The Farrar Elementary School, located in Polk County, Iowa, is one of the most active buildings paranormal investigators have ever seen. The problem is, no one knows why. There could be multiple reasons, but no one knows for sure. The only reason that makes sense is that there is a graveyard right across the street from the school, which has a higher current population than the town itself. 

Sam Golbach and Colby Brock, paranormal investigators and best friends, invited Josh from @ExploringWithJosh, another paranormal investigator, for the first night of Hell Week, to be the first investigator of Farrar since they bought it. 

Part 1 

In the first video of Hell Week, which was posted on Oct. 20, 2024, Sam and Colby, along with Josh, talked to their friend Dakota from @Project Fear about his experiences at the Farrar school. Farrar was one of his first ghost challenges ever when he was 15. 

They saw that the school was going to be demolished soon and decided to buy it to keep it open for future investigators. But first, they went there themselves to see if the haunted claims were correct. They went to do the Estes Method, a method that involves the use of a spirit box, where you block all external sensations to hear what spirits are trying to say, in the boiler room where it has gotten much darker and more active.

The principal’s office investigation:

Two months later, they were told that the spirits don’t necessarily like that they’re the new owners. They started getting several words on the polterscript, a piece of equipment that uses EMF to spit out words. It didn’t last long before it went silent. Their second investigation starts in the cemetery where Colby goes alone, and Josh and Sam stay at the school. For Sam and Josh, activity started immediately, but Colby got almost nothing. 

They decide to stop investigating for the night because the spirits aren’t talking. They said goodbye to Josh and concluded their day 1 of 7. On night 1, they decide to sleep in the safest room on the first floor. Usually they start out in the most haunted rooms, so I was surprised that they started with the least haunted.

Day 2

They had no one coming until much later, so they wrote challenges for each other to do at any time. They’ve done this before, and I’ve got to say, it’s not my favorite when they make each other go to a scary dark room alone. Sam’s challenge for Colby was to be hogtied alone in the boiler room. Colby’s to Sam was to dig his own grave and do the Estes Method in the back of the school. They contacted the Pythian Priestess, AKA Ashley, for help to appease the spirits. They were told to make a peace treaty with the land so they could continue investigating and get answers.

They did one last investigation for the night. With the thermal camera, Sam saw a figure in the principal’s office window, but when they ran inside, nobody was there. They went to sleep in room 206, one of the most haunted rooms. 

Part 2

It’s been two days, and the spirits already seem to hate them, even when they did the peace treaty last episode to try to appease them. The rules of hell week are: #1, they have to sleep on the property every single night, and #2, each of them can give the other a challenge that must be completed anytime, anywhere. In this episode, they’ve been joined by Chris, Matt, and Nick Sturniolo from @Sturniolo.Triplets. 

Sam and Colby take the triplets on a tour of the school before they do the first investigation in the gym. This place is pretty terrifying, because there’s the boiler room right next to it. The gym is known to create the feeling of being watched, specifically from the bathrooms. People hear the sounds of old basketball games and one investigator even witnessed a young boy walking around the gym. There’s also the janitor who roams the gym and even physically hurts people who disrespect him.

They went on the first challenge for the triplets, which was to play knockout, and whoever won got to choose which one of them would go alone during an investigation later that night. Chris won and chose Sam to go alone. They continued with their investigation in the gym. They met with another paranormal investigator who had a theory that all of the energy from different people combines and makes it a separate entity.

The Sturniolo triplets and Sam and Colby take the next investigation to the grand central staircase to do the Estes  Method. They decide that two people will do the Estes Method. Immediately, it says “Thursday, July 25”. It was Wednesday the 24th, only a few hours before midnight. 

They make one final attempt before they split up, and they get so much evidence. It was hard to keep up with all of the evidence they got, as it went so fast. The fact that two people doing the Estes Method got around the same answers and was actually answering their questions was so crazy to me, I had to rewatch it. Someone was mad and was threatening them a lot.  

Matt and Nick went to classroom 206, while Chris and Colby went to the bathroom near the gym. Sam was voted to go alone to the principal’s office, which was probably one of the less stupid things they did this Hellweek. Sam received a warning from the principal entity about the “thing” in the boiler room, and words like “Satan” appeared multiple times.  I did not expect that, and was so glad I didn’t decide to watch this video at night. That was terrifying. They had to say goodbye to the triplets and stay at the school for another night.

They pulled out of the hat again and had to sleep in the gym. On Day 4 of staying at the Farrar school, they were alone again. They went over to the local museum to see some artifacts from when Farrar was in operation, to try to figure out what happened there. At the Maxwell Museum, they found an entire section about the Farrar school and learned a lot. 

When they got back, Colby decided to show Sam the challenge he wanted him to do. Sam started working on digging and Colby set up the things for the Estes Method.  They decide to go down to the boiler room after that investigation to see what exactly is down there. 

They asked if some of the spirits could go down there with them, but this boiler room entity was so terrifying, that they all left, and Sam and Colby were left completely alone with it. Sam and Colby went to sleep in separate rooms, Sam in the auditorium, and Colby in Mrs. Martin’s room for the night. 

Part 3 

In the final video, they are joined by @Kallmekris and @Celinaspookyboo for yet another Hell Week installment. This is their third or fourth time investigating with Sam and Colby, but their first time investigating here. Kris and Celina are sent to look around the school alone to look for something that Sam and Colby hid upstairs on the third floor in the auditorium. 

Because Kris and Celina are incredibly empathic, and Celina is a trance medium (a medium that usually goes into a trance when speaking to the dead), their last investigation of the night will be the room in which they feel the worst. While they’re in the school, Sam and Colby decide to go into the woods alone. Since Celina is still a little new to not ignoring the energies she feels as a medium, I think it was a good idea to bring her along so she could master her abilities better.

The thing that they find is an invitation to the first annual ghost prom. The night started pretty great, it just went downhill from there, however, when Celina went into a trance and contacted the entity from the boiler room, their funny and joyful moods had disappeared. It was seriously quite terrifying to watch Celina go into a trance. I’ve watched her do it before, but this felt different somehow.

The boiler room entity, which we now know is very demonic, talked to Celina in her trance, making her very cold, frightened, and sick. They went to the room that they recently discovered was not the principal’s office, but the counselor’s office. My question is, how did they mix those two very different things up? They kept getting awful things in the spirit box, so they left the room. Kris and Celina leave, and Sam and Colby stay overnight again. Colby’s outside, Sam’s in room 201. Colby having to be outside was so unnerving. 

Day 6

Day 6 finally arrived and they found out that there was a demon they needed to get rid of. So, they called their friend Ashley, aka @PythianPriestess. She told both of them that the Conjuring House they went to last Hell Week was a solid 7 out of 10, and the Farrar school was a 9 to 10. Which makes it way worse than the famous house that inspired the Conjuring movies. 

Ashley does a tarot reading to see what the spirits think about them and what the future holds. Everything was all well until the intentions of the boiler room entity were revealed. “The World” tarot card paired with the “Seven of Swords” card means that the entity wants to end them with deception. Since they got a specific name, they decided to do the Ouija board. It started out so well, and I was laughing with them. It turned really dark really quick. 

After that terrifying session, and after figuring out how much the boiler room entity is capable of, Sam reveals that his challenge to Colby was to tie him to a chair alone in the boiler room. But after all of the things they learned, Sam gave him a chance to opt out of it because of how dangerous it is. Colby decided to do it anyway, and he went in alone. That was not a good move.

The now-confirmed demonic entity started to attach itself to Colby, and it was a scary thing to watch. The Pythian Priestess immediately cleansed Colby, and they went back to the boiler room to do the ritual to get rid of it and close the portal that was confirmed to be in there for at least a little while. They finally threw the contained entity into the river to let the water spirits handle it.  

Day 7 

On the final day at the school, they gave offerings to the spirits there by planting a tree to finish the peace treaty they started earlier that week. I loved how they showed how far they came by showing a video they made in 2015. They were still filming going into abandoned buildings when I was eight. The Farrar Elementary School is finally safe enough for other paranormal investigators and just other people in general. 

I would recommend watching Sam and Colby, not just this video, but their past videos, and some new videos that they will make in the future. And definitely check out the Farrar Elementary School. This place has so much energy, it makes the school practically alive. This was a crazy Hellweek. If you’re into the paranormal, I really do recommend Sam and Colby.