The Hollow Growl | Ghost & Ghouls Ep 15 | Season 1

When Caleb set out to hunt in the legendary Ozarks, he never thought he would be the one hunted...

Season 1 Ep 15 is here. Enjoy this episode and make sure to Like and Subscribe. Check out our Instagram and Tik Tok if you want to support us further. Links in the description. Make sure to leave a rating because it helps us immensely. Stay creepy cryptids. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Ghost of Ghouls podcast. I'm your host Tyler, and with me I have the Midnight Moaning Monster himself. My co-host Anthony. Am I moaning? Yeah, you're the moaning monster at midnight. Carry on. You doing alright today? Yeah, I'm doing good. Good. If you're new here, this is how this works. I'm gonna read Anthony here a fictional horror story about some kind of monster cryptid ghost ghoul goblin, extraterrestrial, paranormal entity crypted thing, where I've redacted the name of the creature and replaced it with descriptions. Then Anthony here gets to guess to see what he's going to moan into his pillow tonight. He leaves scared a few nights, haven't you?

SPEAKER_03 0:48

No.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

You've left scared. What was the one that we did that like really kind of got you? It was the ones with the hands coming behind you.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

No, that one actually didn't because I started Hugging Molly. No, no, it wasn't hugging Molly.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

It wasn't.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

Um the one that actually got me, it'll never be shown because we messed up the footage. We did a terrible movie of a spirit controlling a guy and then just like killing his family. Oh, yeah. It was a dark movie idea. No, no, we don't. Oh god. Because yeah, it was moving, because we didn't have backups at the time. So we were moving stuff and or I was moving stuff and it happens.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

It happens. We learn from our mistakes. But Ant has yet to learn from his mistakes about guessing these creatures. Because he keeps coming back for some reason. I think he secretly loves me. Um, but he does get to guess what the creature is. Then we'll do its horror or its horror. Then we'll go over the creature's history, choose some pop culture, if any. A little what would you do? Choose your own adventure scenario if you had to fight this thing. And finally, our monster movie maker moment where uh us two knuckleheads are gonna come up with a movie idea.

SPEAKER_03 2:07

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Kind of pick a genre for it.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

Sometimes just work on one movie instead because I'll be real, last time that comedy one will do that.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

The comedy one was Jerusalem was hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

It was just like I I had a gruesome one for it, but then that was just it just took over. There was no beating it, there was no topping it. But uh just want to take this quick second to say go ahead and subscribe, hit that bell for any notifications to stay updated, and as well, go ahead and leave a like, and then follow us on our other platforms like TikTok and Instagram, as well as if you wish to support us, go to our bus route where you can, you know, help us out, as well as just downloading the audio version of this podcast, and then we have a Patreon, a dollar only, that we do an uncut uncut, unedited version a day early, so you can see all the mess-ups.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

You can watch me stumble through my words.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

That too, that too. Or there has been plenty of times where I've had to cut out at least 30 to 40 minutes worth of uh arguments. Arguments, either things that I don't think would be very well received on YouTube. Yeah, very well received on YouTube. So that's pretty much all I got. What have we said that?

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Go to Patreon, you'll see it. Um so to start this off, Ant here gets three yes or no questions um to kind of narrow down where what we might be or where we might be talking about, and then a little shot in the dark guest, um, to see if he can get it right off the rep. Now, season zero, we were all over the globe. I was throwing darts at whatever sounded cool. Season one, we're focused on a North America for 52 weeks. And we're on 15. This is week 15. It's kind of crazy. I swear. So, three guesses. Three guesses. I'm sorry, three yes or no questions and a guess. Woo! Three yes or no questions and a guess. Here we go.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Alright. Did you say that we're doing North America? Yeah. Yeah, okay, okay, my mind.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah, 52 weeks of North American cryptids of creatures.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

Um, so I'm gonna go ahead and guess that we are. No, not sorry. Is this thing. Is this Native origin?

SPEAKER_01 4:44

No. No. Oh Lord. No, it's not a Native American origin. It originates in America, but it is not a Native Americans. I've got you. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 4:57

At least not that I found. I feel like you wouldn't go for anything popular yet, for like any of the big, like, creepy pastas or curr uh cryptids or whatever that are like internet famous stuff, you know what I'm saying? They're not like the big wigs. Still don't think you would go after Wendigos or like stuff like that, you know what I'm saying? Uh is this thing a type of spirit? No. No, so this is okay, so this is materialized. Okay, this is this actually has some bones on it. Yeah. Some flesh and bones. Ooh, okay. What could be a good does its origin does its name does its name like does its name resemble what that creature and or monster is? Like is what its name like the rolling head or the water babies. And they're actually water babies and a rolling head. You know what I'm saying? Is its name what it is?

SPEAKER_01 6:11

I'll say yes. Its name is what it does. What it does. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'll give you that one.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

Okay. So that that's a yes, technically. Um so it's not native origin, so it's not it's not ancient. It's not it's not spirit, it's spiritual, so it can't be like a demonic spirit or any other type of spirit. So it's gotta be a full form.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Well, I guess you could also say its name is what it is. I would say its name is what it's what it's known to do.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

I don't know, man. I shouldn't have I shouldn't have asked that. You you like I just like I feel like there's so much.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

There there's a lot.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

I feel like the native origin question was so bad.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

No, no, no, no, no. It was good because like you you cut out a lot.

SPEAKER_03 7:12

It cuts out a lot, like to marry to where it's like, oh, it's a lot more like cryptid stuff, you know? And I feel like it's because of it's cryptids, not like creatures or any kind of folklore stuff. Cryptids, I'm gonna say and it's not spirits, so I'm gonna oh, what's that one creepy pasta or creep did? Uh um, those are words. I was gonna ask Smiley. I was gonna say smiley. No. But that's not what it does, so that that name doesn't even make sense. That would that would be used here. Uh I was gonna s but that's a big one that I can s remember.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

I don't know if you've ever heard of this cryptid before. I've heard I've heard of the code. I don't know, I don't I don't know too many cryptids. I've heard I've heard tale of this one a couple times. Okay. Alright. This story is called The Hollow Ground. The silence came first. Caleb noticed it the moment he crossed the ridge. The Ozark Woods should have been alive at this hour. Crickets humming, night birds calling, something always moving in the underbrush. But now there was nothing, just a dead, suffocating stillness that pressed in on him from all sides. He slowed, boots crunching softly over damp leaves, and he looked down again at the tracks he'd been following. At first glance, they looked like bear tracks, wide, heavy impressions sunk into the soil. But the first stride was wrong. It was too long, too spaced out, and the claw marks too big, and they dragged forward in deep gouges, like whatever made them carry too much weight or didn't lift its paws quite right. Caleb adjusted the grip on his rifle. Ain't natural, he muttered. A low sound rolled through the trees, not a how, a deep guttural huff, like the kind a bear makes before it charges. Caleb froze. Another huff. Closer this time. Branches cracked ahead, loud splintering snaps, like someone swinging a sledgehammer into these trees. Whatever it was, it wasn't sneaking. It was coming. Caleb raised the rifle and flicked on his headlamp, the beam cutting a narrow path through the darkness. Hi! He called, voice tight, yeah! The woods swallowed his voice, and something moved. A shape shifted between trees, huge and dark, and for a second it dropped low, moving on all fours, its shoulders rolling like a bear's. Then it stepped into the light, and Caleb's breath caught. It looked like a bear, if you saw it from far away, in the wrong light, but up close it was something else entirely. Its body was massive, punched high at the shoulders, but stretched longer than it should have been. Its fur hung in clumps, patchy and slick, exposing graytight skin underneath. Parts of it looked starved, ribs faintly visible, while other parts bulged with a natural muscle. Its front limbs were thick but bent strangely, joints set just a little too far forward. The claws were long, curving down like hooked blades, digging into the earth as it shifted its weight, and its head lifted, bear-like but off. The snout narrowed too much towards the end, and its teeth snagged slightly open, strings of saliva hanging between teeth that were uneven, crowded, some too large for its jaw. It breathed in, slow, deep. Its chest expanded with a wet creaking sound. Caleb's finger tightened on the trigger. Back off, he whispered. The creature huffed again. Hot vapor bur hot vapor burst from its nostrils, rolling in the cold night air. Then it charged, and Caleb fired. The shot cracked through the forest, striking the creature in the chest. Fur burst, the body jolted, but it didn't stop. It didn't even hesitate. Caleb fired again, panic taking over. The second shot hit its shoulder, the third missed entirely as the creature closed the distance in seconds. It slammed him into a col it slammed into him like a collapsing tree. Caleb hit the ground hard, the breath ripped from his lungs, his rifle flew from his hands, vanishing somewhere in the dark. Before he could scramble, the weight hit him. A massive paw crushed into his back, pinning him to the forest floor. The pressure was immediate, unbearable. His ribs creaked under it. A deep growl rumbled above him. Not loud, not dramatic, just low and constant, vibrating through his body like distant thunder. Caleb clawed at the dirt, trying to pull himself free. Get off! The weight shifted. Hot breath washed over the back of his neck, thick with a stench of rot, wet fur, and old blood. The creature leaned down. He couldn't see it fully now, only glimpsed it in the twisted beam of a spolid headlamp. A massive shape, matted fur, slow, deliberate movements of something that knew it had already won. It sniffed him. Short, heavy burst of breath, then a deeper inhale, drawing an ascent in fear. The growl changed. Lower, satisfied. Caleb tried to push up, the paw pressed harder, something cracked in his back, and he screamed. The creature didn't react, just shifted its weight, claws digging deeper, anchoring him in place. Its jaws opened, Caleb saw them in the edge of the light, long, uneven teeth glistening with saliva. Then it bit. The pain exploded through his shoulder as the jaws clamped down, crushing bone with a sickening crunch, and Caleb thrashed, kicking wildly, but the creature had only adjusted its grip, holding him down with ease. It tore, not fast, not frantic, but slow, deliberate pulls like a bear feeding. Each movement was methodical. It bit, held, then wrenched, tearing flesh-free and heavy wet sound that echoed in the silent woods. Caleb's screams turned ragged and weaker. The creature growled softly as it fed, a deep, content rumble that never fully stopped. No mimicry, no voices, just an animal. A massive, relentless thing driven by instinct. The forest lay dead around them. No birds scatter, no insects return. Only the steady sound of feeding filled the night. By the time the moon dipped lower, Caleb had stopped moving. The creature lingered. It fed until the ground was dark and soaked, and there was nothing left but torn scraps and bone. Then it lifted its head, muzzles slick and dripping, and set the air again, and for a moment it stood still, and it turned back into the trees, heavy steps, branches snapping. Its shape disappeared into the dark as if it had never been there at all. Then slowly a how began to echo through the forest. What do you think it is?

SPEAKER_03 14:21

Um you said this was a bear? No, no, it it it it had bear-like features. Bear-like features. But then is this a lichen? No. Because you said it howled at the end? It howled at the end. It wouldn't be a bear. It sounded like a polar bear, like an actual pol-cause that's what polar bears do, and like it just sounded like oh, it's such a generic polar bear. Yeah. Um I don't even know. It's not any type of wolf creature. I'm just making sure. I'm not on that track, right? Because I'm getting confused. It's it's a I mean.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Well, we're gonna discuss that.

SPEAKER_03 15:07

Because you said no to a lichen. Yeah. Not a lichen. So it's not any wolf creature. It's no. Okay. But it can also be like a deformed bear. It can be a deformed bear. But it is but its name is what it does. And what it did, it literally just ate them alive. But uh, what was its main feature? It's like its claws. So or it's it's under the.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

The big thing for this is the location of where it's at in the Ozarks. That could be many things for me. Okay, so that that's the wood that's the woods in like Missouri and Arkansas. Okay, that's what I was thinking. The mountain area there. I got you. Um and I'll say this. There have been multiple descriptions of this thing, but this was the one that I thought was the coolest. And tends to be kind of like the more accepted version of it that I found.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

Dude, I don't know. I've got nothing because like, no, I've got nothing. I would just, I would literally just say either it's like uh uh some type of bear or uh like I said at first a lichen or any type of like wolf, like werewolf, you know, uh, but it had more bear characteristics, but more wolf. I don't even know.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

All right, you ready? Sure, I'm gonna be pissed off. This is called the Ozark Howler, also known as the Ozark Black Howler, the Hoo-Hoo, the Nightshade Bear, and the Devil Cat. It is a legendary creature that is uh supposed to live in a in remote areas of Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. So there's a a couple things that come to this. Okay. Okay. So um, first the description the Ozark Haller is usually described as bear-like in size and shape. Bear-like in size and shape, often six to seven feet tall, covered in dark shaggy fur. Um, a lot of people depict it with glowing red eyes. Um possess uh possessing horns or antlers like gross in some account. So I was looking at some of like the uh the images of this thing, and it's literally like a like a grizzly bear. I don't know if you've ever seen a grizzly bear. They're gigantic.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

No, yeah, I've seen a grizzly bear.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

With like these devil horns that come off of it. Oh. And then some of them, it's more akin to like if Bigfoot and Grizzly had a baby. What was the other name? The other name? Uh the Black Howler, the Hoo-Hoo, the Nightshade Bear, and the Devil Cat.

SPEAKER_03 17:53

The Devil Cat.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

And the reason I say that is because there are some descriptions of it where it is described as a uh kind of like a predator cat, like a big cat. I was saying like a panther.

SPEAKER_03 18:09

That's what that's what I was trying to get at. I was like, is it not just a panther? But then you started talking about like having horns, and I was like, ooh, I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Some people have even like claimed to see it as um almost like a like a black line with horns. So it's like when it shows up, it has like a big thick mane, horns protruding out of its head, kind of the more like uh uh shorter snout like morphe lines have, instead of like the elongated like bear or canine. Um and then yeah. Um that's awful. So uh witnesses emphas emphasize its speed, stealth, and aggression, making it more terrifying than the ordinary bear or predator can. Okay. Um, the earliest reports of this thing. Um, have you ever heard of a famous adventurer named Daniel Boone? Nope, nothing. Not in American history? Nothing. Uh possibly. Public school failed you. Uh raccoon hat guy in the 1800s.

SPEAKER_03 19:13

Sounds familiar, probably.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

So he was a famous adventurer in the in the 1800s. Possibly. Umlegibly. Supposedly he ran into a Ozark Howler and actually shot it and wounded it. Oh there is no evidence that the beast was killed or kept as a trophy. Okay. So remember this. 1800s, Daniel Boom.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

In Missouri. Okay. Uh recently the Ozark Howler was in Newton County, Arkansas in 2011. And most recently, in 2015, an area resident claimed to have photographed an Ozark Haller at Devil's Den State Park. Um, so I I want to say it was the 2011 one when this thing was sighted, it actually sent the uh like the Missouri like state forestry people out to search for it. Like they had search parties looking for this thing. Like they actually, like the government was like, oh, we gotta go look.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

Okay, but in in the small chance that this thing was truly real, right? And they sent a bunch of people to go after it just to look for it, and this thing just starts sniping off people just because of its like ability to sneak.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Keep it for the movie idea. So um Chad Arment asserts in his book Cryptozoology that the Ozark Howler is a uh myth, is a hoax. According to Arment, he and many other cryptozoologists received email messages making claims about Ozark Howler evidence. These messages were then tracked to a University of Arkansas student who had made a bet that he could fool the cryptozoological research community. Okay. However, stories of the Ozark Haller are said to predate this. Uh Jason Ofett in his new book, Chasing American Monsters, write that many people have dismissed the Ozark Haller, but Howler's sightings stretch back to the early 1800s. Uh Lauren Coleman has endorsed the book as highly recommended writing. Offett does a special service to the field of cryptozoology with his new book. So I'm gonna be looking into that book if I want to check that out some of that out.

SPEAKER_04 21:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Um, so I was like, Ozark Howler, big bear thing. Like, let me go see like what's on the internet for it. Okay. So I have a couple things where I'm kind of like, I'm kind of fucked up with it. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

First off, go ahead. No. So we last left off on a bunch of distribution. Descriptions. Um, alright. Could this also be like a No, never mind. Never mind. I was gonna say like a I was gonna say like a a bison? Like a big buffalo? Yeah, I was gonna say because they do? Yeah. Because they have they they have horns and they have like a bunch of mane if I'm correct, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:24

But I think they're more to like the flatlands. I don't think a bison kind of running around the forest. That's what I was trying to think. I was trying to think of a creature with horns, mane, and and so this is the part that like kind of fucked me up, okay? Okay. Um, do you know the YouTuber Forrest uh Galant? Galante? No. Okay. He is a big YouTuber. He's got like two and a half, 2.7 million subscribers. Uh-huh. But he's he's really big on uh, he's very much the Steve Irwin. Or Steve Irwin, like very conservation efforts, very this, very that. And um he does he did a very interesting breakdown on a lot of cryptids where him and his team actually went into the Ozark Mountains, right? Okay, almost got shot by a hillbilly living in this wood cabin out here in the in the boonies, right? Okay they're like, no, we just have some questions about the Ozark howler, blah, blah, blah. And he the dude's like, Yeah, my daddy, my daddy shot one, I got it to pill, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Gives him moonshine, whatever.

unknown 23:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

And they're like, hey, can we take a small sample of this to compare it and see what it is? So they took the sample and it came back as an American red wolf, which used to be in the area. Oh. And what his idea is, is that during Prohibition, people used the idea of the Ozark Howler to scare the police and other officials out of the woods where these moonshiners were distilling liquor. Oh, okay. And what was out there still in that time was the American red wolf. And they're going extinct, so what do they do? They're looking for each other, so they're howling. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

Now, are red wolves extinct now?

SPEAKER_01 24:23

I I think they're like critically in danger. I think they're like 20 left in the wild or something like that. It's like you. Alright. Now, I have a couple problems with this. Okay. Right. Because one, we believe everything we see on the internet. Okay. So, I was like, this guy put like nail in the coffin case. I want to see what what like everybody else says. Like, let me go look at like, let me get on Reddit, let me go over here, let me look at a couple different forms of cryptozoology and see what's what. Okay. Um, then I started listening to sound bites that people supposedly have heard this thing howling.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

I go camping quite a bit. I've heard bobcats, I've heard coyotes, I have not heard a motherfucking thing that sounds like this thing. Like, it honestly kind of freaks me the fuck out. Like, if I was laying in my tent at night on a mountain, and I heard some of these sound clips that they the people have posted over the years, I would hell no. I'm leaving my tent, I'm leaving my shit, I'm grabbing my my my piece, I'm getting the fuck out.

SPEAKER_03 25:34

Now, is this a were the sounds like very similar in each different sound bit?

SPEAKER_01 25:41

So there there was some like obviously like the more like growl get away, right? But the the calling ones were the ones that kind of got because they were like really not like a wolf, like, ooh, you know, it was more like a almost like like a screech. Yeah. Okay. But they were they were really kind of fucked up. And I'm like, if there's a bear thing out here making that kind of noise, like, no. But then I started going into like the witness accounts of a lot of stuff, and and there are a lot of people that have claimed to see this thing. And I'm like, especially like if you're seeing the bear version. Because I've like I I lived in Alaska, I saw grizzly bears, like the big motherfuckers, yeah. And then I came here and saw black bears, and I'm like, those are fucked up looking dogs. Right. Because my bears were always this big to where, like, you know, me. Yeah, absolutely. But I mean, I couldn't imagine seeing a bear that big and being like, what the fuck is how big was the description?

SPEAKER_03 26:42

Six to seven feet tall. Oh goodness. Uh also one thing onto the screeching noise to the sound. Uh I know foxes make like a screeching noise.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

But that's the thing. Everybody was going and they would do the howler sounds, and then they would find sounds that people were like, it's a fox, and they'd put it next to it. It was not the same. Oh, okay. And I mean, it was like breakdown, breakdown, breakdown, breakdown, breakdown, breakdown, breakdown. And there were some people who were like, well, this could be a deviation of this noise, like this kind of chatter from foxes. It could be this kind of chatter from coyotes, it could be a bobcat that's fighting another bobcat.

SPEAKER_03 27:22

They wanted to put a lot more reasoning into it before they just say it's a it's a demon bear. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

It's a demon bear that's running around the woods. Yeah, and then uh like oh goodness. So, and this is the other thing too, is a lot of people tend to view this thing as kind of like a um like a black dog of sorts from Europe, right? So if you saw the Ozark Howler, like tragedy is going to strike. Oh, so then it started becoming kind of like a dark omen in of itself that people would see these things. And all of a sudden, like, oh, my cousin got killed in a hunting accident, oh, he fell out of a tree and died, oh my paw went down the river and he never came back. Like, all of a sudden it started kind of gaining that as well. Oh. Which also was like, okay, if it's if it's if it's not A and it's not B, like it could be C, but like this is one of those kind of cryptids where there's so much like filtering in and out, like I I couldn't make like true, true sense of it. You know what I mean? There's so much crisscross about what it could actually be instead of. And then that's the other thing, too, is you're still having sightings into 2015.

SPEAKER_03 28:40

Yeah. So I'm like, what I really hate though with these is that when there's a lot of like, oh, it could be this, blah, blah, blah, but this doesn't make sense, but okay, well, let's add this, right? And then you have these these these guys or guys or girls that are just like, you know what? It'd be really funny if we just mess with these people and just put out fake stuff, you know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah. It's just like, oh, well, great. Yeah, 100%. Now they're tampering with all the stuff that people have actually gathered. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

They muddy the water. Oh yeah. Yeah. And I mean, it's it's that's hard when you get into anything that is like you could do that with Bigfoot. You know what I mean? You could do that with any any paranormal, you can do it with anything on this show.

SPEAKER_03 29:23

And again, this could also be something to where a local at the time is like, oh yeah, this is uh this is like a red wolf or whatever, but like that uh the that hillbilly is like, oh yeah, the Ozark howler, uh-huh, whatever. Could be something what the locals call it. Yeah, and then when people from not around come out and foreigners or whatever, they're like, Yeah, we got these Ozark howlers, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like, what? It's like, oh no, it's actually just a red wolf. Like this is their name.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:55

You know, and they've never seen this before.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

And I could I could see that being a thing as well. But like, like I said, my my hang up with this, right, is everybody was so quick to dismiss it, right? Oh, it's a hoax. Oh, we did this, oh, we did that, oh, we did this, oh, we did that. But like, you're still having dated sightings from the 1800s to 2015 at the latest. Yeah. Like 200 years of this thing, of these things possibly running around.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

But again, how much of how much of the forest or woodland hasn't been like explored, essentially, of that area? Is it like giant?

SPEAKER_01 30:42

It's pretty dense. Pretty dense. But but this is my other thing too, is how many roads have been cut through there that have possibly and and this is this is my my thought process too, is you've had 200 years to adapt. You know what I mean? So like maybe if there are multiples, or maybe if it's a creature that hasn't like that hasn't gone extinct yet, right? Maybe it's getting us it's smaller and smaller and smaller. So maybe when they first saw it, it was a fucking bear size, and now it's kind of reduced its size to a large cat over a few generations, kind of like deer do. Like around here, like you go Midwest, they have fucking gigantic deer and elk and moose and everything else because they have the room. Yeah. But in but in here, like they're tiny because there's roadways everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 31:32

Yeah, less less places to hide, less vegetation. Yeah, yeah, I got no, I understand. I got you. That uh but again, how small? Are we talking like fox sizes, wolf sizes, that's so good?

SPEAKER_01 31:46

So here's here's the other thing, too. So then after I finished four video on uh cryptids, right? The next video autoplayed, and it was animals running amok. And I watched um it was like elephants and camels and cows and stuff, like all throughout like Asia and everything like that.

SPEAKER_03 32:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

And then there was one in Africa where they had a leopard, which isn't is a big cat. Yeah, absolutely. But it's not the biggest cat.

SPEAKER_03 32:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Right, fucking these dudes up. It was trying to escape, and a guy jumped onto this barrier to like like heave himself over it, and this guy had to get five, six feet up in the air, right? He's up on this like fence, and the leopard just claws him in the back and just pulls him back into the pit, right? And they're struggling, and the leopard drags him probably three or four feet, and the guy smacks it, and the leopard runs off and then goes up. And when I say just leaps up, just poop over the over the barrier the guy was going off of. But I mean like for that thing to just boom, and then I'm like, there's your fucking stealth. The bitch is coming out of the goddamn trees, it's got long ass claws, boom, you know?

SPEAKER_03 33:05

Oh, yeah, because leopards do they do love hiding in the trees all day.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Oh, but can you imagine having like the the black American leopard like this thing just hides up in the trees?

SPEAKER_03 33:21

No one ever looks up. No one ever looks. I don't know why that's like such a big thing.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Even when you think about it, you actually don't look up. And that and that's the other thing too, is like there are some posts where like things were showing up dead and people were going to look at, you know, going to out to look for it. But when you start getting that much further west, like all of our highways kind of open up, you know what I mean? Like it's not as it's not as dense roadwise, you know. So it's just like, oh fuck, it could be this thing, just out here in the woods fucking people up.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

Oh, goodness.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

Alright. Uh, in pop culture, in the 30s, local press published a small run of a book of folklore about the creature called Tales of the Ozark Howler. A decade later, folklorist Vance Randolph referred to the Ozark Howler by the name Hoho in the books, uh, in the book Ozark Superstitions. In 1973, the Ozark Haller was reimagined as a multi-dimensional time-traveling creature in Timothy Godwin's short story, The Hair of the Black Howler. Most recently, the Ozark Haller has been written about in the children's book Hunt the Ozark Haller in Billy Bob's Haller, as well as in the Mason Dixon series of novels by Eric R. Asher. The Ozark Haller has also been inspired inspired regional poets, most notably in K.W. Perry's book Ozark Haller and Ozark Haller verses by Rufus Gray. So obviously, people are still writing about this thing. Um now, in what do I'm just gonna read these off in the ways that they've had these Mysterious Creatures with Forrest Galant in 2022, Ozark Hallor, which is season one, episode four, and season one, episode two. Um I don't know why it's written like that. Uh Forrest travels to Missouri to invest investigate a wolf-like creature with a distinct howl that sounds like a mix of a wolf, elk, and hyena. Yeah, you start putting all those things together, you get a really crazy howl. Expedition X in 2022, the Ozark Haller, on season five, episode two, and season three, episode six. Jess and Phil search for the predatory beasts in the Ozarks, examining evidence in new audio recordings. In search of monster in 2019, the Ozark Haller, season one, episode seven, explores the demonic origins and sightings of the creature. I didn't really find anything demonic into this one, it just sounds like a big predator. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like it just sounds like a big bear. Yeah, absolutely. No, yeah. Um, in searching for Sasquatch 17, the Ozark Haller in 2025, a documentary where Jason Kenzie leads a team into haunted Ozark Caves searching for the cryptid. Searching for Sasquatch 17, the Ozark Howler. Do you Okay? Back in the day, when they did porn, it was not like, hey, stepbrother, whatever, blah, or you know, however we get it on the internet nowadays.

SPEAKER_04 36:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Right? It was all uh named in like catalog. So you'd have like, you know, at-home moms, and it'd be like volume one, two, three, four. And that's what this sounds like to me. Searching for Saswatch 17, the Ozark Howler. To me, it sounds like they found a Bigfoot in in the in the Ozarks and fucked it until how. Why did we go?

SPEAKER_03 37:12

I see. You see what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Okay, haunted highway in 2012, Utah Skinwalker slash Ozark Howler. Jason Osborne investigates hellhounds in the Nevada Deserts, where which are often compared to the Howler. Yes. It's also a card in Metazoo.

SPEAKER_03 37:33

Why was wrong with Metazoom?

SPEAKER_01 37:35

No, it's just like we hear about it every time and then it's but it's cancelled, so it's like it is canceled and it makes me sad. It makes me sad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I w I wish that card game would have been more supported. It would have been a fun. Especially to like play up here.

SPEAKER_03 38:00

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Okay. So that's that's pop culture on those archival. I've got you. Now they did make some care the some cool comparisons in terms of it. And this might be come up in movie in our movie maker moment, but the demonic hellhound comparison, stuff like that. So excuse me. Alright, you ready for this what would you do scenario?

SPEAKER_03 38:25

Yep, let's go.

unknown 38:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 38:28

Does Anthony survive?

SPEAKER_01 38:31

You're hiking alone, having strayed farther off the trail than you intended. Your phone has no signal. The path before you looks unfamiliar. A distant, unnatural how echoes through the trees. Not a wolf, not a coyote. Something deeper and warped. The sound vibrates in your chest more than your ears. It rises into a strange, broken yelp, almost like laughter choking on itself. Then silence. Too much silence. All the birds, the bugs, quiet. Your flashlight flickers as you turn slowly, scanning the woods. The beam catches movement between the trees, low to the ground, something large. What do you do?

SPEAKER_03 39:10

Dude, I I hate this because I would never be in that situation because I'd be I'd be too scared. To be like, you guys want to come camping with me? No. Well, I guess that's it. I guess I'm not going camping. I guess I'm not going camping. You wouldn't go camping alone. If I had if I had the brake protections, right? If I had my own gun and whatever, yes. Maybe. But I think I would start small, maybe in areas like are very, very like populated camping. You know what I'm saying? I wouldn't go straight off, yeah, we're going straight into the Ozarks by myself, you know? I'm not doing that. I don't want to get because it'd be my luck that I actually run into the Ozark Howler for the first time.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:58

On my first time alone. Like, what do I do?

SPEAKER_01 40:02

Just this cartoon bear with horns, and he's like, I'm calling I'm calling you.

SPEAKER_02 40:08

I'm calling you. I'm like, Tyler, Tyler, what do I do? Oh god. I'm gonna be like, what do you see in front of you?

SPEAKER_01 40:15

Yeah, that sounds like the Ozark Howler. Yeah. Yeah. What you need to do is you need to pull your pants down and make yourself real small on the ground and just let him have you.

SPEAKER_03 40:28

And just like, so what would I do of hearing that howl?

SPEAKER_01 40:34

Would you call out and tell it to go out and go away? Would you stay silent and try to slowly back away? Shine your light directly at it and stand your ground, or run. Oh goodness.

SPEAKER_03 40:47

Uh what what items do I have on me? Do I have a knife?

SPEAKER_01 40:52

Yeah, it's in your bag though.

SPEAKER_03 40:54

Oh, son of a bitch. I don't have anything like on me except for my flashlight. You got your flashlight. That's it. That's it. Oh, okay. Where is my tent set up?

SPEAKER_01 41:03

No, you're like hiking. You're actively hiking. I'm actively hiking. Yeah, and you got off trail and you're trying to find your way back to the trail. Oh, this is bad.

SPEAKER_03 41:12

Uh, okay, so I actually I feel I need to drop my stuff. I I think I just need to I need to either drop it or use it as protection.

SPEAKER_02 41:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 41:24

You know, as padding and whatever, because there's no shot that I'm gonna be able to outrun this thing. This thing is if I run, it's gonna kill me.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

If I try to uh go away, it's like so you can just try to like slowly creep away.

SPEAKER_03 41:40

I'm never gonna I'm never gonna leave its line of sight. That's the first thing. So I'm gonna slowly back away, yes. Okay. That's the best that's the dealing with the predator like that. Yeah. Never turn your back to it.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

You don't make a sound. Every instinct in your body is screaming to run, but you force it down. Your breath comes slow, controlled, but shallow. One careful step backwards, then another. Dry leaves crunch under your boots, your creature stops moving. Its head snaps towards the sound, not your movement, but the noise. Its lips peel back, exposing rows of uneven yellow teeth, and a low guttural clicking begins in its throat. It heard that. It likes that. You take another step back, more carefully this time, placing your foot on bare dirt. Sound. The thing lowers its body, almost crouching. Its long front limbs stretch outward, claws digging into the sword, and it begins circling again, but slower now, tighter, testing you, hunting. A twig cracks somewhere off to your left, but not from you. The creature's head jerks violently towards the noise, but again its eyes flick back to you almost immediately. Like it doesn't want to lose track of you, like it knows you're the real target. You back your back hits something solid, a tree. No more room to step back. The creature starts inching closer, and you can hear its breath now. Its jaws hang open as saliva drips and strands to the ground. It lets out a mocking y. Almost like it's intimidating something it wants hurt. Or almost like it's in intimitating something it wants hurt. Something human. It takes one more step, you notice something horrifying. It's not just circling randomly, but it's hurting you, keeping you pinned. The forest behind the forest behind it is darker than the rest. Too dark, thick with brush and shadow, like a den. Like a place things don't come back from. It suddenly stops, its ears twitch, then it leans slightly, sniffing, testing the air, testing you. What would you like to do? Oh, what the hell? So some of your options freeze completely and avoid options. Eye contact. Slowly raise your arms and make yourself look bigger. Throw something to distract it. Bolt to the right into the trees.

SPEAKER_03 44:07

Running away is again a bad option. Never do that. I'm not going to challenge it because that's also a death sentence. Alright, what was the it was it was trying to make yourself?

SPEAKER_01 44:19

So you can freeze and make eye contact with it. You can try to hold your arms up and make yourself look bigger. You can throw something like your flashlight to try to distract it, like throw it off into the woods, right? And hopefully the sound will like deter it to go somewhere else. Absolutely not. And then bolt to the right into the trees.

SPEAKER_03 44:41

I'm gonna freeze and stare at it. Straight eye contact.

SPEAKER_01 44:49

Okay. You go still. Not just your body, you're breathing, you're blinking, even the tension in your hands. Just watch as the creature gets closer and closer. It's inching closer, one step than another. You hear its claws press into the dirt slow. The wet sound of its breathing growing louder until you can feel it against your skin. Something brushes your boot. It's right there. So close you can hear the faint clicking in its jaw as it shifts back and forth. Its smell is overwhelming now. Damp fur, something metallic underneath, and its head lower sniffle sniffing your leg. Every muscle in your body trembles, begging to move, but you don't. The sifting s the sniffing stops, then a sharp inhale. The creature's head lifts slowly, you look at it, you s catch its gaze, crawling up your body, studying you, weighing something you can't understand. Its breathing changes. More curious now. A low sound escapes it. Not a growl or a howl, but something softer, almost confused. For a moment, just a moment you think it might leave. Its weight shifts, you hear it step back once, then twice, leaves crunches, it begins to circle again, but wider now, less focused, like it's lost interest. You hear it again, that broken human-like sound. This time it almost resembles a whisper of Hey! Your blood runs cold. It's mimicking, testing, trying to get a reaction. It moves behind you now, you can't see it, but you can hear it just beyond the tree. Soft scrap soft scrapes, slow breath. If you react, it might trigger it. If you stay still, it might leave, or it might get bored. And a board predator does unpredictable things. What do you want to do next?

unknown 46:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

Stay frozen, slowly inch sideways around the tree to keep it in view, whisper back at it, make a sudden loud noise to scare it.

SPEAKER_03 47:01

So staying I feel like staying frozen, not a good idea. So I'm gonna go ahead and block that out.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

Okay. So what was the other three that was slowly inch sideways around the tree to keep it in your view. Keep it into my view, okay. Whisper back to it, okay. Or make a sudden loud noise to scare it.

SPEAKER_03 47:21

I feel like the sudden loud noise is again challenging it. Like it wants it to be a fight. It wants that's why me backing up, it was like, and it heard me backing up. It was like, oh, we're about to have fun. But the moment I stood still, not done did anything, and just kept eye contact at it, it was just like, really? Okay, you're not gonna do anything. Freezing though, like you said, it might make it uh do something.

SPEAKER_01 47:47

If it's bored.

SPEAKER_03 47:48

Yeah, if it's bored, it might just do something. Yeah. Because obviously it wants to hunt me. So it might try to like nip at me or go around.

SPEAKER_01 47:57

Kinda kinda agitate you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:59

To go yeah. Because it's now doing the imitating of a person.

SPEAKER_00 48:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 48:04

So I feel like either stay saying hey back would actually like get a reaction.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

Okay. Uh that it wants. So you can whisper back to it or you can slowly inch sideways to keep it in your view.

SPEAKER_03 48:20

See, that's when when you say whisper back. Yeah, so you hear like the it's making these weird like Yeah, when I whisper back at it, it is like, uh, am I like saying sweet nothings into its ears?

SPEAKER_01 48:34

I think you're you're you're whispering back in terms of just like a like A. Like, hey, easy, easy, easy, easy. Like you're trying to talk down a predator. I I don't think that would be good.

SPEAKER_03 48:49

So you just want to try to keep it in your eyesight? I feel like keeping it into my eyesight. I think talking down a predator like that would be like a terrible idea because it would it would make it like, oh, like he he's he's ready for something, right? Like, I'm not gonna back down. He's challenging me. So that's also a challenge. So no, I'm I'm gonna keep it on my my eyesight.

SPEAKER_02 49:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:12

But yeah, I'll do that.

SPEAKER_01 49:16

Okay. Careful, slow, every movement measured, you shift your weight and begin to slide your foot sideways, circling the tree just enough to bring the creature back into view. Your heartbeat is deafening, but your body stays you keep your body in control. At first you see nothing, just trees, darkness, the shaking beam of light, then there it is, closer than before. It didn't move away, it moved with you. The creature stands just a few feet off, its body body partially hidden behind another tree, its head angled at you again, this time lower, watching from the side, like it was waiting for you to look. Its lips curl slowly, exposing those crooked teeth again, a thin strand of saliva snaps as the jaw shifts. Then it does something worse. It mirrors you it takes a small step. It takes one or you take a small step, it takes one too. Slow and precise, matching your movement almost perfectly. Your light flickers across its body, now you see more of it. Its ribs press tightly against its skin too visible, its back arches unnaturally high, its spine jutting like something trying to break out. One of its front limbs bends slightly inward, wrong, like it healed badly. This thing isn't just a predator. It's something that has survived things it shouldn't have. It lets out a soft choked yip and then quietly this time closer, clearer. It's learning. The creature suddenly drops lower, muscles tightening, not circling anymore, not testing, but committing. Its eyes lock onto yours again, and this time you feel it shift. That thin line between curiosity and hunger snaps. And it lunges, not straight at you, it darts to your side fast, cutting you off, cutting off your escape, plus tearing through the leaves as its skin pivots, trying to force you into open ground. It doesn't want to chase, it wants control. You are no longer just being watched, you're being handled. The path behind you is partially open but narrow. To your left, dense brush. To your right, a slope downward into darkness. The creature stands between you and the safer ground, breathing hard, waiting for you to make a mistake. What do you do?

SPEAKER_03 51:31

Damn it, I fell right into it. Dude, this thing's a lot smarter than I thought. This thing is a lot smarter than uh I was given a. I don't know, dude.

SPEAKER_01 51:40

I'm telling you, like, predators some some of these apex predators are insane when it comes to the.

SPEAKER_03 51:46

When you said that its ribs were seen, I was like, oh, this thing is ready. No, it's eating. It's hungry. No, yeah, it's hungry.

SPEAKER_01 51:54

So you can sprint down the narrow path behind you, charge at it aggressively trying to scare it off, grab something from the ground and throw it at it, throw it hard at its face, back towards the slope, and take your chances going downhill.

SPEAKER_03 52:06

Okay. Name one at a time.

SPEAKER_01 52:10

Sprint down the narrow path behind you. No, it wants me to go down the way. Charge at it aggressively trying to scare it off.

SPEAKER_03 52:18

I feel like I'd be too into a fight, and I feel like it already has control.

SPEAKER_01 52:22

So you can grab something from the ground and throw it at its face. Or back towards the slope and take your chances trying to go down the hill. So you remember them switchbacks we did in Three Ridges?

SPEAKER_03 52:35

I know. That's what I'm trying to think about. Like, do I You're probably gonna roll. I know, because I I actually about fell. I fell down part of it, but like, luckily in a safe, controlled way.

SPEAKER_01 52:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:50

But it still was like a scary thought to think about if I fell to the left instead of the right. Oh, you're fucked. I was uh I'm thinking, oh, dude, throwing something at its face it's sounding better than what I'm thinking about trying to do. I may have to just put this in God's hands.

SPEAKER_01 53:11

What are you doing? Take a leap of faith. You're going backwards or are you going at it?

SPEAKER_03 53:17

You know what? Oh, I feel like I'm dying that way, but it's like, how do I want to die?

SPEAKER_00 53:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:23

Guys, I think I'm dead. I really think I'm dead. So you know what? I'm just gonna charge this thing. I'm just gonna charge this thing and intimidate it and try, you know, I there's nothing else I can do. It's a gamble. It is, it's a gamble. It's a dangerous one. It it's I'm dead either way.

SPEAKER_01 53:40

But hesitation will cool you faster than anything else out here. You step forward, then lunge. A shot rips out of your throat, raw and loud as you throw your arms wide, f flashlight beam snapping directly into its face. Get back! And for a split second, the creature flinches. Its head jerks back, eyes narrowing against the sunlight noise, its body recoils, claws scraping backwards through the dirt. You press forward, louder, bigger, more aggressive. It works. At first. Then the thing lets out a sharp, startled yelp and bounds sideways, putting a few feet between it and you. Its movements are erratic, now jerking, uncertainty. You've broken its rhythm, broken its control. But then it stops. Its head slowly turns back towards you, lower now, still. No more circling, no more testing. Its lips peel back again, this time not in curiosity, in anger. A deep guttural sound rolls out of its chest, not loud but heavy, a kind you feel in your bones. It didn't you didn't scare it away, you challenged it. It begins to move towards you again, not stalking anymore, not playing, walking straight at you, each step deliberate and confident, it's clausting deeper into the ground, shoulders rolling with controlled power. The mimicry is gone, the hesitation is gone. It's now it's just a predator. It lets out one final broken sound, not quite a howl, not quite a scream, then it charges full force. You have no time to think. The distance closes, the distance closes in an instant, its body slamming towards you. Jaw opening, you see its teeth, you smell it, you feel the impact. What do you do right now? Dive out of the way at the last second, try to strike it with your flashlight, turn and run immediately, drop low and try to get underneath of it. I have two options. What's that?

SPEAKER_03 55:30

I no, I have two options, like I'm asking you.

SPEAKER_01 55:32

You can die you have four. Oh dive and get out of the way at the last second. Okay. Try to strike with your flash, try to strike it with your flashlight, right? Turn and run immediately, drop low and try to get underneath it.

SPEAKER_03 55:47

Okay. The turn and run is awful. Never do that. Counting that out. Uh the diving out of the way last second is also bad because it it's just gonna have it's gonna land, pivot, it has more mobility still. Okay. So that's probably bad.

SPEAKER_01 56:05

So you can either hit it with your flashlight or try to get under it.

SPEAKER_03 56:09

Yeah, and I don't know how I would it's powerful. Yeah. I feel like this thing is strong. I'm thinking of like a panther strength.

SPEAKER_00 56:17

Not like a grizzly bear.

SPEAKER_03 56:18

You think a grizzly bear strength? Oh, it's a big bitch. Hey, no, you know what? If I was Russian, then yeah, I'd probably try it.

SPEAKER_01 56:25

Uh just you get under it, snatch its arm, snatch a leg, give it the old.

SPEAKER_03 56:33

I take this down. The suplex off the side of the mountain is just if I could, I would take this down, like this thing with me. Just off the mountain. RKO it. Oh no. Uh, I'm gonna see if I try to hit it with the flashlight, I feel like it'd break the flashlight, I lose my lighting, and then it's just like, oh, game over. So I'm gonna go. What would I do if I got underneath it? Like.

SPEAKER_01 57:00

I don't know. Grab its dick, twist.

SPEAKER_00 57:12

Uh that's what I would try to do. I'd try to hit it right in the fucking balls. I really would.

SPEAKER_03 57:20

I guess I would try to get underneath it, honestly. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 57:23

Alright.

SPEAKER_03 57:24

I feel like I should try to hit it with the flashlight, but I don't want to lose the lighter.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

Alright. No time, no hesitation as the creature launches, you drop, its body slams into where you were. A blur of fur, bone, and teeth ripping through empty air as you hit the ground hard, shoulder first. For a split second, the world is chaos, dirt in your mouth, the flashlight spinning away, the sound of claws tearing through earth. Then you're underneath of it. The creature overshoots, but not cleanly. One of its long limbs clips your back, claw dragging across you, not deep, but enough to burn. You feel its weight shift above you, too close, way too close. The underside is wrong. You glimpse in the darkness, its root ribs moving underneath. Um, like something inside isn't aligned right. Its breath hammers in ragged burst, hot, putrid as a twist, trying to find you underneath of it. You scramble, pushing forward on your hands and knees. Behind you, it lets out a furious, distorted scream. Half animal have something horribly human. It's confused. For a second, that's all you get. You burst out from under its body and lunge forward, grabbing your fallen flashlight as you roll to your feet. The beam jerks wildly and cat and catches its turning. Faster this time, angrier. It pivots unnaturally, spine bending in a way it shouldn't, its head snapping towards you and the rest of your of its body follows. But now there's space between you. Not much, but enough. There's a path behind you. It's still there, clear. The creature crouches again, muscles coiling. This time it doesn't wait. It's going to rush you again. No games now. You have one real chance to break away. What do you do? Sprint down the narrow path as fast as you can, grab a branch and try to fight it head on, shine the flashlight directly into its eyes and sidestep, throw yourself down the slope and escape into the darkness.

SPEAKER_03 59:19

Oh no. I feel like running down that narrow, like what are we talking about? Narrow path. I feel like it knows it is this is its own home advantage. It knows it. It knows the land. It can easily traverse it. I feel like that's bad. Turning turning away from it and running like that, I feel like that's bad.

SPEAKER_01 59:37

Um I'd agree.

SPEAKER_03 59:39

I feel like trying to fight it with a stick is also bad.

SPEAKER_01 59:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:43

Because this thing's a grizzly bear. I would like I would love to see someone fight a grizzly bear with a stick, you know, and probably just grab it and just I know what I would do. Uh and then dodging out the way, like shiny in the face boom. I think I'm gonna have to take my chance and actually take a leap of faith this time.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:04

And dive down the slope.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:06

Dive dive down the slope. But I feel like I know what it would say. That you go down, break bones, boom, you're you're there limping, all that, and then it comes up slowly and then just starts eating at me. You know?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:19

Alright. You don't think you don't hesitate, you jump. The ground disappears beneath your feet as you hurl yourself over the edge of the slope, and for a split second, you're weightless. Then gravity takes you. You hit hard, dirt explodes around you as your body slams into the incline, rolling uncontrollably. Branches whip across your face, rocks slam into your ribs, your flashlight flickers wildly in your grip. Then it's a tree, gone into the darkness. Above you, it screams. A furious, distorted howl that tears through the force that realizes what you've done. Something crashes down the slope after you. It's coming. You try to stop yourself, digging your hands into the dirt, catching briefly on roots before snapping loose again. Your body finally slams into a flatter patch at the bottom. Air rushes out of your lungs, everything spins. Silence. No, not silence. Movement. Up the slope. You force yourself up to look, and at first you see nothing but the darkness tangled in trees, then two faint reflections, its eyes watching from above. The creature stands at the edge of the slope. It hasn't followed you all the way down. It doesn't need to. It lets out a low broken sound quieter now, not a scream, not even a growl. Something almost satisfy. Then it turns and disappears into the tree. Or disappears into the trees. You lie there battered, shaking, lungs burning as the reality sets in. You're alive somehow. But the forest slowly begins to breathe again. Insects returning, wind brushing through the leaves. You realize something that chills you more than the encounter itself. It didn't chase you, not all the way. Because it didn't have to. You weren't prey anymore. You were something else. Something it had tested, something it might come back for. And or is it?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:01

So I'm alive.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:02

You got through it! Oh my gosh. Well.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:11

I have the best survival instincts out of everything. This just proves that I can survive. I've surviv survived every scenario. I've just been BSed.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:25

I want you to go camping.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:27

I'm not going camping alone.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:29

Alright. Good job, buddy.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:32

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:33

Alright, you ready? Absolutely. Let's wrap this up with our monster movie maker moment. We're gonna go over the Ozark Howler.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:41

Yep, yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:42

So, you got any ideas?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:44

Uh, I may have one, but uh, what do you got?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:48

So, I like the idea. I want to do a kind of like the monster horror flick where you have the origin told in like the beginning credits of this thing, right? And I really like the idea of somebody tying something demonic to a creature and making it warped, right? So, like there's some witchcraft that came over, blah, blah, blah. It attaches to a black bear, it grows to be huge, and it's just like this gnarled, scarred, like just it's missing chunks of its lip, and its teeth are always out, its leg's been broken, and it's healed in a weird way. Um and like you go through like stages of it as it's kind of like progressed through, as it kind of like lays out the origin story of like, you know, oh, and then this this entity was tied to this thing, and it's been stuck like this ever since. Okay. And then like circa 2015 comes in, and then I want to tell the story of a farming community, like maybe they're cattle farmers, all their cattle are getting picked off. Yeah, like all of a sudden it's like, oh, our kid is gone, you know, all our kids played in the woods and they have so much fun, blah, blah, blah. And one of them goes missing, and they're like, oh, we got to get all the search dogs and all this kind of stuff out. And like they keep going out, and then fewer and fewer of them keep coming back, and fewer and fewer keep coming back, and fewer and fewer keep coming back. And I have this idea that there is like a bear den, right? In the like in a cave, right? Where it's keeping this child alive because it knows that if the child's alive, more people are going to come into the woods.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:44

Oh, and then it's like a cycle of like it's using it as bait.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:50

Yeah, it's like baiting, but it's learned to mimic the kids' cries. So it's like, mama, mama, and then like people will run towards it, and then it's just there. But like, I want it to be like that stealthy, like, it can just like lay down, right? And its fur kind of settles, and it just kind of looks like a big like pile of leaves or like math. Like a boulder rock, and then all of a sudden people come running by, and then you just have the most like visceral goring, like like it's smacking people up, and then just like landing in tree limbs and just being like stuck there as it just grabs their legs and just like halves them. Oh like just the most grisly like claw swipes, disembowelings, right? And then it's like, you know, it'll hear the people talking, and then it'll like Jerry, Jerry, Jerry, Jerry, and then it'll like learn their voices and then like just a mimic. Just to mimic and fuck with these people. Yeah. And then at the end, I'm thinking like they they end up finding their son, right? They have like the showdown with it. And then it's like, you know, they're in the den, they found their kid, and then like they figure out like this thing, what it's doing.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:07

And it's um, I'm almost wondering if they like pay almost kind of like a tribute to like the uh kind of like the the supernatural entity side of it, where it's like, hey, like we promise to bring you XYZ for you not to fuck with our family, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:25

But then it's like they've almost made like the friend of this like like apex predator, where it's like, we'll bring you a cow into the woods, like once a month, right? We have enough, like we'll bring you the cow, you just protect our like our circle of length, and nobody will come in here looking for it.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:46

Oh, see, I thought you were almost gonna be like like once every like couple months or something like that. Don't like go hiking. And then we'll like, oh, we're bringing a friend from out of states that we know.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:59

Oh, yeah, the human sacrifice aspect would be crazy. But I really want to do like the uh that aspect of like, yeah. You know, and maybe it comes across some hunters, and that's kind of like the first kind of like, or not hunters, but hikers, like campers, and that's kind of like the first kill.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:17

But um, yeah, I really wanted it to be like that animal horror where it's like you got this apex predator just in here fucking these guys up, just gorn dogs, gorn people. They're coming by, and of course, it's like the not look up thing, right? And they're like looking, and then it like drips down on the guy's hand, and he's like, What the hell is that? And he's like blood, and he holds his flashlight up to see it and it drips onto the flashlight, and he looks up, and his buddies just like strone like 30 feet apart in the trees above him, where this this bear just like tore him apart and like threw him off, and it just landed in the tree limbs, all like just intestines out and just dangling. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:04

Thank you for watching and listening to the Ghosts and Ghouls podcast. Tyler's mic had actually died during the recording, so I had to scrap my version of the monster movie maker moment. However, I did leave it in for the Patreon, so it's there. So if you want to support us and you also want to listen to what I had to say with the scuffed version of Tyler's mic, so it's there. However, what is free of charge is hitting that uh that that like button as well as subscribing, hitting that bell for any notifications to stay updated for when we post. But most of all, go ahead and share it to people that you might think like this uh kind of content that we do. Learning new monsters in different regions, starting in North America, and then seeing what would you do as well as making a movie about it. So that's pretty much it. Thank you all.