BOB LARSON: Go somewhere private.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: Behind a closed door.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
CHARLET DUBOC: The constant exorcisms had already taken an
emotional toll on me.
But the Teenage Exorcists just seem to smile through it all.
During a rare break, I grabbed an opportunity to try to get
under their thick skins.
Brynn is an old hand at this, having performed her first
exorcism age 13, while the sisters more recently
performed their first deliverance on a possessed
friend at a sleepover.
How do people get demons?
BRYNN LARSON: Satan can't just randomly go into anybody that
he wants to.
He has to have a legal right.
CHARLET DUBOC: Mhm.
BRYNN LARSON: And so what happens is when you-- it's
like a little umbrella.
And when you step out from under the umbrella of God's
protection, when you sin--
for example, if you start doing drugs, you're out from
under that umbrella of God's protection,
and Satan's got ya.
So many times--
we've dealt with men who have like, gone to prostitutes, and
they've gotten their demons.
SAVANNAH SHERKENBACK: Yeah.
TESS SHERKENBACK: Yeah.
It happens.
BRYNN LARSON: Just like you can get a
sexually transmitted disease.
TESS SHERKENBACK: Disease.
SAVANNAH SHERKENBACK: Exactly.
BRYNN LARSON: You can get a sexually transmitted demon.
TESS SHERKENBACK: Sexually transmitted demon.
Yeah.
BRYNN LARSON: And sometimes it's what happens to you if
you're abused.
You can't help it.
But because of that abuse, because of the feelings that
it brings, because of the hate and the hurt and the shame,
Satan can attack you because of that.
TESS SHERKENBACK: We stay away from things like "Harry
Potter."
SAVANNAH SHERKENBACK: "Harry Potter" and "Twilight."
BRYNN LARSON: Witchcraft.
TESS SHERKENBACK: Witchcraft, violence--
SAVANNAH SHERKENBACK: "Twilight".
TESS SHERKENBACK: "Twilight".
It's about vampires, first off, but also just the story
line is not attractive at all.
SAVANNAH SHERKENBACK: Especially like really scary
horror movies--
TESS SHERKENBACK: Oh, yeah.
Horror movies.
SAVANNAH SHERKENBACK: We don't do them.
TESS SHERKENBACK: Things that are like--
BRYNN LARSON: Sexual stuff.
TESS SHERKENBACK: Yeah, inappropriate.
BRYNN LARSON: Really really bad, inappropriate.
So why subject yourself to that?
CHARLET DUBOC: Who maybe are your role
models in American society?
Do you think there are good ones?
TESS SHERKENBACK: Well, I will tell you that we were all
crushed to see Margaret Thatcher go.
BRYNN LARSON: Yeah, Margaret Thatcher.
CHARLET DUBOC: Really?
SAVANNAH SHERKENBACK: Yeah.
She was awesome.
TESS SHERKENBACK: She was very
inspirational for me, you know?
BRYNN LARSON: Yes.
CHARLET DUBOC: Have any of you ever had a horrible
experience, anything akin to abuse and
been in a bad situation?
BRYNN LARSON: I haven't.
I've been--
my dad, being who he is, he's been very careful to watch out
for us and make sure that nothing happens.
Because he's seen what happens.
So he's protected us.
I've been around people who have been hurting so much,
though, that I'm starting to understand.
I mean, I'm never going to fully understand abuse,
because it's never happened to me.
But at least I have some sort of feeling for
what's happened to them.
TESS SHERKENBACK: Yeah.
CHARLET DUBOC: Do you ever get feelings of guilt about when
you have to upset people first?
SAVANNAH SHERKENBACK: No.
BRYNN LARSON: I'd say I get angry at the devil for what he
did to them.
TESS SHERKENBACK: Yeah.
SAVANNAH SHERKENBACK: Yeah.
BRYNN LARSON: I see the them crying.
I see them ashamed.
And I just-- oh.
How dare Satan do that to them.
And I want to go after that demon and get him for that.
TESS SHERKENBACK: Yeah, absolutely.
SAVANNAH SHERKENBACK: Yeah.
BRYNN LARSON: It's kind of-- it's not guilt, because you're
helping them.
CHARLET DUBOC: Once you scratch the surface of their
Stepford wives demeanors, it's clear these girls truly
believe in what they're doing and have no idea how
ridiculous they seem.
Although the whole idea of me exorcising someone seemed
completely ludicrous, since I don't believe in God, if I
could successfully pull it off, then surely it would
demonstrate that exorcism has nothing to do with the
supernatural.
Tess and Brynn took me backstage to walk me through
the motions of getting a demon out.
OK.
So then I'm going to stick with you.
TESS SHERKENBACK: Um, I don't think so.
BRYNN LARSON: No, we're going to switch.
TESS SHERKENBACK: We'll probably go around, yeah.
BRYNN LARSON: And you get to see a little bit of each.
CHARLET DUBOC: And should I just like, literally stand by
your shoulder?
TESS SHERKENBACK: Yeah, probably like this.
And I'll probably have--
maybe let you hold them, and then when I need
it, I can take it.
CHARLET DUBOC: It will be like, scalpel--
TESS SHERKENBACK: Yeah.
CHARLET DUBOC: And there is a rule as in--
should I not press hard, should I literally just--
is that OK?
TESS SHERKENBACK: Oh, that's fine.
That's fine.
BRYNN LARSON: Yeah.
You can press a little hard, just to go
whack with the metal.
TESS SHERKENBACK: Yeah.
CHARLET DUBOC: Oh no.
BRYNN LARSON: And it's the faith.
It's not just putting something on their head.
It's saying, I have the faith--
CHARLET DUBOC: I have to do it with commitment.
TESS SHERKENBACK: Yeah.
BRYNN LARSON: --that this is going to torment that demon.
And it does.
I've seen the difference when someone puts something on, and
just magically expects it to happen.
And with the authority in Christ, this demon is
going to feel this.
And I put it on.
And they scream in agony.
It's painful for the demons.
And God, I ask you to put Satan on
notice that we are coming.
SAVANNAH SHERKENBACK: Yes.
TESS SHERKENBACK: Yes.
BRYNN LARSON: I asked you to put those demons in torment.
I pray a special prayer of protection over Charlet, that
you will be with her, Lord, and she will see your power,
and that you will work through her.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
SAVANNAH SHERKENBACK: Amen.
BOB LARSON: You will not touch her.
This is her moment to experience the power and the
presence of Christ.
Stand down, Satan.
-Don't be afraid.
BRYNN LARSON: This was hate.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BRYNN LARSON: Just have faith, you go.
OK.
Command it.
CHARLET DUBOC: I, anger.
BRYNN LARSON: Go out of the pit.
CHARLET DUBOC: Go out of the pit.
TRANSLATOR: [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BRYNN LARSON: Come out in the name of Jesus.
CHARLET DUBOC: Come out in the name of Jesus.
Come out in the name of Jesus.
-[SCREAMING]
CHARLET DUBOC: Come out.
-Hallelujah.
[APPLAUSE]
BOB LARSON: Brynn, come here.
CHARLET DUBOC: What happened?
What happened?
What just happened?
[LAUGHING]
Oh my god.
I mean, I obviously didn't just exorcise a demon.
I just made a woman cry and get angry and have some
release, hopefully, by screaming and crying.
And the whole bible nonsense and the cross stuff is all
just a bit symbolic.
All the women that were called out were abused.
They were physically abused by their
father or their boyfriend.
And then these women are worked up into a state of
hysteria, mostly by being held in a stronghold by two big,
burly Ukrainian men.
I just think that's a form of abuse in itself.
[CRYING]
CHARLET DUBOC: Demons are little more than an elaborate
metaphor for all the problems and
wrongdoing of these people.
I want to go and apologize to that woman.
I want to apologize to the woman I
exorcised, but I can't.
Although we were in the bosom of the New Generation Church,
the vast majority of the population here is still
Orthodox Christians.
So I went to ask an orthodox priest what his stance on the
Teenage Exorcists was.
ALEXANDER LOVOBINTSEV: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
CHARLET DUBOC: Our time with the exorcists was nearly up.
The last stop on the tour was yet another isolated mining
village, Ternovka.
Do you have any idea what's going on in there tonight?
-[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
CHARLET DUBOC: Do you believe that there are demons or do
you think these American exorcists are trick people?
-[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
CONGREGATION: [CHANTING]
BOB LARSON: Ah!
The curse of death!
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
-[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: Of future generations!
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BRYNN LARSON: Go down.
BOB LARSON: Now!
[FOREIGN LANGAUGE].
CHARLET DUBOC: As I sat there enduring my last public
deliverance session, I was struck by Bob's preoccupation
with the media.
His own filming and our camera took precedence over
everything else.
Just when we thought we'd seen it all, something happened
which rubbed Bob up the wrong way.
A woman started calling out from the audience in the voice
of her demon.
BOB LARSON: Smite you with the judgment.
Hold your tongue.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: Get out.
Get out.
They will carry you out.
I know Ukranian men.
They will carry you.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: Bye bye.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
CHARLET DUBOC: Why did they kick you out of the church?
CHARLET DUBOC: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
CHARLET DUBOC: She was still talking in the
voice of her demon.
If anyone had said to me this woman's possessed, I wouldn't
have argued with them.
Her mental state was so sinister she might
as well have been.
Here was a real cry for help--
someone who desperately needed freedom from her living hell
more than anyone we'd met.
-[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: No.
She's not going to talk to you.
No.
CHARLET DUBOC: What--
BOB LARSON: I'm sorry, but she's not.
CHARLET DUBOC: What's wrong with her?
BOB LARSON: I--
I don't know, but we're not going to give voice to one
person like this who tried to ruin everything.
The point is, we're not going to listen to her.
I'm not going to listen to her, and I'm not going to
allow you to listen to her.
I will take charge here in regards to that.
I'm sorry.
We've been very gracious this whole time.
There are 500 people in there you can talk to.
CHARLET DUBOC: But what's--
I-- if I've done something wrong--
BOB LARSON: We don't care.
We do not care.
And if you want to show this, that's fine.
But you can show a side that says, we will not let Satan
take control of the media.
And one crazy woman stand up.
CHARLET DUBOC: I'm not sure I--
BOB LARSON: Did you--
CHARLET DUBOC: --understand the difference between crazy
and possessed anymore.
That's all.
BOB LARSON: And I'm not sure I do either.
CHARLET DUBOC: So I was just trying to--
BOB LARSON: And I don't know what she is, but
she needs to leave.
You're not going to talk to us.
Tell her.
Tell her she's not going to talk to us.
CHARLET DUBOC: Bob Larson is a control freak.
He likes his demons to appear only when it suits him.
I could have forgiven him for not knowing the difference
between demonic possession and insanity, if only he'd shown
that woman some compassion.
The exorcists were leaving Ukraine
the following morning--
on to Russia to slay more demons with their spurious
brand of evangelical therapy.
BRYNN LARSON: Don't forget what you saw on this trip.
CHARLET DUBOC: These real life twilight characters with their
[INAUDIBLE]
attitude don't mean any harm.
Despite their self-righteous manner, they're basically
young, impressionable, and well-intentioned.
Bob is just another insidious televangelist practicing
medicine without a license.
But by harnessing the Hollywood appeal of his young
proteges, he's able to manipulate the vulnerable and
the weak in a way he could never achieve on his own.
When it comes to conquering society's demons, the
exorcists are both the problem and the solution, as demand
for their services will continue to grow here while
people remain unconvinced of other therapeutic options.
But if you've actually got the devil in you, don't go crying
to Bob Larson.
-[SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]