066 - The Winchester Bestiary Tour - Rougarou

Welcome back to the Winchester Bestiary! Today, we head down south to the bayou of Louisiana where we take you to see the Rougarou of Cajun folklore and we also see how Sam and Dean handled one in Supernatural. Be wary of the bayou at night, Tourists, or else the Rougarou is gonna getcha!

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Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Oh, I've been dying to chartthis place. Oh my god, me
too, I've heard such good thingsabout it. Welcome to the Crime Diner.
I'm Cindy. I'll be cooking foryou this evening. Here your menus.
Oh, what are you thinking aboutgetting? I don't know, a
murder with a side of cannibalism?What about you? Ooh that sounds good.

(00:27):
I'm torn between historical mayhem and thesocial injustice. Maybe. Oh.
I just want to let you knowthat each episode comes with dinner, dessert,
and a specialty drink chosen by yourstruly wine Dinah. Story time has
had a makeover, and we inviteyou to slide into the booth with us

(00:50):
at the Crime Diner, where eachweek we will discuss a crime over dinner,
drinks, and dessert. See youthere. Down this road is a

(01:12):
small city, once thriving, fullof life, but now desolate and abandoned.
Well abandoned save for the horrors rumoredto reside within, which I presume
is why you're here. Now.There's nothing wrong with a little morbid curiosity,
but please remember to stay close toyour guides. You wouldn't want anyone

(01:32):
to get left behind. Now,Hello, everyone, Welcome on back to
Nopeville, the terrifying city filled withall the horrible things that make you say
nope, nope. If sure hasbeen a while, we've missed you,
it has Yep, life keeps happening. Sorry about that, sigh, lesi

(01:59):
But it's almost spooky season. Yes, our favorite time of year. It's
already spooky season for me. I'malready decorating for Halloween. I mean true,
but the weather doesn't think so.No, we're going through a heat
wave. Stop it going same.One hundred plus degree is fantastic. But
speaking of spooky season, how manyof you remember campfire stories? Yes,
because we certainly miss doing them whenwe were hoping. If anybody wants to

(02:23):
submit any stories, if anything creepythat has ever happened to you in your
life, or maybe something you wantto make up, or something that happened
to a friend or a loved oneand you have their consent to share.
Yes, you can also remain completelyanonymous if you choose to. You can
change names. We will know.It can be paranormal, it can be
true crime, man, whatever youwant it to be. Whatever it's creepy,

(02:46):
if it's scary to you, it'llbe scary to us exactly. But
we want to bring back Campfire Storiesfor October Spooky Season, So submit your
stories. You can email them tous at Nopeville Podcast at gmail dot com,
or we have a contact us formon our website nopeville podcast dot com.
Send in your stories and we'll getthat in our October Campfire Stories.

(03:07):
We also have our new segment campFire Stories Haunting Hour. So if you're
a paranormal investigator, we would loveto talk to you about your experiences about
spooky places you've been to do Wejust want to pick your brain because you're
all super interesting to talk to.So reach out to us if you want
to be featured, and we wouldlove to talk to you. Same method

(03:29):
of contact, yep. And it'ssomething we also share a passion in,
so we'd be more than happy tojust, yeah, have a conversation.
M that's all. So yeah,reach out. Give us some more material
for spooky Season because we're super excitedfor it. We hope you are too.
But today, on this tour,we are finally returning to the Winchester
Beast theory, which is been along time coming. Skinwalkers felt like so

(03:53):
long ago, but it was sucha heavy topic though it was two episodes
long. So today we have returnedwith the rugaroo, Yes, which I
had never heard of before Supernatural Trueme too. So to start us off,
let's go ahead and see what theboys have to say about it.
Rugaroo appear human, but their skinis wormy, their teeth are rotted,

(04:15):
and their eyes are black. Theyfeed on human flesh, possess enhance,
strength, speed, and senses,and are invulnerable to all weapons except fire.
Rugaroo begin life as ordinary humans withoutany knowledge of what they really are.
Around the age of thirty, theybegin craving vast quantities of food,
and this craving eventually becomes an allconsuming desire for human flesh. Once a

(04:38):
rugaroo gives into this desire and tasteshuman flesh, they transform into their monstrous
aspect forever. This condition appears tobe genetic. It's passed down through family
lines and seems to only affect males. Some sources say that a rugaroo can
forestall his transformation into a monster ifhe can resist the urth to devour human
flesh, but there is no solidevidence that any rugaroo has ever succeeded in

(05:01):
doing so. I think of therugaroo's condition as the supernatural equivalent of an
incurable genetic disease. You're born withit and you hope it never activates,
but when it does, there's nothingyou can do. Except rugaro have no
advanced knowledge of their condition. Theyonly transform after they've impregnated a woman and
passed on their jeans. Okay,this means that their children never know their

(05:26):
fathers. So that is how theboys define a rugaroo. But Jen has
looked into the lore. He'll tellus if they're wrong or right. And
by the way, they talk alot about Louisiana, obviously because that's where
the rugoru is from. So indoing my research, I was craving Cajun
food. So I got some atufae and it was delicious, which cracked

(05:47):
me up because she didn't realize itat the time, or at least it
didn't seem like it because she's like, yeah, so we went to this
Cajun place. I've been one whotrials like interesting while we're researching the rugaru,
huh, Like I have a suddencraving for a toufe. By the

(06:08):
way, it is my life's dreamto buy a house in the French Quarter
and retire there. So one daysomeone helped me. I'm gonna help me
retire. I don't want to dothis anyway, No, but first help
us do this. Do this?Yes, our job, that'd be great.
I would love to do this.Coca Cola sponsor us. So.

(06:29):
The rigaroo is a creature from Cajunfolklore. Its origins can be traced to
sixteenth century France, where stories orthe werewolf plagued people's nightmares. With the
mix of French immigrants to Louisiana andthe expulsion of Acadians to the British colonies,
the luguru or the werewolf transformed intowhat is now known as the rugarou.
The rigaroo was used as a cautionarytale for misbehaving children, or to

(06:51):
keep them out of the woods orthe bayou, where the land could be
treacherous and the waters teeming with stealthyalligators. Elders would tell stories of the
rugarus so children would obey their parentsand do their chores. Otherwise the rugaru
was gonna get you. It soundslike most folklore is. Yeah, it's
like a Cajun jogie man. Yeah. Catholics were also worn to follow the

(07:13):
religious observance of Lent, when aCatholic should pray and fast for forty days
and forty nights in commemoration of thetime when Jesus fasted in the desert while
trying to subdue temptations by Satan.It usually begins on ash Wednesday and ends
on Holy Thursday, right before EasterSunday. Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins,
is preceded by fat Tuesday aka MardiGras, as the last hurrah by

(07:36):
people to get their fill of allthe things they can't have or do during
Lent. I did not know thatfat Tuesday is right for ash Wednesday.
Fascinating, it was said to standbetween seven to ten feet tall, with
a doglike head similar to a wolf, but with the body of a human.
It has razor sharp teeth and claws, and its red eyes would glow

(07:59):
in the night. The creature issaid to be a shape shifter of sorts,
often transforming at night and returning totheir human form when the sun rises.
During the day, someone who carriesthe curse of the Rugaroo will appear
sickly. Some lore states that itcould change into any animal, though that
is less common than the thought ofit being a wolf humanoid type figure.
There are many ways that someone canturn into a rugaroo. One of them

(08:20):
is if someone were to come incontact with the rigaroo and sheds its blood,
then the ruguru will change back intoits human form by revealing their identity
to this person. That person thencarries the curse of the rigaruroo for one
hundred and one days or a yearin a day, depending on the story.
If that person were to spill thesecret of who the ruguroo was,
then they will become a rugaroo themselves. If they keep the secret, then

(08:43):
the human is able to carry abouttheir life as normal. Because of this,
It said that the rigaroo is alwaystrying to get someone to spill its
blood so it can pass on thecurse or you can also inherit this curse.
If you kill a ruguroo. Interesting, that's unusual. So the rigaroo
is always trying to antagonize somebody becauseit's like, come on, come on,
hit me, you know you wantto hit me, and then like
you shed blood and then you becomethe ruguru. But if you'll tell anybody

(09:07):
that, if so, if Ispill your blood and then you turn back
into human and I don't tell somebodythat, hey, Christine's a rigoroo,
then I don't become a ruguru withina year. And also if you don't
kill me, and also if Idon't kill you. It's interesting because most
other creatures, it's like if theybite you or scratch you. Yeah,
it's that your blood. Yeah,it's you attacking them this time. Yeah,
that's interesting. Yeah. It's alsoso that the curse can be placed

(09:28):
upon you by a witch or bysimply staring into the creature's red eyes.
All right, then you will leavethat the ruguru is actually more of a
timid creature who sticks to the woodsin the swamps because it's ashamed of the
curse that has been placed upon it, waiting for anyone to come wandering by
so they can pass the dreaded curseto someone else, which is why you
shouldn't wander in the buy you right. Some more mentions that the rigorou doesn't

(09:52):
necessarily hunt and kill, but insteadreeks havoc by destroying property and trying to
pass the curse on to others.Some people also say that a person can
voluntarily become a rugaroo as well.I mean, I know how you have
to do is draw blood or starinto the eyes. Yeah, make eye
contact. That all sounds prett voluntary. Well, you also don't know because
like if like a dog, aRabbi dog is coming at you and it's

(10:13):
attacking you, right, You're gonnatry to protect yourself and you actually drop
blood and the thing turns back intoa human, You're like, oh fuck,
it's a ruguru, right, butthey're also a humanoid allegedly. So
yeah, it's pretty obvious that arugaroo is coming at you. So if
you spill it's blood, assuming youknow the lore. Yeah, but then
there is some lore that it canturn into just others dogs or or chickens.

(10:37):
Yeah, it's a little less known. Yeah, And as I mentioned
before, Catholics were particularly where youhave the rugaroo, because anyone who broke
the rules of Lent were subjected tothe curse. It was thought that the
devil himself sent the beast to huntdown and kill those who did not follow
the teachings of the Catholic Church.This theory has possibly been passed down from
the French Catholic stories of the luguru, where a human who broke the rules
of lent seven years in a rowwould be punished with the curse of the

(11:00):
room. And if that's the case, I would be one right now.
With the fact that I told youI might be a rigaroo means a curse
is going to live with me forever, So I'm not moving on. I
am not. One can deter arigaroo from their attack by simply placing thirteen
small objects on the floor or outsideof their door. This is because this

(11:20):
thought that a rigaroo can't count pasttwelve any small objects, that's interesting,
pennies, rocks, marbles. Yeah, therefore you can bambooz with them and
make them too concentrated on counting thatthey forget to chase after you. That
reminds me of what is the leprechronSomething was like you just spill grains of

(11:41):
rice on the ground and they haveto count them. M yeah, that's
like this. Yeah, that's interesting. That's so weird. You could also
carry some sort of talisman with youto protect you from the rigaroo. Men
would place a leaf inside their wallet, while women would paint a hexicon beneath
their beds or on their floor andsay certain prayers to keep the riguru away.
Why it's different for men and women. Don't know because everyone no explanation.

(12:05):
Yes, there's no explanation for whythese things work or where their origin
came from. But just do it. If you suspect that there's a riguru
around you, I would just throwa bunch of small objects outside my door.
Yeah, keep thirteen pebbles on youat all times. Oh, that's
actually easy enough because my nephew washere earlier and there's a bunch of toys
all around the backyard, so it'sfine. Gum yep. One woman named

(12:28):
Geane Gidrie, a resident of Lockport, said that it's impossible for people to
protect themselves against a riguru, butyou can trick it. She said.
You can make believe that you're nothome or something. You know, make
sure they don't hear you, nomusic or nothing at all. There's a
boring existence. I'd rather just throwthirteen objects outside my door. Ye,

(12:50):
all doors. Yes. Some saya rioguru can't die, However, others
say you must kill them by decapitatingthem, mutilating the body and burning it
to keep it dead. Fair enough, So I guess it depends on how
you ask. Who's like daring enoughto do so I did it once my
Grandpampy, not my ham And they'rejust like rocking on the rocking chair.

(13:11):
If you're a banjo in the background. Oh yeah, it's just crickets all
around. You're snapping of alligators.It's rumored that since the flooding caused by
Hurricane Katrina that there have been reportsof a massive creature rummaging about the swamps

(13:33):
just outside of New Orleans. Peoplehave said they can hear howls and screeches
at night as a rugu hunts forhis next victim. The rugu was often
associated with the skunk ape or theHoney Island swamp monster, possibly because of
its shape shifting lore. Sometimes it'sreferred to as Louisiana's Bigfoot as well.
There's a variation on the story stemmingback to the sixteenth century, where becoming

(13:56):
awarewolf is more virginetic condition. SoI guess part of the v shary loosely
based see the eyes she's resisting rollingher eyes right now, Yes, similar
to how someone turns into a werewolffrom the Vampire Diaries, where someone has
to kill someone else in order toawaken their inner wolf. People believe that

(14:18):
there was some triggering event that causedsomeone to become a werewolf, which has
then trickled down into rigar ruler afterundergoing the probably painful transition from human to
werewolf. The transformation is complete whenthe creature takes its first bite of human
flesh. Mm no, that alsotracks. Yeah so that, but I
don't know what this impregnating bullshit isthen only being a male's right anyway.

(14:43):
Also, during this time period,everything that could go wrong was blamed on
the lugaru, from petty crime toa home being ransacked to a child disappearing
from the village without a trace.It was awfully convenient. She just blamed
the problem on a lugaru and callit a day. Akin to the witch
hunt. In subsequent witch trials,people were often accused of being a lugar
and a public trial would be held, and people would agree with the accusations

(15:03):
for fear of being called a lugaruthemselves. They're like, yeah, Mary's
a werewolf, because if I sayor not, then I am yeah.
Yeah. Unfortunately, more often thannot, the people who were accused were
those who lived in the woods awayfrom the villages, or someone who was
simply acting strange. Right of course, same as the witches. Because of

(15:24):
this portion of the lore where someoneturns to cannibalism, the ruguru is sometimes
lumped in with the wind ago ofindigenous lore, but most people don't really
agree with this and think the twocreatures are unrelated. I mean, yeah,
fair enough. Some people think thatthe rugurus would gather for grand balls
while riding on the backs of batsat night, when the wind was rough
and hallowed through the night sky.People would look up and wonder to themselves

(15:46):
if there was a rugarou ball thatnight. Patricia Parrin, who was a
retired English professor and folklore specialists,has said that the Rigoru is an important
identification marker for South Louisiana is ulture. Many people are aware of the rigaroo
across French Louisiana, and if notfamiliar with the lord itself, they have
at least heard of the name.Perhaps this is why its story can vary

(16:08):
among different people. They just tella story of a boogeyman, except they
just call it the Rigaroo. TheRigorou is gonna get you, so any
anything to the Rigo. Some residentswouldn't even walk the same path twice when
walking to nearby cities and fear thatthe rigaroo would get them. They're watching
you specifically exactly. There's even aterm called rugarooing that some people used to

(16:30):
describe those who stay up late atnight or are night owls and are out
and about. So, yeah,like us, I'm not as much of
a night owl anymore because of youknow, my day job. But I
guess yep, so maybe you're arigeroo too. Maybe we're each rigorous.
You're a rigoroo because you don't participateanymore, and I'm ager because I'm up

(16:53):
late at night and we're I thinkwe're both pretty strange characters, that's fair,
which accuse each other and we're like, yeah the tracks so we're both
are, but are not because we'rewe're saying we are. We're just making
relations. But as long as youaccused someone else, as long as we're

(17:15):
making relations. Yes. The AudubonZoo has an exhibit dedicated to the Ruguru,
where they have erected a statue inits honor. They even sell merch
like T shirts, which I thinkwould be fun to have. The New
Orleans Pelicans, previously the Charlotte Hornets, is Louisiana's NBA team. When they
were picking a new name for theteam, there was a trademark filet for

(17:36):
the name the New Orleans Roogaroo,which I think is more fun than the
Pelicans, and I name the teamthat if I were up to me.
But no one asked what they shouldhave or the hornets. It was more
scared of a hornet over a rugoo. Yeah, or pelican beause they are
a pelican for that matter. It'snot scary. My mother loves pelicans.
Pelicans are great. They're pretty cool. They're even an action figure that was

(18:00):
made of the Ruguru within a series, next to the Eddie and Sasquatch.
Why am I not surprised? Well, oh, I wonder if Cryptozoa has
a hold of that yet. Maybemohman, they do. They have the
ki and unicorns, we do theyhave Sasquatch. Well, I don't know.
I'd definitely look at they've got twoseries up. Parents said that there

(18:22):
have been serious arguments as to howto pronounce the creature's name to begin with,
often with people stuck between the campsof rugaroo or lugaroo. She says
there's even a third uncommon variant calledthe wao. Regardless of how people call
these creatures. She says that you'dbe hard pressed to find someone that will
actually admit they believe in it.She says, quote, it's kind of
hard to walk up and say doyou believe in the rigaroo and have them
say, oh, absolutely. Butthey also tell you about people who have

(18:45):
had an experience with one, andthey seem to be affected themselves by the
tails. Quote It's like, well, I don't believe in rigorous, but
my friend Bill over here he hadan experience with wine and because of that,
I don't watch the same road twice. Yep. And I carry thirteen
pebbles in my boggat at all times, yep. Barry Jean Anselet, a

(19:07):
professor a Francophone study, said thatthe transition from lugaroo to roogaroo stemmed from
how Cajun people would spin the Frenchlanguage. Since Cajuns would have a relaxed
speech pattern, he says, quote, the consonants L and R are what
we call liquid, meaning their soundsare so similar that one is easily mistaken
for the other. Through retelling ofthe story, lugaroo became riogaroo and the

(19:27):
name was adopted. Parents said thather mother in law claimed to have seen
a riogaroo during her lifetime in theform of a chicken. When she was
a teenager, she was shelling peasin her yard when a chicken began to
aggressively peck at her until it drewblood. Parents said her mother in law
was convinced it was a rioguroo.Parents also stated that in South Louisiana everything

(19:48):
has its peculiarities because of how thesestories are rooted in oral tradition. Parents,
says quote. The most common motifis of a nighttime exposure to the
roogaroo. The person who encounters therigaroo draws one or three drops of blood,
and person then has the spell andfrom there the tail can either be
light or dark. In the darkertail, usually the person who encounters the
riguru commits suicide. The darker tailis almost always associated with the person who

(20:11):
told of the encounter in less thana year. According to the several stories
found in the Ellender Memorial Library archives, the animals antagonized people wandering around at
night until these people attack the creatureand droblood. In a book written by
Jean Sarazin, Laura Krause, andDonald Crintzman, titled Werewolves on Bayou Lafourge.
They wrote about some encounters that localshave had. One woman from Lockport

(20:34):
said quote, there were ten childrenin the family, and all of them
were up crying that night. Ididn't get up for some reason. But
a year or so later one ofthe brothers killed himself. This boy was
always the yaying or hanging around withother boys at night. This term came
from the French word vayair, whichmeans to stay up at night. So
you say they're vayaying. I guessit's the same as rugger ring. One

(20:59):
night he was home and he wasat last to leave when he noticed a
little white dog following him, snappingat his heels. He took out his
pocket knife and cut the dog onits right foot. A luguru is a
man who sells his soul to thedevil and assumes the body of an animal.
He can't be released until he iscut. The boy wasn't supposed to
tell what had happened for a yearand a day after he had seen the
white dog turned into a man,But after it happened, he ran home

(21:22):
and told his family. The nextday, a prominent physician appeared in town
with his right arm cut in hissling. I remember when the physician shot
himself here in Lockport. A yearlater, the boy killed himself and left
a letter that the family turned overto the sheriff. Even today, he
refuses to let anyone see it.Another story I found on the Pine Barren
Institute's website was posted in the commentsby a user named John boord. So.

(21:45):
John states quote, I saw thiscreature no more than thirty feet away
from me, looked me straight inthe eyes. I could see bug bites
on its skin, and I couldsee the sun burnt under its eyes and
on the shoulders. It's not asgruesome as a picture I see here on
the site, and it seemed tobe just as scared of me as I
was it. The hair is right, but it was shorter than it is
in this picture. The ears wereshorter and it didn't show teeth. The

(22:06):
eyes were hazel green color. Ittook a double take at me. I
took a double take at it,and it let out a scream, then
took off, running across waters thatno man could walk across. Like a
frog. It was using his handsand feet to propel itself across the swamp.
It must have traveled seventy five yardsin fifteen seconds. I know it
sounds crazy. I'm sure everybody thathears me and sees this comment would think
I'm crazy. But it's real andit's in the swamp. Due h Yeah,

(22:30):
creepy man's eyes, frog man frogright? What like? Are you
sure that was? It could havebeen some other cryptid I don't know.
Maybe I haven't been there. Maybewhen I retire, I'll go to the
bike, not to live, justto see, right, of course,
but I'll bring all myself with mebecome a swamp which at the same time,

(22:51):
as I mentioned before, many storieswere passed along via oral narration.
A few more examples include a storyfrom a woman named Tricia Huckins. She
grew up in La Rose and saidher family would always warn her to be
home before dark so she didn't getcaught by the rugaroo. She said that
it was part of life to gethome before the ruguru gets you. She
said her great uncle or her grandfatherencountered a mad dog one night on his

(23:14):
way home. He stabbed the dogwith a pocket knife, and then dog
immediately turned into a man who immediatelyran off into the night, So it's
similar to that other story. Yeah, Whenceslass Billier said, although he doesn't
believe in the rugaroo anymore, hewas told stories of it all throughout his
childhood, he said, where hisfamily was from, they claimed to have
had rugaroos during the full moon,but he never witnessed one himself. Juliet

(23:37):
Henry uses a colloquial expression of Imade the rugaroo all night if she wasn't
able to sleep at night, shesaid she passed down this saying to her
children as well. So if youhave insomnia, weird. Yeah, if
you have insomnia, you say,I made the ruguru all night. I
get. A resident of Lafayette toldabout her grandfather named Jean. One day,
when he walked back home from town, he witness an old man.

(24:00):
They kept sticking a dog after acat. Even when the cat ran up
a tree, the old man keptsticking the dog on the cat. Jean
walked up to the man unafraid andtold him to stop that. The old
man was scared off by Jeane,but he also ended up spreading rumors that
Jean was a roogoroo and he possessedthe ability to transform herself into animals.
Oh my god. Jeanne wasn't phazed. However, he ran with it most
of his life, despite them justbeing rumors. Women were often too afraid

(24:25):
to wash their clothes next to hishouse, and others refused to go by
his house at night. One night, a few women witness a dog sniffing
around Jean's house, and they hushedthemselves and feared that Jeanne was spying on
them. The rumors continued and eventuallywere passed down to Jean's granddaughter. She
said, once in high school aboy fancied her, but she wasn't really
into him. This boy would alwaysfollow her around until one day he was

(24:47):
brave enough to ask her about thetruth of the rumor that their family possessed
the curse of the Ruguru. Shetold him, yeah, that's true,
and that her family comes from Rugaroo'sand told him it gets passed down every
generation. He asked her, howdoes someone pass it on, and she
replied, quote, well, I'vegot a little red spider in this little
box, and quote when she turnedaround, the boy was gone and never

(25:07):
bothered her again. That's one wayperfect to ward off unwanted suitors. Indeed,
in the book swapping stories folk talesfrom Louisiana. Luland Petrie tells of
an account by his father who encounteredthe rigaroo. He said that his father
had witnessed the rigaroo culling fisherman's oystersand eating half of them. One night.

(25:30):
Many fishermen would sit by the watertelling stories of the rigaroo and telling
about their love for fish. Youalso mentioned that some reason the rigaroo would
only eat half of the oysters itwould cull. I don't know why.
That's weird, just to be apest like you know what, I'm only
going to eat half of them,Like I'm not going to take everything from
you. Yeah, but also I'mgoing to make it incredibly inconvenient that you

(25:52):
wasted all your time getting all thisstuff exactly, thanks for half, he
said. Quote. I love theway you can take a tale like that
and the way it adapts to thesituation of every neighborhood almost and every family.
In some places, people will pointout a certain tree or other place
where the creature has appeared. It'svery specific to the locale. In Duluck,

(26:14):
there is a legend of an oldman who died in a bad car
wreck. This man is said tobe the rigoroo that haunts Duluck at night,
and that this rigorou only lives inthis specific area. I mean,
it makes sense because it's passed throughoral tradition. Everybody has their own version
of it. Another rigoroo story inthis novel tells of a man who was
constantly followed by a rigaroo. Thisman became obsessed with the creature until one

(26:37):
day he was finally able to killit by stabbing it with a wooden stick.
He wasn't relieved, however, Hespent the rest of his life mourning
the creature's absence. So it spentso much time stocking him that when it
was gone, he missed it andan emptiness and his soul. Now it's
like, well, see that's whyyou just keep to yourself. It wasn't

(26:57):
bothering you. It's almost like Stockholmsyndrome in away though. M Yeah,
but also shouldn't he have become aruger? He cute it true? Maybe
that's also why he's mourning. Say, maybe that's the real emptiness is emptiness
its tummy for human flesh. Interesting. John Verett Senior told a story about

(27:19):
his uncle and cousin who were returninghome from visiting a neighbor's house one night.
While on their way, and dogappeared and began chasing them. When
the two jumped the fence to escapethe dog, the dog disappeared in a
large man was standing in its place. In a nineteen seventy one Louisiana Folklore
Society publication, a calf was struckby a car along the highway. When
the driver got out to check onthe animal, the calf vanished with an

(27:41):
uninjured man in its stead, walkingaway from the spot where the calf was
hit. The man had still beeninjured though I don't know, but in
this story, the rigaroo was acalf. Yeah, as some people believe
that the rigaroo can shape shape fromany animal. There was one story that
recountered a hebrewgaroo or aware owl.I would probably want to be an owl.

(28:03):
Yeah. Owls are pretty cool.Yeah. A deer hunter shot an
owl with an arrow. The nextday, the hunter found a man that
was suspected of being a Hebrew garulaying on the ground in the same spot
where the owl should have been,with an arrow stuck in the same area
the owl was struck. It's weird. That this specific instance has its own
word though. Yeah. So dependingon what lare you believe in, and

(28:26):
you think that the riggaroo can transforminto other animals, you associate that new
animal with that name, right,So there are other names for it.
I just happened to mention the Hebrewgaru because yeah. Professor Barry Anslett says
that the rigaroo folklore itself reveals somethingabout the importance of storytelling and the need

(28:47):
for human connection and entertainment. Hesaid, quote, whether they believe there
is seriously a character who roams atnight or not is unimportant. They believe
in the stories, and they believein the ability to scare people through the
stories. It becomes a way ofconnecting one generation to the next. That's
also why we like doing campfire stories. Yeah, tell us your stories.
In a wug N news article,reporter Christopher Leech said, quote, the

(29:12):
riguru not only represents the wild sideof man, but also the wild side
of nature. Just like hurricanes orpandemics, the rig guru is a constant
reminder that civilization is eternally under theultimate power of nature, no matter how
far removed civilization seems to be.Quote. Parent has said quote, the
Cajun culture is perpetuated by people whoare proud of their heritage, and they

(29:33):
find opportunities to pass information from onegeneration to another end quote. And that
these stories have helped the younger generationsrevel in their heritage. And because of
this, maybe that's why in allof the accounts and lore of the Rigaru,
it never truly disappears. The cursessimply passed on to someone else.
Locals insists on keeping the legend alive, whether or not they believe it per
se. But there is an allureof mystery surrounding the Rigaru to this day,

(29:55):
and it makes for an interesting storyto say the least, that people
can pass down from generation to generAccording to the National Wildlife Federation, many
of the swamps that shaped Cajun cultureand where the inspiration for stories like the
Riguru, have been cut off fromthe Mississippi River, causing many of the
swamps to starve due to the floodprojection provided by river levees. These levees
have depleted the swamps of sediment andflowing water, so trees are unable to

(30:17):
grow. This makes the swamps vulnerableto the rising sea levels and storms,
and salty seawater from the Gulf thanthese can cause destruction of freshwater ecosystems.
Progress have been implemented to help protectthese natural resources because it's been estimated that
Louisiana is losing a football field ofwetlands every one hundred minutes, putting these
iconic swamps and marshes in danger.In a blog post on the NWF's website

(30:38):
titled save the Swamp, but Bewarethe Riguru, they said, quote by
implementing projects that both mimic and restorenatural processes and flows, we can make
real progress on restoring and preserving asmuch of as important habitat as possible before
it like the Riguru advantages without atrace end quote. And you can find
more information about these projects on herwebsite, which that link will be on

(30:59):
our site. In terms of documentariesand TV shows featuring the Rigoroo, I
found an episode of Into the Unknownwith host and explorer Cliff Simon. He
starts off the show by interviewing awoman who has lived near the Bayou of
her whole life and Cheffalaya, bythe name of Dana. Dana said in
nineteen sixty three her grandfather Harlan wasout on hunting trip and came across this
creature who was down on all fours. At first, I thought it was

(31:21):
a wild hog, but after hearingthe men coming closer to it, it
stood up on two legs and turnedaround to face them. She said her
grandfather was six four and this creaturewas taller than he was. It had
big, sinister looking amber colored eyes. Her grandfather was too afraid to shoot
the creature because it looked too human, but it was scary enough that he
would have shot it if it cameafter him, but it took off running.
Harlan nicknamed the creature of the HoneyIsland swamp monster, which days considered

(31:45):
Louisian as Bigfoot. As I mentionedbefore, in nineteen seventy four, they
found a dead hog around the samearea with its throat ripped open. They
then spotted some large, strange tracksof an animal they'd never seen before.
Harlan had made a plaster mode ofthe foot, which Jana showed the cliff.
Experts estimated it about four hundred poundsand standing seven feet tall based off
of the mold. There were threetoes, with the fourth dew claw.

(32:06):
The mold also showed webbed feet,showing the creature adapted to the swampy environment.
Interesting. Yeah. Years later,after Harland passed, Dana discovered an
eight millimeter film showing her grandfather hadgotten closer to the creature than previously thought.
On the film, you can seea tall, hairy creature leisurely strolling
through the woods. Dana wasn't surewhy her grandfather kept the footage of secret,
but her grandmother said it was probablybecause Harland didn't want anybody to kill

(32:30):
the creature or end up killing eachother over looking for it. He wanted
to learn more about the creature andobserve it, rather than hunt it and
kill it. When Cliff tells Danahe's going to look for the Layer,
she tells him that she's known twopeople who have also looked for the Layer
and had gone missing or died inthe process. One was a trapper who
had seen two creatures at a time. His boat showed up one day,
but he was never seen again.Cliff later meets with Chittymacha Chief Churrell Parfrey

(32:53):
Dardar, where she tells him thatgrowing up, her father would often use
the rigou as a cautionary child tokeep her away from the bayou. She
said she was always afraid of it, but never thought she'd actually see one.
One day, when she was drivingto work with her husband early one
morning, while it was still darkoutside, along a road they would take
daily. They were coming around thecurve when all of a sudden, her
husband slammed on the brakes and theyboth froze in terror. They saw an

(33:15):
almost eight foot tall, large creaturelurking in the woods. They had the
windows of their car rolled down,and they heard the creature grunting with every
step it took. She said thecreature had a long face similar to that
of a dog, and she saidthat they stayed put in their car as
the creature walked by, so asnot to upset it and have it turn
on them. She was grateful itdidn't ever look at her, because growing
up, the tails would tell ofthe rugaroo stealing your soul when it looked

(33:37):
at you, and you could turninto one yourself. She informs Cliff that
he might be able to spot arugaroo in nearby Native American burial grounds since
they are sacred lands and the riogaroois attracted to sacred lands due to their
abundance and natural resources. Some peopletheorize that the red glowing eye's witnesses claim
to see in the middle of thenight might actually be from alligators in the

(33:58):
swamp at night. The alligator's eyesreflect in the darkness and glow ride.
A biologist has told Cliff that thelargest alligator he had seen in the swamp
was about twelve feet long. Thebiologist that Cliff interviewed, named Tom Michau,
stated that an alligator wallow or denwould be a perfect place for a
riguru to hole up and wait forprey. Also, he said that the
rigorous would also perch up in high, large trees to get a better vantage

(34:22):
point for prey. However, itwas noted that the Louisiana black bear also
likes to hide up high in thetrees, and their eyes also glow right
at night. Yep, they alsohave night vision yes, thus another animal
that could be mistaken for a riguruwhen you're trap seeing about the bayou in
the dead of night. Cliff wenthunting for the riguru at night. With
all the information he gathered. Whilehe did find small animal bones, broken

(34:44):
tree branches, and tracks, hedidn't see or capture any Riguru at night.
Another show I watched was called Howlof the Riguru that talked a lot
about the history of the Bayou andsome information about the Rigaroo. And it's
not really anything I haven't said already, but if you want to check it
out for yourself, it's on Amazonpri. Well, there we go.
So there is the lore of theriver, and now let's go ahead and

(35:06):
see how it has influenced pop culture. Yeah, we'll start off with Supernatural.
There are apparently eleven episodes that it'smentioned in Okay four that it supposedly
shows up in. Supposedly I'd saysupposedly because I only saw one. So
we'll go ahead and talk about theone. Let's so we meet a man

(35:28):
named Jack who is simply enjoying anice meal with his wife. A meal
of two and a half steaks,corn on the cob, and a bowl
of mashed potatoes. And by thatI mean like the big serving bowl of
mashed potatoes, two and a halfsteaks, two and a half. It's
a lot. His wife jokes thathe must have a tapeworm, but he
just says he's simply hungry. Laterin the bathroom, we witness him reacting
to something happening with his body tothe tune of cracking bones and something happening

(35:52):
along his spine underneath his skin grosbut it passes soon enough, leaving him
panting over the bathroom sink. Thefollowing night, here's the kitchen, calling
out to his wife about when dinnerwill be ready because he's starving. She
tells him it'll be twenty five minutesstill until they can sit down to a
nice home cooked meal. He grabsa beer to try and chill out,
but while he waits, he soondecides to just snatch a whole chicken from

(36:15):
the fridge and begins devouring it.It's a cook chicken, like one of
those costcomertisserie chickens. Yeah. Meanwhile, the boys have already been called to
the area and are watching the homefor anything weird, because that's what they
were told to do, just watchfor anything weird. They weren't told anything
specific, but Dean comments that thisman is just plain boring. That is
until they witness him devouring not onlythe entire cook chicken, but a whole

(36:38):
pound of raw beef. When theyreturn to their room, fellow hunter Travis,
who had called them down to helpis waiting for them and fills them
in on what Jack will soon become. After they tell him about what they
saw through the kitchen window, hetells them Jack is a ruguru, which
Dean says has to be a madeup word, and Travis describes them as

(36:59):
mean, nasty little sucker's rotten teeth, wormy skin, the works. Dean
prone tests that this man looked nothinglike that, but Travis says he'll soon
turn ugly soon enough. They startout human enough as far as anyone is
concerned, but eventually go through asort of metamorphosis title of the episode as
they continue to talk, the sceneperiodically cuts back to Jack and his wife

(37:20):
as he's about to go in formore raw beef. His wife cuts her
finger deep enough to need stitches,which draws his attention, but he fights
the clear urge and leaves the house, which of course leaves his wife absolutely
baffled that her husband won't take herto the hospital for her cut finger.
Yeah, rude, She's justifiably upset. Later on, Travis tells the boys

(37:42):
that rugaroos are always hungry first foranything and everything, but eventually they begin
to crave only one thing, humanflesh. He states that one bite is
all it takes to trigger the change, which happens quick and there is no
going back. After they ask howTravis could have possibly pinpointed this guy before
he's even had a chance to change, to which he responds that it apparently
runs in the family. He thentells them about killing the father in the

(38:06):
past, and the child born bythe wife was put up for adoption and
loss to the system, so he'dbeen tracking the kid but lost him.
We cut back to Jack sitting ata bar, eating bowls upon bowls of
peanuts and knocking back a couple shots. When he overhears a man hassling a
woman at the other end of thebar. He decides to confront the guy,
catching his punch and breaking his wristwith ease. Hearing the woman scream

(38:29):
seems to bring him back to himselfagain, and he flees the bar.
While Dean and Travis are preparing whatthey'll need to take Jack down, Sam
comes back after having done some researchof his own, which kind of ruffles
Travis's feathers of it. Because I'man old hunter, you don't trust what
I got to say, Sam arguesthat it's possible for someone with the rugaroo
Jean to simply live as a humanas long as they never take the final

(38:51):
step and subsist on plenty of rawmeat. Travis argues that everyone takes the
step eventually because it's natural instinct todo whatever it takes to survive. When
you're hungry enough and the opportunity presentsitself, you'll take the bite, and
then there will be a body count. Sam stands his ground that they will
not kill Jack until there's something tokill him for and leaves the room.

(39:12):
No mind you. Sam is goingthrough his demon blood addictions thing during this
season, so he kind of relatesto the Jack thing. The boys decide
to have a chat with Jack aboutwhat he's becoming, which, as you
might imagine, doesn't seem to gowell, so they keep an eye on
him and leap into action when theysee Jack start hurrying up a fire escape
to a woman's window while she's changing. However, Jack sees a change in

(39:36):
his eyes and his own reflection whenthe woman turns the lights out and has
a realization about himself, which leadsto a funny moment with the boys.
So Jack has realized that the boyswere right, and he needs to go.
They have no idea that he's decidedto get at all, so they
burst into this woman's home with theirlittle mini homemade flamethrowers, and of course
she comes around the corner and screamswhen she sees them. Yeah. This

(39:58):
surprises them to find her alone andfind and Dean says, wait, we're
here to save you, I guess, but the reality sinks in and they
leave quickly. Yeah. Jack returnshome to find his wife tied to a
chair and gagged before he's chloroformed andhandcuffed by Travis, who has decided to
take matters into his own hands.Travis makes Jack's wife reveal that she's pregnant

(40:21):
and says that he can't go,making the same mistake he made before.
Jack breaks free and sadly completes histransformation by killing Travis before he frees his
terrified wife. The boys arrive onscene too late and find what's left of
Travis before Jack knocks them out,and he locks Sam in a closet for
some reason. So Sam's trying toreason with Jack, but inevitably has to

(40:44):
burn him alive because he just won'tleave Dean alone. Yeah, so after
watching this episode and trying to checkout the other three that claimed to have
Rugery's in them, I came tothe realization that they're not actually featured.
There's like, well, it couldbe a rugery, but then it's like,
actually so, and then they justgo chase the actual thing it is.
I think those of the episodes wherethey're mentioned, no, they like

(41:05):
they're there, but they're just thereto serve some purpose. So like a
rugaroo gets handed over to some demonsbecause Crowley wanted it in one episode,
that type of thing. So,outside of the Supernatural universe, brigerus do
make an appearance within other variable mannersof storytelling, though mostly just by using
the name for things like basketball teams, which Jen mentioned, and a roller

(41:28):
coaster and Cedar Point Nice which youcan ride virtually on YouTube. I did
that that was interesting. Well,yeah, I wonder if you put that
word on your oculus. I thinkthat would be pretty cool. Yeah,
I don't know how. I don'tknow how my body would react to that
though. Ye, like, we'renot actually moving, but this doesn't feel
right. Rugaroo hair is also apossible wand core in the Harry Potter universe,

(41:49):
which really, yeah, I didn'tknow that, and the Laura is
apparently brought up in relation to amurder in an episode of NCIS New Orleans.
Unsurprising, I guess yeah. Shtoof the rugarou is a six part
series. I was only able totrack down on a Canadian streaming site,
but I was determined to find away to watch it because of the message
on the website for the ruga Versethey call it. They state, quote,

(42:10):
welcome to the beginning of a richnarrative ecosystem rooted in authentic heritage,
representative history, and creative technology.A story verse steeped in cultural practice,
emotional experience, and well darned goodstories. The ruga Verse combines indigenous knowledge
and nineteenth century history to create aunique multi platform expression of metis lore and

(42:32):
legacy. With footprints in indigenous horror, aar survival gameplay, outlandish animated adventures,
and meta narrative podcasting, the rugaVerse offers multiple points of entry into
a narrative world seamlessly integrated across digitalmedia, extended reality content, and streaming
audio. End quote. So Imostly just really liked that they want to

(42:54):
keep the core values of Indigenous storytelling. So Valley of the Rigaroo is quote
an ominous survival game in which playersmust navigate through the dark forest, unraveling
clues in hopes of escaping the valleybefore they are caught by the Rugaru stocking
them end quote. It's unclear ifthe game is still in development or simply

(43:14):
unavailable outside of Canada like the miniseries I watched, but it does look
interesting and also claims to weave storytelling, cultural practices and language into the gameplay,
which will feature harvesting, crafting,and combat. Nice it's like one
of our games that we want toplay. Yeah, a trailer does exist
on the website with this info ifanyone is keen on checking that out.

(43:35):
There is also Two Rivers, whichis the aforementioned animated series which is currently
in development, but the art looksdelightful. So with those mentioned to the
extent that I can speak on them, let's get back to Shadow of the
Rugaru, which follows a young MatisseCree woman named Sakaweo. We're first introduced
to her as she appears to betracking something through the woods with a rifle
slung over her shoulder and a packon her back. She observes some unnaturally

(43:59):
large tracks, as well as somefur in the branches of a bush.
But what catches her attention is somesort of small corn hustel in a tree
that appears to be soaked in blood. As she washes it off, she
remembers her grandfather and suddenly flashes backto what may have been the last time
she saw him. He warns herof times changing and tells her she will

(44:19):
need to learn how to be onher own, that she will need to
go hunting alone. He gives herthe rifle, telling her there isn't much
time left as gunfire can be heardin the surrounding woods. He hurries her
off shortly after, seeming to beupset over seeing her wearing her mother's pendant.
It's not explained why wolves howl,and as she protests that it's just
wolves, he ominously says, quote, not wolves, it is something else,

(44:42):
before firing his own rifle into thesky and she runs off. These
memories seem to disorienterr quite a lotas she flashes in and out, and
the episode finishes with her appearing tohave fainted and a large humanoid wolf in
the nearby bushes looking over at her. With bright red eyes. Of course,
second episode opens up with her stillon the ground and someone walking up.

(45:05):
A man's voice claiming it to betheir lucky days. He puts the
barrel of his revolver in her face, telling someone offscreen to get the roupe.
We're then treated to a two daysearlier flashback with Secaueo entering a settlement
to trade some furs. She approachesthe man she's told to see, who
is already dealing with a pair ofmen who seem ready to start some trouble,
asking about some maps. Through abrief conversation with one of the men

(45:28):
who seemed like trouble, she learnsthey are what she calls wolfers, and
that they are looking for a mapof the valley in the hopes of hunting
a massive wolf they've heard about withred eyes okay. The conversation is rudely
ended by a smaller man who appearsto be the leader of the wolfers,
and soon the crew of at leastfive heads out and she's able to conclude
her business with the fur trader.He asks if she's also headed the valley,

(45:51):
which she responds she has to,and he advises her not to saying
that the valley is sick, shestill says that she must because it is
her home. Conclude this episode backin the present, where she is captured
by a couple of wolfers from thetrading post and they take her bag and
kick her in the stomach. She'sgoing through some shit. Yeah. One
of the wolfers we meet in thesecond episode is established to be a half

(46:12):
breed like Soakaweo, but he doesn'tspeak her native language. His name is
Bruno, and we see him againin the next episode, declining to tie
her up when ordered by his fellowwolfer. However, he's bullied into complying,
but Sacawuo continues trying to speak tohim in their language, calling him
a bullshitter, before he reveals thathe can in fact speak it, which
confuses the other man and gives herthe opening she needs to kill him and

(46:37):
order Bruno to his knees. Nice. Yeah, I was like, Oh
he does, gotcha, she demands. He returned the cornhust doll to her,
and they share a flashback of Sacawueorunning from something and trying to get
into her mother's house where a deadman lay outside. Oh. They share
a flashback. Yeah. So Brunowakes up from the experience before Soakaweo and
carries her off. When she comesto, she is surprised to learn that

(46:59):
he didn't bring her to the wolfers. He explains that he saw her vision
as well, and that he broughther to something she needed to see.
He reveals a body and paled highon a tree trunk with large scratches on
the chest and says they found itlike that, that the man was Northwest
Mounted Police and that a patrol hadrecently gone missing. He asks her for

(47:19):
confirmation that the monster from her visionof her childhood had done the act,
and she nods, telling him thatit's a rugaro. And the episode ends
with the body falling from the tree. Yeah. Yeah, and then you
get to start the next one witha great close up of maggots and I
don't need to see that, Yeah, but you get to look at that
for a hot minute before Bruno statesthat he believes it's a warning, but

(47:42):
Soakaweo corrects him, saying that it'sa marker of her grew territory, and
she carefully picks up the cornhouse dollwith a cloth to keep from having more
visions. He says that the otherWolfers had found another doll like it previously.
She convinces him to take her tothe perimeter of the Wolfer camp and
the two set off together because ofcourse, he doesn't want to go because
now he's kind of a traitor.She gives him some little lessons on Michief

(48:05):
their language, and she learns thathis mother wolve him the sash that he
wears around his waist. She alsolearns that his father is the reason he
doesn't know their language very well,because he was the white man. Soon
after, they get as far ashe's willing to take her, before they
part ways. On her way upthe mountain, one of the wolfers starts
firing at her and she thinks she'spinned and alone before she finds Bruno has
followed her and they kill the manthat was shooting at them. Bruno starts

(48:30):
making his way over to the bodyto loot the gun while Soacawaeo gets her
things and here's the howl wolf nottoo far away. Before Bruno was caught
and abused by the other wolfers andthe episode ends there. The fifth episode
starts with a bang, the bangof gun fire to be precise. Sacawuyo
creeps up on the Wolfer camp afterdark as they are all firing their guns
into the woods beyond. The leadersends several of the men into the woods

(48:51):
to investigate, and soon after thesound of their cries can be heard as
the leader turns to another man andorders him to get the bait, Bruno.
The leader finds out that crossbow endedup in the woods with the other
men and orders the two remaining togo get it because of course he can't
be right. One of them iskilled by the humanoid wolf only previously seen
at the end of the first episodeI was going Red in the dark.

(49:14):
The other flees for his life,falling and finding the crossbow next to his
face. He brings it back tothe camp and forming the leader that the
Rugaru is indeed afraid of the weaponbecause when he held it up, the
Ruguru stopped. The leader is insistenton spilling Bruno's blood to lure out the
Rugaroo, and Soakaweo is astonished tofind her grandfather next to her. As
she takes aim to save Bruno.The two fire their rifles, killing the

(49:35):
last two wolfers when she asks ifher grandfather is really there. He simply
tells her to go fetch Bruno ashe's not well. She hurries over to
make sure Bruno is okay, andher grandfather follows, picking up a cornhust
doll from one of the bodies andsaying that he had been looking for her.
He states that since Bruno is hercompanion, that they will bring him
to the village to be healed,and suggests that she grabbed the crossbow as
well. The final episode has usfollowed the trio through the dark woods,

(49:57):
stopping briefly at a small burial sitewith a hand full of stick cross markers,
where the grandfather comments that Sacawueo didn'thave to see what happened there,
and she protests that he made herleave despite her wanting to stay and help
fight. He tells her that hewanted her to live and that it would
have made no difference if she hadstayed. He then approaches one of the
markers and lays the cornhouse doll againstit. Sacawueo approaches as well. It's

(50:19):
her mother's final resting place, andher grandfather takes Bruno away so she can
have a much needed moment with hermother. She kneels down and picks up
the cornhouse doll, forcing herself toremember the rest of the vision she had
shared with Bruno before to see behindthe door, which had remained closed.
We're taken into the memory where shefinally manages to bust open the door,
entering her mother's home and closing thedoor behind her. She finds her mother

(50:43):
wounded on the floor and asks whodid it. Her mother says it was
her grandfather, well that he's verysick and her medicine didn't help. She
watches her mother breathe her last,telling her she loves her, and we're
taken back to the present with hernew understanding as she screams her anger and
notices the crossbow picking it up.She returns to her mother's home and kicks
open the door, is stating thatshe remembers now and finds it lit by

(51:06):
candles and Bruno sat in a chair, clearly not doing very well. Before
she's attacked and the screen goes darkas she's tackled to the ground. We
come back to the memory of hersitting by the river with her grandfather as
they make corn hust dolls, andshe asks him why he never told her
he was the rugaroo. He tellsher that he was afraid and that he
didn't want her to suffer like hermother. She tells him that it's okay
and that it's over now, towhich he responds, I wish that it

(51:29):
were. Yeah, how is itover? He's still a Ruguru. We
returned to the present with Soakawaeo andBruno burying his body and corn hust doll
before dawn breaks on the new dayand they are seen paddling down the river
in a canoe and we see ared glow in her eyes, passed on
because she killed him. Oh Iliked that each episode started with this message

(51:52):
of acknowledgment that this lore is vastquote. While the traditional Ruguru story is
accepted as truth in many communities andexists in multiple fours, this is only
one of them, and as awork of fiction that is not based on
any real persons, the creators ofthis project acknowledge that rugaroo stories are regionally
specific and not evident in all communities. While the story depicted might not reflect

(52:13):
all opinions, efforts have been madeto tell the story through proper protocols and
with the guidance of the elders andknowledge keepers in order to best represent this
communal oral story, but it isby no means comprehensive. I just everything
about what these people are doing.I love that they're like, hey,
so this is just what we're hearingfrom these people. This is where we
got it from, this is howwe did it. We're not just making

(52:35):
shit up. Yeah, exactly.Nice. The scenery and music in this
series were fantastic, and I feltlike the story was well told without having
a need for heavy handed explanation ofeverything going on within the world. You
could get enough from context clues andreactions to things to pick up what you
needed to know, which I appreciated. I'm glad I was able to figure
out how to watch it myself,yeah, because that was difficult. Yeah.

(52:58):
There are also too short films Icould not find anywhere online despite them
having listings on IMDb. YEA onesimply called Ruguru and came out in twenty
sixteen. But the plot summer readingquote in rural Louisiana, eleven year old
Sabine's widower father missus Ash Wednesday massso she pushes him to give up drinking
for lent he breaks his vow,evoking the wrath of the Rugaru, a

(53:22):
mythical bayou beast who punishes bad Catholics. Ye Now, Sabine has to step
up to save him from the monsteror risk losing her only living parent,
which sounds a lot like the plotof a Sims story. In this group
I follow on Facebook if I'm beingtotally honest. The other is called Welcome
Home Ruguru and released sometime within thelast couple of years. I think i

(53:46):
AMD didn't actually say, but theconcept trailer released on YouTube in twenty nineteen,
and it's actually based on a shortstory written by the director, which
can be found on Amazon for kindleokay. The story itself is only maybe
four and a half pages long andcenters around of families whose youngest son had
recently been mauled by an animal whilethe young man was hunting. He had

(54:07):
been found unconscious with deep lacerations onhis torso and legs, which was ruled
to have been done by a boreor coyote officially. However, when he
had awoken, he described a vastlydifferent creature, which most dismissed as drug
induced fantasy, but one nurse fearedthis description enough to tell the parents about
it. The rest of the storyis told through argument over the dinner table,

(54:28):
and we learned the story of theRuguru, a creature that is not
aware wolf, but bears resemblance inthat a has the head of a wolf
in the body of a man.The mother tells the story all children heard
growing up, that it's a curseor punishment from God for sinners who turned
from him. She states that itwas just a silly rhyme repeated as children
until the day her father revealed toher that he had killed one, which

(54:51):
she believed because her father neverlied.She says, he told her that the
beast can be identified by raised blackskin that forms around the scars left behind
by the ruburu. Yeah. Theson recalls that just such skin had already
formed around his own wounds weeks prior, but he says nothing and storms off
to his room. The mother goesto bolt him in, as they had

(55:13):
been doing since his return home,and the story ends with the father hearing
a scuffle and screams throughout the house. The movie's plot description, written by
the director says, quote in thesmall town of French settlement, Louisiana legends
and lower swirl as part of itsrich history. But there is one legend
above all others. People fear therubru Sherman and Kathy Thibodeaux, a married

(55:34):
couple of twenty five years, haven'tslept since their youngest son, Pete,
returned home after a hunting accident.Since his homecoming, something about Pete has
changed, and if the local legendsare true, he may never be the
same. End quote. The storyseems to be good enough for an entertaining
short film if it were available anywhereto watch. Yeah, but alas there
is nothing. Can't find even onYouTube, cannot find only the trailer.

(55:57):
There's one short film I was ableto find and watch, though, the
Rugaru, which came out last yearin October. We start out with an
agnorable little girl pulling a gun outof the oven to bake a welcome homecake
for her father. Yes, whyyes, like an assault rifle gun.
M all right, not just likeyour typical revolver. After a string of
questions getting to know him, favoritecolor, dinosaur, candy, etc.

(56:21):
She asks about the scar on hishead because it's alleged that he is coming
home from prison. Okay, ismy guess. He tells her it was
the rugaroo, which she dismisses.What the monsters aren't real. He explains
that its claws did the scar onhis head and its teeth did the scars
he shows her on his back.She asks him if he killed it,
and he says no, but thathe will pull the trigger next time,

(56:43):
but that it's not safe to gooutside at night. It wishes her a
good night, and soon after she'sawoken by the sound of gunshots. She
overhears her father described the purpose overseven foot with red eyes as a body
is zipped into a bag behind theofficer taking the statement. Later the next
day, while cleaning up the backyardfrom the welcome home party, little girl
discovers a giant footprint in the mudand a hole in some chicken wire,

(57:04):
as well as a good bit ofblood right under the hole. We're showing
the process of her setting up defensesa lah home alone with the audio of
a casual conversation of her father abouther favorite things. She talks about her
She talks about how her favorite animalis a unicorn while setting up planks of
wood with nails poking through, stringingup a wire to trip something, testing

(57:24):
a small trap to make sure thatit still snaps, and swinging a metal
bat. Her father tells her thatthe only thing they can kill a rugaroo
is a unicorn, which she protestsbecause unicorns don't kill, but he asks
her why they have such a sharphorn then, which she concedes she'd never
consider before. Well, there yougo. This little girl is shown to
be growing up in some very roughcircumstances, so she's pretty scrappy. She

(57:50):
wakes up from a nightmare of redeyes and darkness to the sound of commotion
in the backyard, likely from hertraps, so she heads downstairs with her
metal bat held ready for a fightkids like ten. After peeking through a
window and being met with those redeyes for real, she runs to the
kitchen to get the gun from theoven, cocking it and bursting out the
door like this isn't nothing new forher. After seeing that something had definitely

(58:15):
been through her traps, a lightcomes on upstairs in the house. She
runs back inside. There's another oneof those footprints, bloody, this time
on the landing on the stairs.She rounds the corner and finds her dad
with his own gun pointed at her. They each realize who they're looking at,
and he starts lowering his gun.She remembers the look on the child
of the victim from the night before, his face who happened to be a

(58:35):
young black girl, and screams asshe fires the shot that ends the film.
Well, this movie uses the imageryof a rugaroo. It's pretty clear
that it's a social commentary, asthe shooting victim was a black man that
had been seen earlier at the party, and the amusement in the child's father's
voice as he describes a seven footred eyed demand as the culprit makes it
clear he either did the actor knewwho did. Yeah. The story is

(58:59):
a sad one that's all too realfor many children, but it's well told
here In less than thirteen minutes,Destination Fear sets up a man to star
in his own horror movie in CityPark in New Orleans, Louisiana without his
knowledge. So it's one of thoseshows where it's not real, but somebody
like sets you up, like,oh, it's like punked. I guess

(59:19):
okay. So he's told that he'shelping a couple of biologists locate a rare
nocturnal bird. When in fact,they're hunting a Ruguru, which isn't actually
a rror. That's mean. Yeah, it was weird. There was also
a scenario pack in the Arkham Horrorcard game called Curse of the Riogru.
The scenario pack can be a standalonestory or part of a larger campaign,

(59:39):
and was only a limited print item. I believe the pack states quote,
Fantasy Flight Games presents an Arkham Knightstwenty sixteen special event, Curse of the
ru Ru. In this unique scenariofor Arkham Horror the card game, investigators
travel to New Orleans to uncover thetruth behind recent killings, but the curse
affecting the Bayou threatens to consume themas well. Finally, there was a

(01:00:02):
yearly festival in Whoma, Louisiana calledRugaru Fest, which will be taking place
October twenty one, twenty third.For anyone wanting to check that out?
Should we go? If only PTOjust grew hunt tres Maia a day jobs,
Ye hate it. It's free andportends to be family friendly, so
it's likely not too scary an event, so anybody who wants to bring your
kids. This award winning event benefitsthe South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center, likely

(01:00:28):
through donations or any proceeds from theCajun Food and cultural or children's activities.
Nice. There's also live music andthe Crew Guru Parade, among other fun
things like costume contests and a scavengerhunt. That's fun. Yeah, we
should go. And that's that's allI know about how the Rugaru has infiltrated
everything nice, which kind of makessense since it's mostly a local legends Louisiana.

(01:00:52):
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(01:01:15):
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(01:01:37):
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(01:02:00):
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(01:02:20):
you on the next tour. Byeexcellent, I see most of you returned
and relatively unscathed. Bravo. Ihope you enjoyed your visit to Nopeville and
look forward to seeing you again nexttime.