All language subtitles for Atlas.of.Cursed.Places.S01E03.The.Curse.of.Vlad.the.Impaler.720p.WEBRip.x264-CAFFEiNE.eng

We're not supposed to be here.

You ever have those moments when
you step back and you wonder,

Who convinced you that this
was going to be a good time?

Well, in this case, it was me.

I convinced myself that we
should go to romania and

Look at the curse of
vlad the impaler.

I thought it could be hilarious,

You know, booze it
up in bucharest,

You know, hit the clubs,
have a few laughs,

Hear a scary story, but then.

You end up freezing in an
ancient transylvanian forest

And no, I didn't get a
groupon for a romania
folk dance experience.

These are real witches,

Wielding black magic in the

Same place vlad the impaler,

Supposedly, had his
head chopped off.

That's cool, it's all good.

I'm sure everything
will be just fine.

As a writer and explorer,
as a citizen of the world,

I've seen things that defy
understanding and sometimes,

When there's no
good explanation,

We blame the supernatural,
but the truth is,

I believe in science.

Taking off.

So, what happens if
you bring the full light of

Modern science
onto ancient curses?

You wind up at a seance in the
woods with romanian witches

And follow a vampire hunter
to his place of business.

That's what happens.

They said, "please, help us."

So he's not afraid of.

No, he's not.

Good luck.

You're gonna need it.

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Transylvania, the
name conjures it all,

Dense pine,
impassable craggy cliffs,

Thick ground fog.

This is the mythic forest
of your childhood nightmare.

Bran castle, billed as
the last standing relic of

A man some call, dracula.

The story goes that romania's
bottomless well of tyranny,

Catastrophe and
overall human misery,

Can all be traced back to
one terrifying ruler and

His supernatural evil.

Ah. Okay.

So, have you ever heard of
the curse of vlad tepes?

Yeah.

He lost his wife,
he lost his dynasty,

He lost his family and he
signed a document in order to

Bring a curse down
against his enemy,

And he promised
that he will return,

That was his curse and I will
take revenge against those

That they betrayed me.

He was killed and his
body was buried in the
monastery nearby bucharest.

Later on, when they
opened the coffin,

They never found his body,
which is quite creepy.

Yeah, right.

You do start to wonder
what if he's coming back again?

So you'd be worried
if you were his enemy?

You might be a little nervous.

- Oh yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, yeah.

Vlad spent much of his life
constructing a fearsome persona.

In some ways, his reputation
was so extreme that it haunts

The entire world.

Gross.

Oh my god, three days?

Yeah. Yeah.

What are some of the
other ways he would do it?

Wow.

He sounds like
a really nice guy.

Yeah, fascists always say that.

Once he took power in 1448,
vlad began a lifelong battle

To protect his
country from invaders,

From all sides;
hungarians, rival nobles but,

Most of all, the ever expanding,

Ruthless ottoman empire,
vlad's mortal enemy.

The other kings and rulers of
his time had surrendered and

They all paid tribute,
but vlad fought on,

With a sheer hatred
that defies description.

Perhaps because the ottoman's
had kidnapped as a child and,

By the time his father
and brother were killed,

His hatred had grown so
virulent that we still make

Tv shows about him,
600 years later.

Vlad, himself,
he was right here.

Yeah, right here.

Amazing.

Wow.

You know, 600 years ago, there
was a real person in here.

Vlad the impaler,
looked out his little window,

Thought about revenge.

Now this little beauty here
can be yours for $7.

No one ever lets a curse
stand in the way of profit.

There you go.

But the truth is, we're all
here because vlad's fearsome

Reputation so
inflamed imaginations,

Including an irish writer named,
bram stoker.

Bram never even visited romania,

But he used vlad's name and
legend as the basis for one of

The most potent horror
symbols of all time.

There's no escaping the
vampire in pop culture,

But the question I
have is pretty simple,

Is the curse of vlad real?

Tell me about this
letter from vlad tepes.

Kind of a cool
way of punctuating
requests, you know,

"hey man, give me a
beer, or I'm gonna lay
your kingdom to waste and

Your kids are gonna
rot in hell for eternity."

There you go.

Do you think vlad's
curse has affected bucharest?

Caradja's plague,
that was the prince who came

After vlad tepes, was killed.

Yes.

Bucharest is already
on edge after the mythic

Vlad the impaler has
cursed them for all eternity.

And then, after years
of devastating fires,

Earthquakes, wars, a ruler
appointed by his sworn enemy,

The ottoman empire,
assumes power.

And, guess what happens next?

The palace and the center of
bucharest burns to the ground.

That could be a coincidence, or,

More likely a parting gift from
the outgoing administration.

But then people
start getting sick.

450 years after the black death,

Bucharest plunges into an
outbreak that must have felt

Like the zombie apocalypse.

What did they think
caused the plague?

God was punishing them,
kind of like a curse.

During the plague,
where did they put the bodies?

Can we visit
those mass graves now?

Can you go see where
those bodies are buried?

Is there a memorial or
anything to look at?

It's totally normal.

There's absolutely nothing
strange or symbolic about

Building your parliament
on top of a mass grave,

But seriously,
we should go down there, right?

You know, just wanted
to see for myself these tunnels

That were stuffed with bodies
during the plague outbreak.

Yeah, we're not
supposed to be here.

Vlad the impaler put a
written curse on his land.

Years after his death, when
an ottoman appointed prince

Showed up to claim the throne,
all hell broke loose,

And it must have
felt like the ultimate
confirmation of the curse.

With coronavirus, people
around the world have gotten a

Glimpse of what a scary
outbreak can be like,

But statistically,
the majority of patients who

Contract the
coronavirus survive.

Caradja's plague
was totally different,

The death rate
was more than 50%.

It's got to have felt
like the world is ending.

The psychic wound, you know,

On a city, on a people,
on a nation.

It's something that you would
never get over and you would

Pass that fear
along to your children.

It's almost like the sheer
terror of living through that

Particular plague left a
scar that's been passed down.

Many modern romanians
see this outbreak as
proof of vlad's curse,

But I wonder, can
we find a point where

Myth and science intersect?

Was there something
truly anomalous
about caradja's plague?

This is the
mathematical model.
Okay.

That's widely
used in disease ecology.

So, we took historical
data from the black death,

The bubonic plague.

Sure.

- Would you like to see?
- Yeah, please, by all means.

These are spatial
representations of people

Dying all across the city.

Wow.

And then, it,
it burns itself out,

As epidemics do,
and it starts to plateau.

Okay.

So, my husband and
I have been working on your

Mathematical model
of caradja's plague,

This was a really
terrifying plague.

Wow.

Much more aggressive epidemic,

Once it happens it just,

You know, wipes through
the city super quickly.

Wow.

But something
else is going wrong too.

Okay.

Some people
have looked at these
epidemic curves and said,

"okay, well there must be, what
we call, pneumonic plagues."

And that's when the
disease is deep in your lungs,

Can spread it directly,
person to person.

Wow.

Then quarantine is established,

So, you're walking around
the city where they had

Piles of human bodies.

There's stories about
them raping, stealing,

Even killing plague victims;

Complete societal breakdown.

So all these things may
have combined to make this

Into just a complete
hellish nightmare.

It's a hellish, sort of,
end of days...

Scenario. Scenario.

- Right.
- It killed half the city,

Maybe more, but there
hadn't been a plague epidemic

Anywhere else.

As an ecologist you say,
"how could that be?"

"what was it?"

Wow. Yeah.

It's hard to imagine
what a family losing nearly

50% of its members
would feel like.

Imagine your own
family and pick half,

The scare that would
leave on a generation.

That's something you
would never get over.

Caradja's plague could've
given the curse a literal

Grounding and an
emphasis that burned in
into the minds of bucharest,

But that was
hundreds of years ago.

Are there any
lingering effects today?

In the deep dark woods
outside of bucharest,

There's a place called,
the witches pond.

A place where the legacy of
the curse shows surprising life.

The business of witchcraft
in romania is booming and

Mihaela minka is
the reigning queen.

She's a witch and
there are thousands
of others just like her.

How did I find her?

Well, I tied a note to a
raven's foot with an eye of newt

And the tongue of a bat.

No I'm kidding, I hit
her up on instagram,

I slid into her dm's.

I might add that to contacts.

Why is this a special place?

- He was killed?
- Yeah.

- They cut his head off.
- Yeah.

If I wanted to curse someone,

Or to do black magic,
could I pay,

And you could do a
bad spell to them?

Yes, her
grandmother killed much
people with black magic.

- Oh yeah?
- Yeah, because.

I understand, yeah.

Mihaela and the other
black magic practitioners

Offer their services online.

$100 and an internet connection

And you can dole out a curse.

Just as easily, you
could be the subject of one.

But the romanians spend
millions of dollars a year on

Health charms and
hexes and love potions.

It got to the point where the
romanian government attempted

To tax the black
market of black magic.

They're not the type
of people you want to upset.

Now a group of angry
witches in romania is taking

On the government with
a unique tax protest.

The witches
responded with curses,

They threw poisonous
mandrake into the danube,

I'm not gonna say it's
proof about who believes what,

But we did see a marked change
in the behavior of the highest

Levels of the
romanian government.

They not only backed down,
but also wore purple clothing,

As purple is the color
that protects from curses.

In this case, black magic
proved pretty effective.

So that was, that
was pretty intense.

I'll say this, if, if
mihaela cursed you,

I think you'd wonder.

Her conviction
was so compelling.

I think you'd think about
it in your dark moments.

Just in case.

A curse works when people
believe it works and the

Prevalence of witchcraft
means that a lot of folks are,

At least, open to the idea.

But, how deep does it go?

How dark can it get?

Is there a big difference
between the western attitudes

About witchcraft or
the supernatural,

And the attitudes of
multi-generational romanians?

Ovijo

Yeah hi.

Hi, how are you, sam.

Ovijo, nice to meet you.

- Yeah, ovijo nice to meet you.
- Yeah, thanks.

A local journalist has offered
to help me get access to a

Small village
called marotinu de sus,

Where there is a man
who fights the ghosts

Of romanian superstition.

But this is something no one
in town wants exposed because

There was an avalanche
of blow back before.

So, our source is
understandably wary.

We found out about this guy,

Mircea mitrica, is his name.

He doesn't want
us to go at his house.
Right.

He doesn't wanna
be seen by the neighbors.

We're gonna go with
him at his goat fold,

You know, where he
keeps the goats.

Sounds great.

I love a good goat fold.

And, uh, he's
gonna talk to us there.

Well, we'll be very low profile.

You gotta be
careful how, how you approach,

It's a total different
situation in the countryside.

Is he okay doing camera work?

He's okay to be filmed?

So it seems.

So, we've gotta be a little
careful about how we do this.

This guy's gonna
be real squirrelies

And I don't wanna spook him,
so keep the cameras down and,

And just, you know, low profile,

Incognito, you know, real slick.

That's what
I want you to do.
Got it, yeah, yeah.

Is that him? Yeah.

Okay.

Sam.

You come with us?

Yeah. Okay.

,

Sam.

You come with us?

Believing in giving money
to witches is one thing,

Even in the us we give two
billion dollars a year to

Psychics and everyone
reads their horoscope,

Mostly because
the stakes are low.

You still have to go to work
when saturn is an ascendance,

Or the moon is in retrograde,
right?

But it feels like there's
something darker and more

Profound at work here,
in romania.

Vlad the impaler's curse
drove its hooks into the

National psyche
six centuries ago.

How dark does it get?

What is a moroi?

Depends on which
village you live in.

To some, it's a simple ghost.

In other places, it's much
more like the familiar vampire,

Feeding on the
blood of the living.

In mircea's village, the moroi
is still a member of the genus

And species undead
supernaturalist,

But here, the moroi is an
invisible phantom who leaves

The grave and infests the
body of a living relative.

How did you know it was a moroi?

Yeah, they told him,
it's because of the moroi.

They said, please
help us, you know.

Right.

Does that kill the moroi?

Wow, so just
two days and she's cured.

How did you
first learn about moroi?

When I was five, I
slept with a night light.

'cause he's not afraid of.

- No, he's not.
- Yeah, I can tell.

What's amazing is the elders
were doing this and mircea

As five-year-old and was
brave enough to go witness and

Be part of it.

Just hard to imagine my kid
going into graves and exhume

The body and get the heart,
but if you grew up out here,

You'd have a much different
understanding of death.

There's no question that
romania is still steeped in

Mysticism and myth.

Add the curse of a vengeful
vlad to the mix and you've got

Yourself an all you can eat
buffet of supernatural belief

Sweeping the countryside.

But what about here,
in bucharest?

On the surface, a
modern-day metropolis,

Bright lights, cafes, people's
noses buried in virtual

Realities on a five-inch screen.

Thank you.

This isn't the hang out
spot for vampire hunters,

There's no witches' cauldrons
boiling in the kitchen.

This is an entire generation
of post-communist romanians.

They grew up with search
engines in their pockets.

Do they believe they're
destined for darkness?

I go what is this?

Adrian?

- Hi.
- How you doing, man?

I'm good, here with my friends.

Hi, I'm maria, nice to meet you.

- Hello, andrew.
- Andrew, nice to meet you.

We're having the beer,
would you like one?

Yeah, I'll have a beer,

Sure, thank you.

There you go.

Adrian and his friends
were born after the fall of

Ceausescu's totalitarian regime.

It was one of the most
oppressive in the entire

Soviet union, so what do the
kids these days think about a

600 year old legend?

Is romania cursed?

Well, if you look at the,

Like, last 500 years...

Yeah.

The wars,
the plagues, fires that
destroyed cities, the floods.

Yeah, it's, it was
something there and it's,

Sort of, still affecting.

You believe it?

If you asked me,
yeah, we're cursed.

People say this is in our blood.

You don't hear that every day.

Unless, you live in romania.

So could the blood of
modern-day romanians hold

Evidence of a curse?

Could there be some
sort of profound truth
in a toothless cliché?

Could centuries of upheaval
and trauma leave effects we

Could measure in the blood?

Remember 25 minutes ago when
I told you I was going to map

The intersection of
science and myth?

Yeah, well, here
comes the science part.

The name, the reputation,

So fearsome we
still talk about it,

600 years later.

He was the ultimate medieval
fearmonger and he fought to

Protect his country
from enemies,

Domestic and foreign, by
skewering tens of thousands

Of humans at a time.

Before his death, he
issued a written curse and,

In the six centuries since,
one horrible tragedy after the

Next has been blamed on
vlad's infamous letter.

So I wonder, could a curse,
somehow manifest in the people?

What I mean is, could it
be hiding in their dna?

This idea that
you're talking about is a

Psychological theory referred
to as trans-generational trauma.

Trans-generational trauma,

Right. Trauma.

And it's basically the
idea that the generation that

Experiences the trauma can pass
it onto future generations.

There would be some
kind of long-term effect.

Right, so, so just massive
trauma can change your genes?

Right, and the effects
can be multi-generational.

Trans-generational trauma
has been documented in

Children of holocaust survivors,

Or, the descendants of slaves
and in the native americans,

Survivors of famine.

Their offspring,
many years later,

Were shown to have
increased obesity,

Schizophrenia, diabetes,
showing that there was a

Trans-generational trauma,
altered by epigenetics.

Right, wow.

Epigenetics is basically,

The study of how genes
are turned on or off.

It involves chemical
modifications to dna and the

Proteins associated with
dna and it responds to both

Internal stimuli
and external stimuli.

So you're saying, like,
environmental factors can

Change your dna?

Yeah, but there
has to be some pretty,

You know, long lasting trauma
that would have enough time

For the body to
reprogram itself.

So, for decades, we
thought we were stuck with the

Genes we were born with and
now you're telling me that

Genes can change due to stress?

Sounds like we're gonna
have to change some textbooks.

So, I was in romania
and I started to wonder if

An area had a history of,
like, terrible trauma,

It went back into
the middle ages,

Just horrible thing
after horrible thing,

Living in constant fear.

Could there be something you'd
see in the present-day people.

Yes, and it
couldn't be positive, right?

So far, we're only
talking about negative...
Right.

Predisposition
but maybe you have a
good predisposition.

So this theory of mine,
this idea that a country

That's had hundreds
of years of trauma,

The people who live
there would be more

Resilient to trauma,
is feasible?

Right and that
could be an epigenetic
alteration of stress genes.

There's no question what doesn't
kill you makes you stronger.

That's how I live my life.

For an epigenetic alteration
to occur in their stress genes,

Romanians would
have to be subject to

Continuous trauma
throughout their history,

But have they?

Look at the map, romania is
consistently caught in the

Vice between rival powers,
between europe and the mongols,

Between the ottoman turks
and the christian nation,

All the way up to nazi germany
and the soviet union

And the fall of
the iron curtain.

So, is there any evidence that
romania's past has led to some

Kind of resilience,
or survival advantage.

What do the locals think?

I was 13 when we had
the so-called revolution.

It was not easy to get food,
we had to manage, but...

It's in your blood.

Exactly.

It's just one
disaster after the next.

But I think it
makes us stronger.

A ferry disaster in 1989
is just one of the horrible

Events often attributed to
vlad the impaler's curse,

But this one has something
pretty strange about it.

We've got a survivor of that
accident and I'm fascinated to

Talk to him because
foreign tourists died.

There were 31 survivors
and they were all romanian.

Only the romanians survived,
should be interesting.

Tragedy happens every day,
all over the world.

It hides around every corner,
reminding us that our lives

Are more precarious
than we'd like to admit.

But as I've looked
into the long history of

Romanian tragedies,
sometimes attributed to

Vlad the impaler's curse,
I start to wonder.

People say this is in our blood.

That could be an
epigenetic alteration of

The stress genes.

Could some romanians
have inherited a unique gift?

The ability to process
stress and fear better
than the rest of us.

So, we're here at the
danube where there was a

Catastrophic ferry accident in
'89 and we've got a survivor of

That accident, teodor, and
I'm fascinated to talk to him

Because foreign tourists died.

There were 31 survivors
and they were all romanian.

Only the romanians survived,
should be interesting.

You could see the
boat coming and you knew

What was gonna happen.

What went through your mind,
what were you thinking about

During those moments?

Under the hull.

Tell me about your mind,

What was going
through your mind?

Were you, were you very scared?

Crazy man, wow.

Did you know
anybody that didn't make it?

Did you know them?

Wow.

And they didn't make it?

Teodor felt no fear, he
just did what he had to do

To keep himself alive.

But is this just a bad ass
anecdote of a romanian with

Ice cold blood in his veins?

Could his incredible
survival instincts be the
results of epigenetics?

Now, one anecdote
doesn't make a pattern,

But if you keep looking,
maybe you surprise yourself.

Are we there?

Yeah, it
should be here, actually.

Are you ready? Let's go find it.

Yeah, sure. Okay.

Don't get hit.

We got the address
for a woman named,

Aurelia grigore.

She lives in an old
communist housing block.

Ceausescu's reign
of terror wasn't the
only thing she survived.

She's a flight attendant and
she apparently shares teodor's

Knack for survival
against all odds.

There you go.

Pretty sure that's a good omen.

Yeah, it should be this way.

Alright.

It's here.

Aurelia, hi, sam.

Hi.

We've heard about you and
we wanted to maybe just hear

Some stories about the
things you've been through.

Is it okay?

We can come in?

I finally track down this
woman who has one of the most

Amazing stories I've ever heard
and it's gonna blow your mind.

Seriously.

In romania, people feel
tragedy is in their blood and,

Throughout their history,
they've nearly drowned in it.

Ever since the reign of
vlad tepes when he was boiling

People alive and
building forests out of men
impaled on wooden spikes,

Romania just can't
seem to catch a break.

But could this have caused
an inadvertent strength,

A unique ability to
handle tragedy and
trauma and survive disaster?

I hope it's okay?

That's great.

I was flying from
bucharest to nouadhibou.

It was a long flight, and I
was pregnant with my boy.

Ah.

After a lot of hours,
I don't remember how many hours,

I looked out the window,
I saw no light, nothing.

- Just darkness.
- Only, only the waves.

And I thought, it's water,
we are in water.

You crash.

Yes.

I saw the plane was broken.

Broken, oh my god.

I thought,
I have to choose the
easiest of these death.

The first one,
because of the sharks,

All the sharks.

No. Yes, yes.

There were sharks everywhere?

Yes, yes...

The other one,
together with the plane,

The engine is going,
the maybe exploding, yes.

I chose to stay with the plane.

- Were you very scared?
- No.

Not even a little bit scared?

No, no. Why not?

I don't know.

Much like teodor on the ferry,

Aurelia describes
having an almost eerie calm,

When most people
would panic themselves
into making a bad decision.

But if you're a flight
attendant in a cursed land,

Plane crashes can
come in bunches.

The second one in 1986,

At the landing,
it was too steep.

Too steep, you
were smashing down.

Yes, and then, yes, yes.

Did you think, "I can't
believe it's happening again?"

I thought I was a black cat.

If I am onboard, something
is going to be wrong,

This was very difficult for
me because my colleagues died.

And I'm okay.

What happened?

What I think
is so interesting is
you were never afraid.

You have to survive, you know?

And you have no
time to ride that,

No, no, you had no time.

It's crazy.

When you go into a
stressful situation,

Your body floods with chemicals,

The amygdala is this
little almond shaped organ and

Releases these stress hormones.

It's fight or flight,
it's adrenaline dumps,

We've all heard
about it and, you know,

Some people don't
handle it well at all.

I had a friend, he got mugged,
and he was trying to dial 911

And he dialed 411, over
and over and over again,

But we've seen that
there's a romanian strength,

There's a romanian ability to
metabolize stress hormones and

Maybe there's more to it.

Maybe it has a
genetic component.

It's sort of mind blowing
to think the trauma we

Experience in our lives
today could have genetic

Implications on our
grandchildren's grandchildren,

But new science
says that it's possible,

That epigenetics allows
future generations to develop

Coping mechanisms for trauma
they've never even been through.

Some romanians have been both

Cursed and given a gift from
the past and they row against

The tide of history
into the future.

So cortisol is
a hormone and it's,

It's released essentially,
by your adrenal glands.

Right.

Once that cortisol is
elevated that's what we try to

Measure in looking at
the stress response.

Right.

And it's all
about coping and some
people cope really well.

They're able to keep going.

So they've
just gotten better at
coping with the cortisol,

With the stress.

Absolutely,
they've gotten better at it.

So that would
kind of go to my pet
theory that the romanians,

Who've had this
history of living under

Incredible stress with all
these terrible dictatorships.

Mhm.

Would have
coping mechanisms, possibly.

Possibly, with the human brain,

We have this remarkable
ability to be able to adjust
and adapt to situations,

So if you think of
it in that context,

I think you're
really onto something.

A medieval prince's
desperate attempts to keep

Control of his kingdom led him
to commit such atrocities that

His reputation and
name have inflamed
imaginations for 600 years.

A cursed country,
a myth of dracula,

Plagues and fires and tyranny
and a centuries-long chain

Of human misery.

Romania is cursed,
not by a vampire,

But by geography and history,
by a fearsome ruler but

Romanians survive and flourish
in the face of catastrophe and

Emerging science shows how
coping with trauma can be

Passed down in the
form of epigenetics.

Could there be a connection?

I can't say for sure.

From where I'm sitting,
vlad the impaler did curse

Romania and the
proof is written in blood.

>>>>oakislandtk<<<<<
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