- Isla Kastner, also
known as the Occultist, was born in 1932 to Father Kastner, a Priest in Brookfield, Connecticut. We know this based on
Father Kastner's photo album that he shows to Lorraine Warren. Not much is known about Isla's mother except for the fact that
she died during childbirth. This led Father Kastner
to make the decision to raise Isla in secrecy, in an old mill at the edge of town, where the Church wouldn't find her. He made this choice
because, understandably, the Church would probably
have a lot of questions about how a Priest, who
took a vow of celibacy, suddenly has a biological child and I think claiming immaculate conception was probably out of the question. Though, I do kind of wonder
why he wouldn't just claim that he found the baby
and offer to take her in? It's not like paternity
tests were common in 1932. But maybe it still would
have looked suspicious if they looked alike. Secret romantic affairs were not Father Kastner's only hobby. He became obsessed with the occult and for much of Isla's childhood, she witnessed her Dad studying Satanists to try to stop them from
spreading their evil. His interest in studying the occult, combined with Isla's confinement to where those occult objects were kept, ended up creating a perfect storm that led to Isla becoming
the exact type of Satanist that Father Kastner feared. To find out how Isla became an occultist who dedicated her life to an evil curse, stick around to the end of this video. This video is sponsored by Audible. (intense rock music) Welcome to Horror History. In this lesson I'll be covering the life, atrocities and death of
Brookfield, Connecticut's most deadly satanist, Isla Kastner. Or, as I sometimes call
her, The Malnourished Lady. Before Isla's birth, the Church had been using
an old mill by the river just outside Brookfield,
Connecticut for storage. As Father Kasnter put it, "It's where they put the things
that they were afraid of. Things they didn't understand." Leaning into the metaphor, he thought this would be the best place to raise his illegitimate
daughter in secret. When I say it out loud, it kind of makes sense that
Isla turned out the way she did. Since Father Kastner
raised Isla in secret, it's safe to assume she was homeschooled and wouldn't have been
allowed to have any friends. Except for maybe her dog Petee? Either way, Isla couldn't
have had much socialization with other kids, or
anyone, besides her Dad. While Father Kastner didn't seem to think this was a problem. - It was just the two of us. Our happiness filled this house. - Isla seemed to have a different opinion. (Isla growls) Having to be hidden away
from the world in shame, along with her father's
obsession with satanism, made for a deadly
combination as Isla grew up with a thirst to get back at the world that she had been shunned from. In order to understand the deadly curse that she dedicated herself to, we'll need to take it back
to before she was even born. (creepy music) When cults are mentioned
in the mainstream lexicon, they're usually associated with the 1970s. This is because some of the most infamous and destructive cults
were brought to light during that decade, one of the most prominent
being Charles Manson and his followers. - Do you feel blame? Are you mad? Do you feel like (gibberish)
wooshka bobfroh renitch? Gafrenis booj boojehjeh Peter remitch Gidge a gidge gidge gee gee goo goo Peegabeegli bethbluth
fido veditch fy eyegoblba? - However, cults had
been feared by civilians for centuries before this. According to Penn State humanities
professor Philip Jenkins, there are cults on record that date back as far as the late 1800s. However, it wasn't until the early 1930s when of the earliest recorded
anti-cult movements began. As new political and religious
groups started to form, there was a backlash, and many of these groups were speculated to be cults of Satanists
who promoted devil worship. The media of the 1920s
really ran with this idea and both the Christian and
Catholic sects of the Church found these groups to be
particularly threatening. So this is where Father Kastner's concern about these cults started. Even prior to Isla's birth, he was likely spending a
lot of time at the mill as he studied these groups. After Isla's birth in 1932,
she grew up in isolation. Instead of doing the things
a kid would normally do, like play with other children or eat food, Isla explored the tunnels below the mill, becoming very familiar with them. Meanwhile, at home, her
father's office was littered with cursed items from different Satanists that the Church had investigated. Even if Father Kastner
had tried to keep Isla out of his office where
these items resided, she inevitably would have still
found her way in to explore, just as Judy Warren later did at Ed and Lorraine's locked
room of cursed items. - Honey, what are you doing? Come here. You know better. - Like Judy, Isla would have been curious about what her father was
spending most of his time doing and about the unique items
that filled his study. The difference is that growing up, Judy had three adults to look after her. Isla had one. Where Judy had other
outlets to be a normal kid, like roller skating with her babysitter or raising the chickens, Isla really only had her
father and his obsessions. As Father Kastner would
later state himself- - I continued my studies into the occult. I wanted to protect her from all of this. Instead I created a fascination. - As the anti-cult scare of
the 1940s started to die down, Isla entered her late
teens and early twenties. I would credit Isla's
virtual isolation as a child to leading her into a life of rebellion and a desire to break
away from her father. I mean, plenty of teenagers try to rebel against their parents and
form their own identity without having been confined
to a secret hidden life. But where most young adults leave home to form their own identity
by going to college, joining the army, dating some lunatic their parents don't approve of, dying their hair some ugly color, getting tattoos, or even
subscribing to CZsWorld, Isla took what she had become
the most familiar with, the occult, and ran with it. Isla's life from 21 to 49 years
old is left mostly unknown. Father Kastner implies that
she disappeared, stating- - After all these years, I hoped she'd come back to me again. - In the last documented photo of her, she is 20 years old in 1952. Because it's the last photo, she must have disappeared
around that time. Prior to her disappearance, Father Kastner describes her fascination with the Satanic information
he had been studying, so it's likely that she followed one of the many occult
groups that she learned of through the texts and cursed
items in her Dad's office. There are many to choose from, so it's tough to say with certainty which one she would have chosen. However, based on what the
Warrens and Father Kastner learn about what Isla had been working on, it's possible that she didn't
go very far away at all. (logo thuds loudly) "The Conjuring" films are
based on the case files of the so-called demonologists
Ed and Lorraine Warren. The couple had a long literary career before being featured in "The Conjuring". If you want to dig deeper into
their paranormal adventures, the best place to start is with Audible. Audible is the exclusive carrier of the Warrens' 6-audiobook set, detailing stories not told in the films. Audible offers an incredible selection of audiobooks across every
genre, including horror. You'll also discover
exclusive Audible Originals from top celebrities, renowned experts, and exciting new voices in audio. Members get a free title
every month, for keeps. Plus, there's a great
selection of free podcasts. This month I'm listening to "Salem's Lot," the Stephen King vampire story that I haven't read since middle school, so it's almost like I'm
reading it for the first time. To try out Audible Premium
Plus free for 30 days, visit Audible.com/czsworld
or text czsworld to 500-500. You'll find that link in the description. Audible.com/CZsWorld. (creepy music) Father Kastner studied many cults, but the one that occupied
most of his attention was The Disciples Of The Ram. This is the same cult that Annabelle Higgins was part of when she and her boyfriend
butchered her adoptive parents and attempted to kill the neighbors under the control of the demon, Malthus. If you want to know more about Malthus, check out my Horror
History episode on Malthus, which goes into more detail. But did Isla join the Disciples of the Ram or take influence from them? To answer this, we'll need
to look at the timeline. From what we see in "Annabelle," where the cult has gained enough notoriety to become a concern of the
general public around 1966 when Annabelle Higgins
left her family and, similar to Isla, disappeared. Isla left home in 1952, so it's unlikely that
she would have joined this specific group, because Father Kastner probably didn't start studying
them until the 1960s. Plus, the demon that Isla summons later is definitely not Malthus
but we'll get to that. Isla really could have
traveled really anywhere to investigate any of the
occult items or groups that her father was so afraid of, but it's also very likely
that she was living in the tunnels below the mill
for the last few decades. It would at least explain why she looks so malnourished and pale. Throughout the 1970s, assuming she had any access to newspapers, radio or television, she would have witnessed her
Dad's fears come to fruition as some of the most destructive
cults were revealed. The Charles Manson
Family was caught in 1969 and the Jonestown
Massacre occurred in 1978. These cults may not have
been Satanist cults, at least not directly, but regardless, concerned mothers and, perhaps
unintentionally, The Beatles amped up a nationwide
panic that Father Kastner had dedicated himself to preventing. All of this set a scene for the 1980s. (upbeat rock music) - Get loose! You gotta be loose. (distorted speech) - [Announcer] Finally,
champions on this January day. (singing) Seven-Up! - To describe this story as horrifying would be an understatement. - [Announcer] Satanism. Devil worship. It's being practiced
all around the country. - [Announcer] Devil Worship. Exposing Satan's underground. - To some it's a religion. (scary chanting) To others, it's the practice
of evil in the devil's name. It exists, and it's flourishing. - There's another attack upon our society. - Yes, there's a vast
movement toward the occult within the cartoon and toy industry. (Skeletor laughing) - Those represent the horns of Baphomet, or the horns of Satan. - [Announcer] How could this happen here? (boy screaming) To a nice boy from a good Catholic school in a fine middle class family? - Is it the Church's position that demonic possession is possible? - It certainly is. - The Satanic Panic of the 1980s was basically a repeat of the
anti-cult scare of the 1940s. The event that really marks the beginning of the Satanic Panic was a book
called "Michelle Remembers" which was written by Canadian
Psychologist, Lawrence Pazder with his patient, and then later wife, two titles that should
probably not go together, Michelle Smith, about her
scarring childhood memories in a satanist cult. While the validity of this
book has since been debated, it was widely popular and
sparked a media frenzy, fanning fears and sparking
many allegations of Satanism. If Isla had any access to the
media at all during this time, she would have been exposed
to this moral panic, which was directly
associated with the Church. Due to her position, Isla
already had it engrained to associate the Church
with shame and resentment. According to the New York Times, "Early in the 1980s,
baseless conspiracy theories about cults committing
crimes against children spread around the country." The way that Father Kastner speaks about the Disciples of The Ram alludes to this phenomenon. - They defiled holy land
with their obscene rituals and they committed acts of blasphemy of which I shall never speak of. - With years of built up resentment towards her father and
the world around her, this outbreak of alleged Satanic activity gave Isla the motivation to
act on her occult findings in her late 40s. She discovered a curse from
a section of witchcraft called the Stregheria. The Stregheria is a practice of witchcraft originating in northern Italy. It was a modernized Paganism and most of the incantations or spells aimed for a bountiful harvest season, or wishing for a loved one to return home safely from travel. But Isla found a much more
specific and darker curse. - [Drew] Now, my Latin is rusty, but I think this is talking
about a human sacrifice. - [Ed] One by murder and
the other by suicide. - Whether Isla really did leave home to discover the Stregheria, or if it was one of the many
texts in her father's study, she figured out how to perform this curse, and put it into action in May of 1981, just before she was set
to turn 50 years old. Isla built a large stone altar in the tunnels under the mill. Which I have to admit
is really impressive, considering that it looks pretty heavy, and she probably only weighs
about 40 pounds herself. On the altar, she carved a pentagram and lined it with black candles. Through this curse, Isla could perform a ritual at the altar, allowing her to take
possession of other people. She lights the candles
around the pentagram with a chalice in the middle, then cracks an egg into
it and lights it on fire before drinking from it, probably the most protein
she got the entire month. The curse requires Isla
to connect to the subject that she wants to control in order to offer their soul
to the demon she summoned. She does this by putting
a physical witch's totem in that person's possession
or on their property. Isla makes her own totems
out of the jaws of animals and other natural materials. I'm guessing she got the animal skulls from livestock in the area, and this may also explain where
she's been getting food from and where she gets the
eggs from for her ritual. It's not exactly clear how or why Isla chooses her specific victims. We can only assume she surveyed
the people of Brookfield and chose those who fit the profile needed for the curse to work. We eventually learn that this curse requires a human sacrifice, one by murder and one by suicide, so she targets a pair of
unsuspecting college students, Jessica Strong and Katie Lincoln. Isla could have hidden the totem somewhere in Jessica's dwelling at college or she might have tricked her
and given it to her directly. Whatever the case may be, Jessica must have thought her totem was something interesting rather than a dangerous witch artifact, because she brought it home with her to Danvers, Massachusetts, unintentionally allowing Isla
to take control over her. (logo thuds loudly) (creepy music) After placing the curse on Jessica Strong, Isla was able to see
everything she was doing. Late one night, Jessica brings
her friend Katie Lincoln to explore the forest, and with the two isolated
from any spectators, Isla took control of Jessica and proceeded to stab Katie to death. When Jessica came to and
realized what she had done, she ran away in a panic in the dark, leading her straight
off the side of a cliff where she fell to her death. Technically, the murder and
the suicide had been fulfilled. The next part of the curse
involved the sacrifices of three more people, the child, the lover and the Man of God. First, she would go after the child which brought her to the Glatzel family, who had a young son, 8
year old David Glatzel, and were in the process
moving into their new home in May of 1981. Before they even began moving in, she placed a totem under the house directly below the child's bedroom. David started to exhibit strange behavior and signs of possession, so as we have seen many
times in The Conjurverse, the Catholic Church soon got involved and the paranormal investigators
Ed and Lorraine Warren were called in to help. They were able to get the
approval of the Church to send a Priest to perform
an exorcism on David. On the night of July 18th, 1981, Father Gordon came to perform the exorcism with the assistance of Ed and Lorraine. Only in this case, the exorcism got way out of hand and was ultimately not successful, thanks in some part to the
visions that Lorraine had, connecting her to the tunnel where Isla was performing the ritual from. These visions seem to cause
physical pain to Lorraine, and ultimately, young David, whose demonic possession is
being channeled through Isla, breaks free and attacks Ed. In an effort out of desperation, the boyfriend of David's
sister, Arne Johnson, willingly offered his soul to the demon in an attempt to save David. - Leave him alone and take me! (growling) - Since Arne was connected to both David and his sister, Debbie Glatzel, taking control of him would grant access to both the child and the lover. Arne and his girlfriend are in love and constantly expressing
physical affection prior to Arne's possession. Because he willingly offered his soul, Isla wouldn't need to place a new totem in order to possess him. The evil goes dormant inside of him, so everyone lets their guard
down for the time being, believing that the exorcism was a success. However it would not be long before Arne would start to notice visions of Isla, who eventually takes full control of Arne and possesses him to
kill his landlord, Bruno. The Warrens figure out that
Arne is still possessed and try to provoke the
evil entity inside of him by setting up religious objects such as the cross, and
having him read from a Bible, which he, surprisingly,
does with no problem. However, the Warrens are
operating under the assumption that his possession would
follow the same rules as previous demonic
cases they had dealt with like Malthus, who would
be averse to holy objects. What they seem to overlook is that it's also not actually the demon that is directly taking possession of him. It's Isla herself. That makes this case more similar to The Enfield Poltergeist case in 1977, where a girl named Janet Hodgson was possessed by the nun-demon Valak, but Lorraine wasn't able to detect Valak because it was using
the ghost of an old man as a sort of intermediary. Isla also uses a
different tactic at times. When she takes possession of people, she'll give them visions of horrifying creatures threatening them. This leads the possessed person to react by attacking the people around them. Personally, I wonder why
she does this so often instead of just taking
direct control of her victim, like she did with David. This is one of those cases
where The Conjuring lore isn't really that clearly defined and we have to make our own assumptions. The best guess that I can come up with is that the rules of the
curse she's trying to perform require that her victims carry
out the actions themselves. So for example, when
she needs Jessica Strong to end herself, she can't
just take control of Jessica and run off the cliff. She has to scare her into
running off the cliff on her own. However, she does later
attempt to get rid of Arne by literally just taking control of him and having him slit his own wrists, but maybe that's not part of the curse. Maybe she was giving up on
Arne as a vessel at that point because she didn't like
Lorraine being able to see her through her victims. Otherwise, you would think
she would have just done that to all of her victims to begin with. Or maybe she just enjoys
tormenting her victims and seeing them react. That's the easier but
less fun explanation. As I alluded to, when
Isla initiated the curse, she didn't anticipate Warrens' involvement and their investigation throws a significant wrench into her plans. Ed and Lorraine investigate
at the funeral home that Jessica Strong is
resting at where Lorraine, due to her abilities, is able to see through Isla's point-of-view. - [Lorraine] Oh, she
has him. She has Arne. Oh, no, no. (tense music) Oh God. - [Isla] And this Black Sabbath. - By the blood of Calvary I command it! (tense music)
(Lorraine groaning) (thunder crashes) - Isla is surprised by
Lorraine's psychic visions, but doesn't seem to be too afraid of her. - How are you doing this? - God has shown you to me. - Then your God has damned you. - In addition to possessing living people, Isla can also possess corpses, temporarily giving them life. Because, apparently she can just do that. Good to know! As she discovers Lorraine watching her via the psychic connection, she takes control of a
big boy in the morgue, sending it to attack, and Ed is able to pull
Lorraine out of her vision just in time. If you're interested in
the mechanics of this, look at it like this. Lorraine was looking in on Isla by touching her previous victim, Jessica. Now that the connection is formed, Isla can look back at Lorraine, as long as Lorraine is
still touching Jessica. And Isla can control
other things in the room while the connection is still established. When Lorraine lets go of Jessica, the connection seems to be broken up and Isla loses control of
her big boy and he collapses. The cleaning crew in the morning is gonna be really confused. But Isla sees Ed, who is already vulnerable
due to his poor health, as a potential tool to
get rid of Lorraine. Not only would this leave Isla unopposed, but I imagine that Lorraine
could have checked off the box for the lover for her evil ritual, due to Lorraine's unwavering
love for her husband. She sends a new totem
to the Warrens' house, disguised as a bundle of flowers, and their assistant, Drew,
unknowingly brings it inside. It's not out of the
ordinary for the Warrens to receive gifts from families
they had helped in the past. This allows Isla to take control of Ed, who also gives her access to
see into the Warrens' house and view all their research. She seems to be taking a particular joy in possessing Ed by taunting him. - Oh don't worry, Mr. Warren. You're so close. I'd hate for you to give up now. (tense music) - Once again using the tactic
of encouraging her victims to do the dirty work by giving
them misleading visions, she gives Ed a vision
where he's being attacked by the bloated possessed
big boy from the morgue, causing him to grab a knife
and try to fight back. He is just barely stopped by Drew before actually stabbing his wife. Together they find the totem
and remove Isla's ability to access or control Ed. Isla knows that the Warrens
are closing in on her, and that they now know
how to stop the curse by destroying her altar,
if they can find it, so she must enact the
end of the curse fast if she wants to succeed. To make matters worse for her, Lorraine goes to Father Kastner for help translating the Stregheria, having no idea that she is so
close to Isla and her altar as she does so. Father Kastner also reveals
that Isla is his child and that he is aware of what she is up to, but he couldn't bring
himself to turn her in because she was his daughter
and he still loved her. I would assume that these
sentimental feelings are not mutual however, because as soon as Lorraine leaves, Isla pays her father a little visit. (logo thuds loudly) (creepy music) As Father Kastner prays for forgiveness for his failures as a
priest and as a father, he is cut short when Isla
coldly slashes throat, not even giving him the time
to utter his final words. This action, whether
she planned it or not, fulfills the man of God part of the curse, bringing her one step closer to winning. If she managed to kill Lorraine, no one would be there to stop her from killing a child to satisfy the last requirement of the curse. However, she also knows
she's in real trouble because if Lorraine
destroys her altar in time, the whole plan will be broken up. Luckily for Isla, she made
her altar out of stone and Lorraine can't move it on her own. She reaches and attacks Lorraine. Specifically, she tries to
stab Lorraine in the eye, both a literal and figurative attack on Lorraine's psychic visions that have been the cause
of concern for Isla so far. But it is Lorraine's psychic ability, once again, that saves her, because she's able to see herself through Isla' point of view, and it is only there
that she notices the rock that she uses to smash The
Occultist and break free. When Ed arrives to save
and protect Lorraine, Isla once again takes
possession of him by- (Isla exhales sharply) Blowing dust in his face? It seems like they're just
making rules up at this point, but I guess maybe that was
like a ground up witch's totem? Who knows at this point honestly? Let's just roll with it. When Isla takes possession of a person, she works the same way a demon does in that she can split her attention between the possessed
individual and her own self. We saw this in "Annabelle Creation" where the horned demon Malthus could terrorize people in one location, and the possessed Janice could come after people in another room. Isla uses this technique to her advantage by sending Ed after Lorraine with a mallet to distract from her
returning to the altar to take control of Arne one more time. She starts the ritual with Arne's photo. As he writhes in pain
under Isla's possession, she gets him to pick up a shard of glass and hold to his own throat. Luckily for Arne, his
girlfriend holds his arm back, while a Priest goes into some prayers to try to rid him of his possession. Meanwhile, as Ed attacks Lorraine, she pleads with him to
remember their first kiss. - She tried to turn you against me because she thinks our love
is our weakness, but it's not. - These words get through to him, and he's able to regain control of himself and smash Isla's altar carnival style, breaking the curse and releasing
Arne from Isla's control. - Your curse is broken. - In the end, Lorraine's ability to get through to Ed was fitting. It was supposedly their love
that helped them defeat Isla, and she was not able to stop them because she didn't know love. As the illegitimate daughter of a priest, she lived an isolated life where her only family
looked upon her in shame. Although her father may
have cared about her, she was blinded by resentment. The malnourished lady was
also malnourished from love. But even with her master plan literally having crumbled before her, Isla emerges from the
dark with a knife in hand, looking like she's going
to use it to take revenge on the paranormal couple that
had ruined everything for her. Before getting the chance to do this, the demon she had summoned finally arrives in a corporeal form. It is not clear who this demon this is. We only see it in the
form of the Isla herself. To me, this suggests that
the identity of the demon doesn't really matter
because Isla is the true evil of this story that had possessed
each of the victims so far. Unlike the previous "Conjuring" movies which draw from the lore
of the old grimoire, "The Lesser Key of Solomon," which appears as a book
called "The Devil's Welcome" in the first Annabelle movie, the dark magic conjured by Isla was inspired by the Italian
concept of Stregheria, which is just an archaic
word for witchcraft. There isn't a specific roster
of demons associated with it. So the Warrens see this
demon in the form of Isla as it twists and contorts her, before finishing her with this. (tense music) (demon roars) (head squishes) Ed explains that she
promised this demon a soul and it would not go back
to hell without one. And that concludes today's lesson on The Occultist, Isla. The malnourished lady. Click the playlist on
the left for my analysis of other evil entities in
the Conjuring universe, like Bathsheba, Malthus and Valak. And remember to subscribe to CZsWorld for new horrors every week, ring the deathbell and
select all notifications and I will see you in the next one. Assuming we both survive. (gentle piano music)
