A documentary has exposed the real life of America's most inbred family.
Filmmaker Mark Laita spoke about the unique experience, which he likened to something out of a scene from Deliverance.
When Laita first reached out to the inbred Whittaker family, he was promptly threatened by their protective neighbours.
However, he was soon escorted down a lane by a police officer to meet the family, who live in a rural village in West Virginia fittingly named 'Odd,' the Daily Star reports.
Laita's videos have been viewed by millions and he recalled his first impressions of the Whittakers on the Koncrete KLIPS podcast, the Mirror adds.
He explained: “It was like that little scene from Deliverance that everyone knows.
"We came around to this road, which turns into a country road, which turns into a dirt road, and we come to this trailer and then a little shack on the other side of the road.
"And there’s these people walking around and their eyes are going in different directions and they are barking at us.
"And then one guy, you would look at him in the eye or say anything and he would just scream and go running away, and his pants would fall around his ankles, and he would go running off and go and kick a garbage can.
"And this would happen over and over. It was out of control - the craziest thing I have ever seen."
The Whittakers have no education and live in squalor in an isolated shack in the backcountry, which is cut off from civilisation.
Laita said that he discovered three siblings and a cousin who were living together in a filthy home along with their several dogs.
Some members only spoke in grunts or squeals and appeared to be suffering with physical and mental health irregularities.
In his YouTube videos, Laita warns anyone intending to visit to mock or disturb the family to think again as they will be chased away.
He noted: "They are kind of protected by the neighbours and the relatives [who] don’t like these people coming to ridicule them.
"And everybody in the area kind of knows of them and are like, 'let's go over to the Whittakers' and laugh at them or whatever.'"
The family finally allowed him to take some photos after he offered to take a portrait for them to place in the casket of a loved one.
After his initial visit, the filmmaker kept in touch with the family and returned and shot a film, Inbred family - The Whittakers, in 2020.
Posted on his YouTube channel, Soft White Underbelly, it shows him speaking to siblings, Betty, Lorraine and Ray, and cousin, Timmy
Another brother, Freddie, had died of a heart condition.
When asked, Betty doesn't say if her parents were related and says she didn't know why Ray, Lorraine and Timmy had disabilities
Laita wrote: "There is no way I would be able to confirm that the Whitaker parents were related, but given that this does happen in this part of the country and the Whitakers are the most extreme case I’ve seen so far.
"I would bet that inbreeding was at least partly responsible for the mental and physical abnormalities seen in Lorraine, Freddie, Ray, and Timmy.”
In a follow-up video a year later, Betty confirms their parents were double first cousins.
Another video released earlier this year features another relative, Kenneth
Laita discusses with him his family members' disabilities and facial abnormalities.
When asked why their eyes don't point forward, Kenneth says: "Might be coal mining."
Laita has helped the Whittakers to raise money to pay repairs and improvements at their home.
The fundraising is still ongoing as he is now trying to buy them a new house.
The filmmaker said much of the feedback from his work with the family had been critical, calling him "an exploitative b*****d".
However, he has defended his work, saying: "I think it's good for people to know that a lot of these things exist.
"Everything can be viewed as exploitative. I'm exposing or creating awareness of what is going on in our country."
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