existence of Hell. Åge Rendalen, a Norwegian teacher, heard the story on TBN while visiting the United States. Disgusted with what he perceived to be mass gullibility, Rendalen decided to augment the tale at TBN's expense. Rendalen wrote to the network, originally claiming that he disbelieved the tale but, upon his return to Norway, supposedly read a factual account of the story. According to Rendalen, the story claimed not only that the cursed well was real, but that a bat-like apparition (a common pictorial representation of demons, such as in Michelangelo's The Torment of Saint Anthony or the more recent Bat Boy by Weekly World News) had risen out of it before blazing a trail across the Russian sky. To perpetuate his hoax, Rendalen deliberately mistranslated a trivial Norwegian article about a local building inspector into the story, and submitted both the original Norwegian article and the English "translation" to TBN. Rendalen also included his real name, phone number and address, as well as those of a pastor friend who knew about the hoax and had agreed to expose it to anyone who called seeking verification. However, TBN did nothing to verify Rendalen's claims, and aired the story as proof of the validity of the original story. Alternative versions Since its publicity, many alternative versions of the Well to Hell story have been published. In 1992, the U.S. tabloid Weekly World News published an alternative version of the story, which was set in Alaska where 13 miners were killed after Satan came roaring out of hell. See also Darvaza gas crater Mel's Hole Nine Miles Down, a film inspired by the urban legend The Devil Below, a 2021 horror movie about a group of people looking for a burning coal seam. They discuss the Well to Hell. Stull, Kansas The Superdeep, a 2020 Russian horror film directed by Arseny Syuhin, based on the real-life Kola Superdeep Borehole. References Further reading Hell in popular culture Hoaxes in science Paranormal hoaxes Russia in fiction Urban legends