All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S05E04.Omen.of.Satans.Crown.1080p.MAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

[narrator] Worldwide,
36 billion cameras
are watching us.

On our streets, at work,

and in our homes.

They capture things
that seem impossible.

Science says
this shouldn't happen.

[man] Do you see that?

[narrator] Experts carry out
forensic analysis
of these unusual events.

Wow, what a blast!

This doesn't make sense.

There has to be
some sort of explanation.

What else is going on here?

[narrator] Coming up...

What's inside
this woman's bulbous bump?

You half expect something
to come ripping out of
her stomach, at any minute.

[narrator] Are there
Satanic terrorists
at work in America?

There are devil worshippers
in this town and they're
looking to make some mischief.

[woman] It actually looks like
the crown of Satan.

[narrator] And, as Jesus turns
the other cheek in Mexico...

Oh, my goodness.

[narrator] ...David Wallace
builds his own
possessed doll.

Poor doll will never be
the same again.

[narrator]
Bizarre phenomenon...

Oh, my God-- [gasps]

[narrator] ...mysteries caught
on camera...

What's the truth
behind this...

Strange Evidence?

Santa Clara,
in California's Bay Area.

August 16th, 2020, 7:50 a.m.

Rochelle Fernandez films
as a strange noise
fills the air.

-[Rochelle] Well, I think
he's like, the angel--
-[explosion]

[bleep]

I think something fell.

-[narrator] Then...
-[Rochelle gasps]

[bleep]

[narrator] A sinister
dark presence rises
from the ground

right next to
a major sports stadium.

[Rochelle] I'm uploading this
to YouTube in case
it's the last thing I do.

[narrator]
The eyewitness fears
that something diabolical

might be behind
this mysterious ring of smoke.

[Rochelle] It looks like
the crown of Satan.

[narrator]
It's devilish appearance
leaves experts baffled.

This is mighty weird.

It really looks like
it's Lucifer's crown
ascending.

[Rochelle] Oh, my God.

It looks like an anti-halo.

It looks like a dark,
brooding halo.

[Jeff] As the saying goes,
"There's no smoke
without fire."

I think what we're looking at
is most likely
some kind of explosion.

So it really make me wonder,
what is going on here?

Is there some force
that is shaping this smoke?

[narrator] Former CIA agent,
Tracy Walder, believes

this evil-looking
explosion's proximity
to the football stadium

is an important clue.

-[explosion]
-[bleep]

[Rochelle] Oh, [bleep]
That's the stadium.

This stadium opened in 2014
and seats 68,000 people.

[narrator] Venues
packed full of families
and sports fans

might attract madmen
with murder in mind.

Like stadiums around the world

and any place where you get
groups of people congregating,

it's gonna be a target
for many terrorist groups.

-[explosion]
-[all clamoring]

[narrator] In 2015,
the Stade de France in Paris,

was targeted
by suicide bombers

during an international
soccer match.

In 2017, an Islamic extremist
detonated a bomb

at the Manchester arena,
Ariana Grande concert,

killing 23 people.

[narrator] Historian,
Tony McMahon,

looks for
potential perpetrators
of a stadium blast,

and believes the eyewitness
may have hit the nail
on the head.

[Rochelle] It looks like
the crown of Satan.

This area of California
really is devil worship
central.

In the 1960s,
somebody called Anton LaVey
founded the Church of Satan,

and not long afterwards,
people were reporting
hearing strange chanting,

all sorts of
devilish practices.

[narrator] Another local
devil worshipper

had his sight set on causing
large-scale havoc and carnage.

One prominent Satanist
who came from this area
was the late Jack Parsons.

He combined the occult
with quantum physics.

He believed that
he could control the weather,

but also had a penchant
for playing with explosives.

[narrator] Walder wonders if
modern day devil devotees

are taking a page
out of Parson's playbook,

and could be aiming
to bring hellfire terror
to California

with trademark
Satanic explosions.

There are devil worshippers
in this town, and they are
looking to make some mischief.

[narrator] Satanic terrorism
is undoubtedly
a real present day danger.

It's reported that
devil worshippers in Norway,

were behind the destruction
of 50 churches in the country.

A Satanist in London,
Harry Vaughn,

was caught posting
bomb-making manuals
in 2020.

Football stadiums in America

are often used
for Christian worship
gatherings,

making them potential targets
for a satanic killer.

These people
with their deranged beliefs

can cause actual, real mayhem
in the physical world.

[narrator]
Journalist, Jeff Wise,
finds a satanic cult

called
The Order of Nine Angles,

sweeping up misfits and loners
in American suburbs.

Like a demonic ISIS,

it bombards them with messages
to embark on fiery
anti-Christian crusades.

[Jeff] And if you're
a neighbor, you might harbor
legitimate concerns.

They're gonna set off
some kind of explosion.

-[explosion]
-[bleep]

[Rochelle gasps]

[narrator]
But physicist, Chad Orzel,
spots a detail in the clip

that seems to rule out
a terrorism scenario.

This explosion took place
at 7:50 in the morning

when there was nobody
in the stadium.

So this is unlikely to be
a terror attack.

[Rochelle] Look at that.

[narrator] Physicist,
Athena Brensberger,
examines the footage

for clues to this
sinister smoke's source.

[Athena] As it rises up
into the atmosphere,

there's this
strong concentration
of a circle

that stays really dark.

[narrator]
Brensberger believes,
the distinctive ring shape

is the key
to solving the mystery.

[Athena] From
an engineering perspective

it looks like it came out of
some type of pipe
or a cylindrical object,

because of the fact that
it's shaped like an "O."

[narrator] Jeff Wise discovers
that on game day

the stadium consumes
more electricity
than 2,000 homes combined.

Cylindrical transformers
surround the stadium.

[Jeff] One of the things
it could be,

is an explosion
of a substation.

[narrator] Electricity arrives
in substations
at dangerously high levels.

Up to 750,000 volts.

Metal coils
and magnetic fields
within transformers

convert this high voltage to
a lower voltage electricity.

[Jeff] There's
a lot of electrical energy
in a substation

and if the equipment fails,

it can really fail
catastrophically
and create an explosion.

-[explosion]
-[bleep]

[Rochelle gasps]

[bleep]

[narrator] Matt Kutcher
is a Hollywood pyrotechnics
and ballistics expert

with over two decades
experience.

He wants to find out
if an exploding transformer

could form
this spooky smoke ring.

What we're gonna have to do

is to see if
a transformer that's
completely malfunctioned

makes this kind of effect.

Inside the transformer
is a mineral oil that's trying
to keep the transformer cool.

Sometimes it fails.

And when it fails,
it explodes.

And when it does,
it sends that oil
straight up into the air.

And that oil burning
and rolling

is what's gonna create
that ring that we see
flying through the sky.

And that's what
we're gonna test.

[narrator] Kutcher creates
a scaled replica

of a transformer
outside the stadium.

[Matt] So we're
basically replicating

the actual diameter
and shape and size
of the transformer.

And we're adding roughly
the same amount
of petroleum product to it.

Let's go ahead
and start to pour.

[narrator] Kutcher will
also replicate the massive
electrical discharge

that would be seen
in a transformer failure.

Obviously, we don't have
the entire power grid

to make a massive spark
of electricity.

So we're gonna have to add
our own little bit
of electric spark

with this explosive.

Now that we've got
the oil inside,

the petroleum based product
inside the motor, yeah?

We'll go ahead and place
the explosive, get clear

and see if we can
make that ring appear.

[narrator] Kutcher gets ready
to unleash hellfire.

Here we go. One attempt
at a ring of Satan, gentlemen.

[narrator] Coming up...

Can Matt make
a circle of hell?

Three, two, one... Action!

[narrator] And, what's growing
inside this woman?

If she's pregnant,

she's having
the freakiest baby
known to man.

[narrator] A demonic ring
rises above
the Californian sky.

[Rochelle] It actually
looks like the crown of Satan.

[narrator] Engineer
and pyrotechnics expert,
Matt Kutcher,

believes a faulty
power transformer
might be the cause

of this weird circle of hell.

Inside the transformer
is a mineral oil that's trying
to keep the transformer cool.

And sometimes it fails.

And when it fails,
it explodes.

[narrator] And he's created
an experiment
to test his theory.

-All right, so are you ready?
-I'm ready.

Let's try to blow
a transformer.

Three, two, one... Action!

[narrator] The charge ignites
the transformer oil,

sending a massive fireball
into the air.

The team holds their breath

as they wait to see
if a ring forms.

[Matt] It's starting to ring.

The ring of Satan,
ladies and gentlemen.

[narrator] Side by side
we can see the ring of smoke
created by Kutcher

matches Santa Clara's
Crown of Satan.

[Matt] To me, it's clear
it was a transformer
that exploded.

It gave us
this eerie smoke ring

that went up into the sky.

[narrator] Physicist,
Athena Brensberger,

believes a lightning strike
caused the transformer
to explode.

When this footage was taken,

it was during one of
the worst storms ever seen
in the Bay Area.

-[explosion]
-[bleep]

[Rochelle] Oh! [bleep]

[narrator] The average
US substation transformer

contains 45,000 gallons
of mineral oil.

When lightning strikes,

this oil turns into
a high pressure
explosive vapor

that tears
the transformer open,

spreading shrapnel
and a 2,000 degree fireball
over a wide area.

[David] I've worked for
a transformer company

and we had one of them
that when it exploded,

we actually found parts
one mile away from there.

[narrator] Anyone caught
in the blast zone is likely
to be broiled and shredded.

-[explosion]
-[bleep]

[Rochelle] Oh! [bleep]

[narrator] If this
transformer explosion
by the stadium

had occurred later
on a game day,

there could have been hundreds
of casualties.

You get to a point where
if substations are exploding,
it's killing people,

this is a terrible state
to be in.

[Rochelle] Oh, my God.

[narrator] Now, Anshun,

in the rural province
of southwest China.

August, 2020.

Footage emerges
of a Chinese woman
with a belly full of trouble.

[Karen] This is sort of
physically painful to watch.

It's this grossly
distended belly

on a teeny-tiny Asian woman.

Her stomach is so large
and the skin looks stretched
so thin over her,

it almost looks like
she's about to burst.

[George] You can see
these blue veins

like spiderwebs coursing
their way across her abdomen.

[narrator] The woman's name
is Huang Guoxian.

She is 36 years old,
a mother of two children,

and her lump makes up
more than a third
of her total body size.

And is still growing.

I've seen plenty of people
with big tummies in my time,

but really,
this is something else.

[Greg] It almost looks like
something from a horror film.

You half expect something
to come ripping out of
her stomach, at any minute.

[narrator] Explorer,
George Kourounis, thinks
the cause of the bulbous bulge

could be
a problematic pregnancy.

This doesn't look like
a woman who has just
a regular large pregnancy.

If she's pregnant,

she's having
the freakiest baby
known to man.

[narrator] The average baby
weighs around seven pounds,

but freakishly big babies
have been born before.

The biggest was delivered
in Ohio in 1879.

The largest baby ever born
that we have on record

was a boy named Babe.

He was 22 pounds
and 28 inches long.

HIs mother, Anne Bates,
apparently gushed out

six gallons of fluid
when her water broke.

With that enormous baby,
you have to take
into consideration

that the parents,
both parents, were nearly
eight feet high.

[narrator] Babe's mom and pop
were two Victorian era
circus performers,

Anna Henning Swan
and Martin Van Buren Bates,

a hero
of the American Civil war.

They were
the tallest couple ever
to get married.

She was 7'11", he was 7'9".

But this woman in China,
she's tiny she's petite.

A baby the size of Babe
being born to a woman
that small

just doesn't make
genetic sense.

[narrator] And the lump
inside her stomach,
weighs over 44 pounds,

twice as heavy as Babe.

There's no way that
she's going to be giving birth
to a baby that large,

even if her husband was
the tallest guy in the NBA.

[narrator] But petite women
have given birth
to multiple babies.

In 2009, Nadya Suleman
from Fullerton, California,
earned the nickname Octomom,

when she became
the first woman ever
to give birth to eight babies

that have survived
into infancy.

But even Octomom's
eight babies

only had a combined weight
of 20 pounds.

If she's pregnant, I wonder
how man kids she's carrying.

[narrator] But examination
of Guoxian's medical records

indicates the swelling began
over two years ago.

Ruling out pregnancy,

and indicating something
very troubling
is growing inside her.

[Amy] Doctors have no idea
what's going on.

If you don't know what
the issue is, you don't know
how to treat it.

But that also means
you don't know

how to deal with
the potential of it spreading
to other people,

which makes
the whole situation
very serious.

[narrator] Coming up...

Historians find a deadly curse
plights this woman's village.

Is it possible that
this woman was poisoned

by the dead?

[narrator] And,
is Jesus watching you?

Statues don't do that.

At least they're not
supposed to.

[narrator] A woman
with a grotesquely
swollen belly

appears on film in China.

Historian, Tony McMahon,
suspects that
a local tradition

might have caused
Huang Guoxian's condition.

There's a practice
in this area

where they put their dead
into log-shaped coffins

and pile them up in caves
in the hillsides,

and these bodies then
rot, decompose

releasing the spirits,
they believe,
into the heavens.

[narrator] This burial rite
occurs on an industrial scale.

In one cave alone,
there's more than 500 coffins
stacked one atop the other

in various stages of decay.

[narrator] The caves
are formed by water
coming out of the rock.

These springs become streams
that flow down into the rivers

passing hundreds
of towns and villages
on their way to the sea.

If any of these bodies
have infectious diseases,

could this
come out of those bodies,

go into the water supply
and cause what
we're seeing here?

Is it possible that this woman
was poisoned by the dead?

[narrator]
But no similar reports

of mysterious
stomach swellings

have been recorded
in the region.

If water poisoning
were the cause
of this strange stomach,

it would stand to reason that
she wouldn't be the only one

presenting with
these really weird symptoms.

[narrator] Scientists continue
to conduct numerous tests
on Huang Guoxian.

Their best guess is,
she has some sort of
rapid cancerous growth.

But it isn't behaving like
a typical malignant tumor.

They are unable to determine
what caused this condition,

and they fear she will have to
live with it into old age.

[Karen]
The most disturbing thing
about this footage

is how does anybody propose
to alleviate the situation?

If this appalling thing
could happen to this woman,
it could happen to anybody.

It's a medical mystery
that needs to be solved.

[narrator] Now, Tepito,
a suburb of Mexico city,

the biggest metropolis
in North America.

March 2010, 3:57 a.m.

A security camera watches
a set of religious icons...

[man] So this is
a spooky scene.

It's nighttime and this camera
is filming this shrine.

[Steve] Looks like
it's on a mantelpiece

and there's
a small-figured Jesus
on the cross.

It's really intense.
It's almost like something
from a horror movie.

You expect something
to jump out at you.

[narrator] Then,
the figure of Jesus
seems to come to life.

Oh, my goodness.

Did that head just move?

Oh, my god!

The head moved!

The figure depicting Jesus
is moving its head.

[narrator] Local people
believe this video
is a divine message.

But experts suspect that
something more sinister
might be at work.

Statues don't do that.
At least they're not
supposed to.

There's some force here,
interacting, causing
this thing to move.

So what is going on?

[narrator] Image analyst,
Ben Radford,

turns his attention
to the other figures
on the shrine in the film,

and notices
another odd movement.

The other thing that happens
in this video is that

this taller figure to the left

moves just slightly
to the right,

towards the viewer,
so then it looks like that.

It's a subtle shift
but it's a noticeable one.

[narrator]
Social anthropologist,
Deborah Hyde,

recognizes
the second moving statue

is a symbol of the dark side
of modern Mexico.

The larger figure,
which looks like
a sort of a skeletal woman

that's the figure
of Santa Muerte,

who is a kind of
angel of death.

[narrator] Today,
Santa Muerte worship

is said to be
the fastest growing religion
in the Americas,

with over
ten million followers
in Mexico alone.

[Deborah]
This new religious movement
has accompanied people

who engage in all sorts
of illegal activities.

People who have to
accommodate themselves

to the idea of death
and violence every day.

[narrator] Former FBI agent,
Rhonda Glover,

thinks this shrine was set up
and filmed deliberately

to send out
a sinister message.

[Rhonda] The cult
of Santa Muerte

is something
that's been developed
through the drug gangs

to project fear
and bring about control.

So, maybe the drug cartel's
created this video as a trick

to terrify the locals.

[narrator] Santa Muerte
is the drug cartel's
patron saint and goddess

rolled into one.

The cartels have turned death,
torture and human sacrifice
into a part of their business.

We're hearing cases
of children finding
dismembered bodies

on their way to school.

It's not even
an uncommon sight to see
bodies strung up from bridges.

So now there's this growing
presence of death and fear
brought about by the narcos.

[narrator] The purpose
of these grisly murders

is not just to win territory
from rivals,

It's to inspire terror and awe
in the Mexican population.

Faking supernatural events
could very well be

a new psychological tactic
by the narcos.

[narrator] The film of Christ
and Santa Muerte

mysteriously moving
on a shrine

could shock locals
into believing

in the power
of the drug lords'
favorite saint.

They're smart.
They understand the grip

that religious iconography has
on people.

So could be that they're
trying to capitalize on that
as much as possible.

This could be a new front
to the narco wars.

[narrator] But author,
Patrick Tomlinson, believes if
the cartels were behind this,

we'd be witnessing something
far bigger.

The cartels are known
for their very public displays
of violence and death

to instill fear
in the population.

But this is taking place
in a private home
in the middle of the night.

I think this is probably
too low key to be the narcos.

Someone or something else
is responsible.

[narrator] Coming up...

Is this a miracle
or a prophecy of doom?

This is a bad situation.

You're living in a place
that's fixing to become
a blazing inferno.

[narrator] And,
the crawling dead.

Are zombie insects
stalking Missouri?

This thing should be
dead and motionless.

Yet, here it is
crawling along.

[narrator] Eerie CCTV footage
captures a figure of Christ
on the cross

turning his head to face us.

Electrical engineer,
David Wallace, looks for
a rational explanation

for this bizarre movement.

He believes
lethally dangerous flaws
in the local power supply

could be behind this.

In Mexico, what they have
is a scenario where the city

is fed through
high voltage power lines,

and they have
the lines running everywhere.

Now, if a person wants
to get some power,

what he does is,
take a little line
with a hook on it,

connect it to that line,
you got power
coming into your house.

Free power.

But the problem with this,
if you do it wrong,
you become dead.

You get electrocuted.

[narrator] Mexicans
use electricity to light up
their religious displays.

It's common in Latin countries
to have electrically powered
statues and shrines.

From neon virgins
to flickering candles.

It's possible
that we have figurines

that actually have wires
running through.

And if you get this
over voltage or over currents
flowing through your wires

it's gonna heat up,
causing materials
inside the figurines

to heat up
and possibly start melting.

[narrator] Wallace wants
to know if dangerously
overheating electrical wires

is what is causing
the statue of Jesus to behave
as though it's alive.

So here we have a copper wire
that we're going to be using
to generate the heat.

I'll just bring our figurine
into place.

So here we have
our thermal imager,

which we'll use
to determine how much heat's
being generated.

[beeps]

Okay, let's start raising
the current.

Let's see if we can get
a little heat going here.

All right, we're starting
to go up there.
It's 80 degrees.

Right, 90 degrees.

-Bump it up.
-[clattering]

All right let's go up
a little quicker.

[beeping rapidly]

We're starting to see
a little smoke

come off of the surface.

The temperature's up.

Yep, there it goes.
We're starting to get
a little melting.

So here we are at 500 degrees,
look at this.

Our head is starting
to droop down.
The plastic is melting.

Look right here.

We actually got
some burn marks, a little bit,
on the material,

but the whole area is soft.

It's melted down,
the head is drooped.

Poor doll will never be
the same again.

So if this is the case
that you have,

where you actually got
faulty wiring

that can cause dolls
to melt inside your house,

this is a bad situation.

You're living in a place
that's fixing to become
a blazing inferno.

[narrator] Wallace's
experiment might explain
how Christ's head turns,

but it can't explain how
the figure of Santa Muerte
shifts on the shrine.

And for many locals,
this eerie footage
continues to be seen

either as proof of
religious miracles

or perhaps a warning
of divine retribution.

[Steve] I'll be honest,
if the angel of death

was shifting like that
in my house,

I'd be burning my house down.

[narrator] Now,
Jefferson City, Missouri.

September 1st, 2017, 8:30 a.m.

Local resident,
Forrest Lindsey,

spots something disturbing
emerging from the undergrowth.

When you look closer
at this bug,

it's completely hollowed out.

There's no internal organs,

there's nothing
that can justify
why it's moving.

[narrator] Without
a heart pumping blood
or trachea to breathe,

the creature is still somehow
walking across the ground.

This is gross and fascinating
at the same time.

It's literally
a zombified cicada.

[Roland] This thing should be
dead and motionless.

Yet, here it is
crawling along.

How can this be?

[narrator] A cicada body,
like a human body,

contains a heart,
breathing apparatus,
and a digestive system.

All thought to be vital
for life.

With all these gone,
the cicada is still somehow

operating it's legs
and moving forward.

[Leslie] In this clip,
you can see that
the head still is intact.

which suggests that the brain
is still functional.

[narrator] Brains are the most
complex part of the body,

both, in insects
and in humans.

Brains use 20%
of all the energy taken in,

and need a constant supply
of oxygen and glucose
to function.

And it appears that in a lab,

as long as the brain gets
these two vital ingredients,

it seems to be able
to live by itself.

Scientists can actually make
brains work, without the body
even being present.

[narrator] In April, 2019,

Connecticut scientists revived
the brains of 32 pigs,
four hours after they died,

even though the pigs bodies
had been chopped up
in a New Haven slaughterhouse

and turned into meat.

Which is sort of
starting to give us

a new
and a different understanding

about what exactly
does it mean to be alive

and what does it means
to be dead.

[narrator] If pig's brains
can survive when their bodies
are nothing but bacon,

and as this footage
appears to show,

an insect can survive
with just a head,

scientists are asking
if human brains

can successfully be removed
from one body

and placed inside
another new body.

A brain transplant.

[Leslie] For this operation
to be successful, the brain
has to remain alive,

while it's waiting
to be switched
to the other body.

But many are skeptical
that the brain in a jar
can remain alive.

But this footage,
it seems to show that

it might actually be possible.

[narrator] But a brain
in a different body
could go insane

from the chemical imbalances
it encounters,

transforming the host
into a rampaging beast

driven by an uncontrollable
psychotic rage.

Critics of the surgery,
warn that there could be
really terrible consequences,

and that
the pain and suffering

might be worse with a new body

than they were
with their original one.

[narrator] Coming up...

Did the thing that ate
this bug keep it's brain alive
on purpose?

The insect has been
totally taken over
by something terrifying.

[narrator] And, has a creepy
cave crawler escaped
from an underground vault?

Just imagine all the lights
go out, you're trapped
in that cave with that thing.

And it can see in the dark.

[man] Do you see that?

[narrator] A cicada is filmed
apparently alive and walking,

despite its body missing
its internal organs.

[narrator] Biologist,
Carin Bondar,
believes this insect's brain

might have been
horrifically hijacked.

[Carin] The body shape
of the cicada
is still relatively intact

It's possible it's been eaten
from the inside out.

[narrator] The cicadas
in Jefferson

share their surroundings
with one of the world's most
sinister parasitic fungi,

known as massospora.

The parasitic fungus eats away
at the cicada's abdomen,

creating a large mass
of fungal spores.

[narrator] The fungus feasts
on the internal organs

but leaves the brain intact
to do the fungus's
horrific bidding.

Male cicadas that are
infected with this fungus,

become kind of like
undercover zombies

with a very sinister plan.

The males that are
infected with the fungus.

do specific
female wing flick movements,

so that when
unsuspecting males arrive
to mate with them,

they get infected with
the fungus instead.

The insect has been
totally taken over
by something terrifying.

What we're seeing here
is known as
active host transmission,

where the parasite
controls the brain,

and thus, the entire body
of the host,

and ends up using
this zombified body
as transportation.

[narrator] The movement
we see in the footage,

is not the cicada
miraculously walking

despite the loss
of all its internal organs.

It's the fungus
instructing the brain
to pull on its leg muscles,

jerkily piloting the remains
of the creature,

towards a new victim.

At this point,
the cicada no longer exists.

It is simply,
a zombie of the fungus
that's controlling it.

My fear is that,
if this condition exists
in bugs,

can it make its way to humans?

[narrator] Scientists
don't know exactly how
the fungus controls the brain,

but it could do it
by creating an hallucination

in the dying mind
of the cicada

that alters
its perception of reality.

[Roland] Scientists
have been studying
this parasite,

and in
a terrifying revelation,

have found that
the zombifying chemicals

that causes
this unnatural behavior
in the cicadas,

is psychoactive in humans

and actually can cause
hallucinations.

[narrator] All of the reality
we experience,

is an illusion.

An approximation of the world
fed to us by our five senses

and then interpreted
by the brain.

If a malevolent fungus
took over our brains,

it could twist
the hallucination

to make us see the world
in a completely different way.

A way that serves its ends,
rather than ours.

This is potentially
terrifying news.

Because, if humans come
in contact with the fungus,

scientists really don't know
what will happen.

Any world-changing pandemic
could begin this way.

The zombie apocalypse
is something we usually leave

to the science-fiction world
in the movies.

But, this video shows,
it could really happen.

[growls]

[narrator] Now,
Dachstein Krippenstein,
in Europe's Austrian Alps.

June 20th, 2009.

Deep in the woods
of Dachstein, Austria.

[pants] We got to go
all the way up there.

[narrator] An adventurous
American tourist and his wife,

are exploring the Dachstein
giant ice cave...

These tourists
are enjoying their holiday,

just checking out
the magnificent cave.

-[man] Cool or what?
-[woman] I'm getting...

[man] Down too far.

[narrator] ...when they have
a chilling encounter.

[woman] [bleep] What is that?

[man] Do you see that?

It's climbing up the wall!

[Deborah]
It's kind of difficult
to make out.

This looks like
a humanoid-type creature,

except it's
a very peculiar color.

It's sort of iridescent
glowing bluey-whitey
kind of a color.

[Lindsay] I've never seen
something move so quickly
up a steep surface.

Whatever it is,
that thing is strong.

[narrator] It's not a frog,
it's not a bat.

They'd be immobile in the ice.

What is this strange creature?
Where did it come from?

[man] Oh, my God!

Just imagine,
all the lights go out,

you're trapped in that cave
with that thing.

And it can see in the dark.

[man] Where'd it go?

[narrator] Coming up...

Are local legends
of a flesh-eating
ice-monster true?

[Lyle] It is said to be
part dragon and part cat.

All the most cunning
and vicious animals,

all rolled into one.

[narrator] American tourists
encounter an eerie creature,

scaling the walls
of a frozen Austrian cave.

These ice caves are located
thousands of feet
above sea-level in the Alps.

Their passageways
are dominated by
huge blocks of ice,

formed naturally,
as water seeps from
the mountains above

and freezes in the cold air
of their caverns.

Behind the walls of ice,

are hundreds of miles
of rock tunnels,

leading deep under
the mountains.

Most of which,
have never been explored.

These ice caves
are referred to

as the gateways to hell.

And maybe,
it's not surprising,

maybe local people
have gone in there
and simply not returned.

Maybe they've had an accident
or they've drowned.

[narrator] Or,
as this footage suggests,

encountered something unknown,
living in the cave.

[Tony] Caves are rather like
the deepest oceans,

of places which are in effect
the last frontiers

for us to find new life forms
that we know nothing about.

[narrator] In 2016,
Croatian scientists

discovered 30 new species
of animals

living in the caves in the
Sibenik-Knin National Park.

[Ashanti] When you think about
the kinds of things
that could live in a cave,

over time, they could
absolutely evolve
and become something else.

[man] [bleep] What is that?
Do you see that?

[narrator] In 1981,
an entirely new species,
the Remipede,

is discovered in a cave
in The Bahamas.

It shocked scientists because
it's a venomous killer,

able to take down prey
much larger than itself.

And when we look at
this footage

and see this curious thing
climbing up the wall,

maybe our ancestors
had a point,

that they knew
that caves could be where
terrifying being resided.

Could this be
the first footage
of an undiscovered species?

[narrator]
Social Anthropologist,
Deborah Hyde,

finds there are reports
of a terrifying unknown animal

said to live in the caves
of these mountains.

There's a local legend
of a creature called
the Tatzelwurm,

which means claw-worm.

[narrator] Descriptions
of the Tatzelwurm vary.

But it's often said to have
clawed legs,

a cat-like head,

and is extremely aggressive
towards humans.

All the most cunning
and vicious animals,

all rolled in to one.

[snarls]

In one account, a man
was said to have died
of a heart attack,

after he was confronted by
two Tatzelwurm s.

[narrator] Reports
of Tatzelwurm encounters
go back centuries.

But they may not be
mere legends.

In 1954, a Swiss photographer,

claimed to have captured
a photo-image
of one of these creatures.

[narrator] While the creature
captured in the footage

doesn't match any of
the reported descriptions
of the Tatzelwurm,

local folklore suggests
these caves

are home to other
mysterious creatures.

To locals, who already know
about the Tatzelwurm,

you can see why a creature
like this scaling the wall,

would be interpreted
in that light.

[narrator] But when
image-analyst, Ben Radford,

zooms in on
the weird wall climber,

he focuses on
the limb movement,

and doubts
it's any kind of beast.

So, here's where we first
start seeing the creature.

And it appears to be climbing
the walls of this ice cave.

So, if it really is an animal,

its doing an amazing job
of climbing this ice.

No four-limbed creature
can climb ice like that.

Almost like Gollum
in Lord of the Rings
or something, sort of...

give this sort of
lurching thing.

So, the figure appears
to be human-like.

It seems to be human.

[Tony] It almost moves
like a mountaineer.

You know, grabbing on
to the rocks as it goes
with all limbs.

But, why would someone
risk their life to scale
the walls of this ice cave?

[man] Oh, my God!

[narrator] The ice in
the Dachstein cave increases
over the winter months,

and then melts away slightly
in the summer.

Rock tunnel entrances
concealed behind the ice walls

emerge briefly
at this time of year.

They would make
a perfect hiding place
for looted treasure.

[Tony]
During the closing stages
of World War II,

the Nazis squirreled away
a massive amount
of gold bullion

and also art treasures,
into caves and into tunnels
and mountains.

And could it be
that what we're seeing here,

is somebody who's
moving around, looking for
some of that treasure.

[narrator] The Nazis stole
over $600 million in gold
from across Europe.

And many historians believe
they hid large quantities
of it in this region,

which SS leader,
Heinrich Himmler, described
as their Alpine fortress.

[Martin] Germans are known
to have hidden things,

all of the gold bullions
from the Reich's bank,

and a massive pile of artwork.

There's still missing art,
there's still missing gold,

and those things
might be found in the rocks.

This cave system is intricate
and huge,

and it's exactly
the kind of place

that the Nazis
would've stored away
their stolen treasure.

[narrator] But many
who have ventured deep
into these Alpine caves,

have met a grisly end.

In February, 2019,

a Hungarian climber
went missing in the Alps.

[man screams]

[narrator] It wasn't
until August of the same year,

that his crushed body
was discovered
deep inside an ice cave.

Experts fear that
a similar fate might await
this cave crawler.

[Ashanti] This cave is huge,

and these tourists
are standing
on the very edge of a cliff.

So, if this person falls,

they're going to plummet
at least 100-feet.