILL: He was a good actor, too. I think what worked in that clip was that I believed that he saw something. So that’s why I’m believable, that and I am a dunce anyway, so my uh-duh performance is right up there for an academy award, right?

On the second interview he elaborated when asked:

But you react as if you saw something.

WILL: Sure, that was like the fifth take or something, you know. He coached me on how to respond when the flash happened, sure. And I know it wasn’t the first take. We tried a couple different things. Sometimes what I did or he did was too much. It was pretty funny.

Sam remembers the shooting differently.

SAM: It was a creepy location. I mean Church Hill middle of the night. We were two white guys in a black area known for crime. We weren’t supposed to be there.  Here we were joking about possible bloodstains on the sidewalk and setting up a camera and I think deep down we were both hoping we wouldn’t get killed. So I didn’t spend much time on the composition. I set the tripod up hit record and we got the heck out of there. It turned out great.

On my second interview with Will Castle I had informed him of Sam’s recollection and asked how long they had been there.

WILL: (fake laugh) Sure, sure. Maybe he’d like you to think he just set up and got that. We probably weren’t there an hour but it was a long time. I remember having to take a piss real bad and he kept saying, ‘one more take, one more take.’ It was exhausting.  Look it was all planned. We knew what we wanted. We’d been there a month or two before taking pictures of the location, pretty much got the same angle that is in the video. (Sam) liked the look of the location, said it was perfect so we came back and got the shot after doing some test footage at his apartment with the flashy thingy.

On the first interview my question, while different, was similar. However his answer was not.

How long did it take to shoot the video?

WILL: About as long as it lasts, add about ten seconds to get the camera out of my van, probably ten seconds fooling with the (tripod) legs and then he hit record. No real effort at all. Just shooting on the fly. That’s how we liked to do it.

I reminded him of this different answer.

WILL: I must’ve been confused because to set up the shot, sure, it was just a few seconds, but to get it? We were there for a while. I don’t know. I wasn’t checking my watch.

Will showed me the lack of a wristwatch.

WILL: You see, he (Sam) just wants people to think he wasn’t trying because he’s always down on his work. So he wants you to think he wasn’t trying. It makes him feel better, I guess if you think he half-assed it instead of thinking he was trying to make
Citizen Kane
.

How skilled of a filmmaker are you?

SAM: Not very. I couldn’t keep up with the curve. High Schoolers are putting me to shame. I lacked a bit of the film language, it was amazing what I just didn’t pick up on. I probably would’ve made one of those epically bad movies and had no clue it was bad.

Did you know the location you went to was a supernatural hotspot?

WILL: (
FIRST INTERVIEW
) Really? No. No.

SAM: No. Really? Is that like something that’s happened since we filmed there? Because people recognize it from the video?

WILL: (
SECOND INTERVIEW)
Sam did. I didn’t. I remember we went through a local hauntings book and even scouted something in Shockoe Bottom, but we just picked a street that would look good. But that sounds like something Sam would do.

ROB B.: Will was into crystals. Sam was more into devils, movie stuff. Not real Wicca or voodoo. Hollywood.

I met Rob B. on his smoke break. He is the former co-worker of Sam Carpenter and current co-worker of Will Castle. He has a devilish grin stretched by the bright sunlight hitting the Willow Lawn Mall parking lot. He sized me up with one eyeball while the other one clenched down. He is between 30-40 years old. He knew that I had been speaking to Will about the video. It was the first time I had interviewed him.

The thing that caught me was that I was about to leave, but had received an unrelated text and as I responded to it, Rob B. said,
“That’s some dark stuff they got themselves into.”

I thought I misheard him as he was reluctant to repeat himself and acted as if he had never said anything at all. But then he laughed and told me he was pulling my leg.

ROB B.: Will said there was somebody going to be asking questions. You believe their story?

Do you?

ROB B.: Of course. If Will says it happened then maybe he’s just getting old. If Sam says it happens then I gotta believe it.

They are actually saying the video is a hoax.

ROB B.: Stories change I suppose. They seemed convinced when they came to me.

Both of them?

ROB B.: Yeah.

There is a way that Rob B. says everything, as if he knows far more than he’s letting on. It caused me to stand there in the parking lot talking to him until he had to return to the store he worked in. But he didn’t budge to go. I should wonder if he was playing with me the whole time, but he spoke with a subtle theatric that kept me wanting to see how far the rabbit hole went.

ROB B.: They tapped into the ethereal plane. It’s pretty cool if it worked. I think it did. They’re both different now. Sam used to be very polite, a goody-goody. Clean-cut. Always on time to work. Will used to be very absent minded, now it’s like his mind is stuck on something.

I would think they would get over it unless there’s something I’m missing about their special effects clip.

ROB B.: (laughing) Special. Effects. Tricks with the light. They tricked the light, bent it, made it turn around and it saw them. Light is not meant to look upon us. The trick was on them. They never should’ve let it see them.

I happen to think Rob B. was having fun with me. His unhinged personality was a little offsetting, but he was also very matter of fact. I had the chance to ask both Sam and Will (on the second interview) about him.

SAM: Oh yeah, Rob’s great. Very funny guy. Knows a lot of cool occult stuff. He’s very theatrical. Always messes with customers.

WILL: He’s a trip. Everyone thinks he’s crazy, but he’s probably the only sane one. He’ll sit there and growl and speak in like demon tongues if he doesn’t like the customer that’s come in. It’s absolutely hilarious. He’s probably yanking your chain.