Some places are not only haunted. They are evil. There are many reasons why a place is seen as evil. The most important thing is history. If a place, for example a house or a landscape, a forest, a mountain has a certain track record it can become known as an evil place. Mysterious missing cases, murders or strange accidents are reasons for superstitions and stories which gives a places a reputations as evil in the long run.
The idea of whole landscapes where there is some evil residue is a very common concept. Sometimes it is a very old evil force and sometimes the evil comes back at certain times like IT in Stephen King’s novel. The idea of these haunted areas raises some very important questions: What caused the evil? Or is it a force which was there forever? What do we mean by evil? What does the evil do? How does it affect the world? What’s happening? And can the evil ever stopped?
The Old Legend
The idea of a landscape haunted by some evil forces is present both in so-called-true stories as in literature and film. One type is the unholy ground as the Native American burial ground. The Overlook Hotel in The Shining is supposed to stand on such a burial ground, When the Hotel manager shows Jack around “in the Overlook grounds Ullman explains to the Torrance’s that The hotel is built on an old Indian burial ground and I believe they actually had to repel a few Indian attacks as they were building it (source)” . However, the location of the hotel is also associated with the tragic fate of the Donner group (a group of settlers which ended up in cannibalism). Therefore this is an example where there are different explanations for evil things happen later.
It is important to distinct between a man-made evil or an evil caused by injustice and barbarism and some evil which is just there. Often there are lost souls residing there and waiting for an opportunity for revenge. In such cases we have to assume there is some “higher order”. Some laws have been broken. Rules have been disobeyed. A battle has happened. Therefore the place or the landscape is cursed. In these cases the evil and the supernatural forces are still “close” to the human world. It is a sort of evil which humans can comprehend.
When it comes to forests things often seem much more mysterious, unexplainable and – if that’s possible – darker. Forests are normally good places with a positive energy. But there are a number of notorious places, which are feared. Everybody knows that campfire tales about hauntings and dangerous things happen in a forest. All around the world there are some places, which are at least bewitched. Either they hold a record number of mysterious missing cases, places of pagan or even satanic worshipping, a high number or crimes or encounters with ufos and supernatural beings. The U.S. has some very prominent forests which have a track record for something evil happening there.
In some cases there might be also some explanations like that Native American burial ground. The Freetown-Fall River State Forest is the most haunted forest in America. It is part of the legendary Bridgewater Triangle in Massachusetts where any kind of paranormal activity is reported. The Freetown-Fall River State Forest is the place of alleged satanic rituals and a number of crimes. Some explanations suggest the idea of a curse related to the Native American History in the region.
However, as more as we learn about these evil places the more we get to the impression it is some unfathomable source behind these events. Something was always there, long before the first settlers arrived, perhaps long before the dawn of mankind. Witnesses often speak of a form of demonic possession.
The Dark Entry Forest
The great storyteller on YT MR. BALLEN presents an extraordinary true story of an evil forest in the episode: A Forest So Evil, It’s Forbidden To Enter on his channel. This is about the incredible Dark Entry Forest in Connecticut near Dudleytown in New England. The episode is mainly about a couple which wanted to move into that forest and built a cabin. It was a doctor and his wife and ended with his wife becoming insane after he left for 46 hours. The rumours involved strange shadowy figures and a strong otherworldly quality of the forest itself. It is also a lost place itself where a settlement was given up after a sheer incredible amount of human tragedies: Once a village stood in that forest and any kind of drama happened here: Pandemics, murder, crime. People mysteriously disappeared in that forest. And here come the characteristic element: There is no good old legend which caused that evil. It is just there. That Dark Entry Forest is like the Freetown-Fall River Forest an archetypical example.
It is particularly interesting that these types of evil forest drives people into madness. Insanity is often a product of encounters with an unnamable evil in cosmic horror stories: In H.P. Lovecraft’s book death is not the worst which can happen.
What Is Evil?
What kind of evil are we talking here? A force driving people into madness or possession, a force that let’s people vanish or which is palpable as a brooding dark energy. What is it? This is not an avenging ghost or some residue of a crime hundreds of years ago. It is a certain quality of a place or a whole landscape which was perhaps there all the time.
It seems that there are forces of chaos out there. Evil and what is evil or not is always a definition by humans. There are endless philosophical discussions about it. But if even only a small percentage of the stories about evil places in forest are true we can there that these are places we should avoid.
It is a common thing that people attracted especially to these places. People obviously wants to take a look into this darkness. It is for the thrill, for the adventure ride of to get knowledge about themselves we don’t know. Or is it some sort of call? Can an impersonal force interact with the human mind?
The most disturbing conclusion which comes up if we read the stories about certain evil places is that evil act like a living agency. Perhaps, it is a living agency. This is a concept which was grasped by J.R.R. Tolkien. I am not talking about the devil here. It would things simplify too much. I am talking about something which manifests in many ways and can’t be seen in itself, but can shaping reality to a certain extend. It’s perhaps what David Lynch had in mind with Judy in the legendary eight episode of Twin Peaks, The Return.
If we come back to real places examples like Glastenbury Mountain and the mysterious Bennington Triangle gives us an idea what we talking about here: The area with the long trail has also a record for missing people and other mysterious phenomena. It was also Native American’s land. But it was not something which happened to them or that they have cursed something. They already warned about the place. Whatever is in these woulds it was already there before the first Native Americans were there. And they had a legend about a men eating stone. A place actually. Of course, there are no literal men eating stones. But it is a great metaphor. It is one of many ways to get closer, a way to understand if we think of a reality which is more as we can see.
