Holy Ghost People (1967)

Holy Ghost People is a 1967 documentary directed and narrated by Peter Adair. It is about the service of a Pentecostal community in Scrabble Creek, West Virginia, United States. The church service includes faith healing, snake handling, speaking in tongues and singing. This documentary has entered the public domain and is available at the Internet Archive.

Synopsis

The documentary begins by showing the audience various images of the church and its night services. After the opening credits, a narrator introduces the Pentecostal community in Scrabble Creek, West Virginia. The narrator presents various activities the church partakes in, such as snake handling, speaking in tongues, and four to six hour long meetings at the church multiples times a week. The narrators explain that while people are commonly bit while handling the snakes, mainly copperheads, they refuse medical help.