Father and son find mysterious VHS tape and make chilling discovery of horrifying crime

A father and son made a harrowing discovery when they came across a VHS tape.

The disturbing footage quite literally wouldn't look out of place in a horror movie. You can watch it below:

The tape was found by the side of the road in 1989 by a motorist and his son near to Stockton in California.

They decided to go and watch the tape, not knowing what was on it. But what they found was shocking footage, which led them to hand the tape over to the TV show Unsolved Mysteries.

The tape was found wrapped in an old army jacket which also contained a pestle and mortar, herbs, and a model of a human skull.

In the end, the video proved instrumental in solving a mystery which had been happening around the area for a number of weeks.

But what was on the tape which made them so afraid?

A still from the tape (X / @Morbidful)

The tapes contained footage of a series of fires which had been set by arsonists, later dubbed the Stockton Arsonists, over a number of weeks.

As if that wasn't eerie enough, the tapes also contained a voiceover from one of the arsonists themselves.

The arsonist's creepy, intense whisper is perhaps the most disturbing part, and that's before we get onto the messed up things he's saying.

He can be heard saying: "The fire that I will destroy, and burn your soul up, ancient spirit of evil."

In another section he says: "This is what I've been doing on your week's vacation. I said I'll do it! I said I'll do it!"

Another part see him repeating a similar sentiment, saying: "I told you I'll do it."

The tape showed clips of fires with disturbing audio (X / @Morbidful)

In one part he focuses in on the fire while saying: "Just take a good look at that and you tell me that I cannot start fires."

Meanwhile, in another he seems to appeal to an audience, saying: "Look at the fire, isn't it beautiful? Look at it. You see what I can do ladies and gentlemen? Do you see what I can do?"

Finally, as sirens blare, he says: "The fire department's trying to put it out, what a laugh."

But the video turned out to be the criminals' downfall, as its broadcast on Unsolved Mysteries led to people writing in with tips.

These eventually led to the arrests of a 17-year-old and a 19-year-old, who were not named due to their status as minors when the offences were committed.

Ultimately, the 19-year-old admitted to setting the fires and appearing on the video.