In the Garden of Rot

by Sara Green

  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.

  5. THE MEETING

  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.

  6. THE CRIMES

  On April 22nd, 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 19th 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 attor
ney 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.

  7. THE FIGHT

  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.

  8. THE MAKING

  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.