Hulu's 'Blood & Myth' unearths a story where the line between myth and reality blurs

In a remote Alaskan village, a series of violent murders shakes the community.

It's in Hulu's documentary "Blood & Myth," where Alaskan native James Dommek Jr. sets off to investigate the haunting true-crime case and unearths a story where myth and reality collide.

On The Red Carpet sat down with Dommek Jr. to discuss the film and his connection to the story.

"I'm the great-grandson of one of the last great Iñupiaq storytellers," he told us. "As soon as I heard the story, I was just obsessed with it. I just was like, 'I gotta tell this story.' I always felt like it would haunt me if I didn't."

At the center of the case is Teddy Kyle Smith, a local actor and fellow Iñupiaq man. He was arrested for killing his mother and shooting two men, but no one seems to know why. After being apprehended, Smith made a shocking claim involving the supernatural.

He believes Inukuns, or as Dommek Jr. puts it, "mythical beings that we are told about by elders," had forced his hand.

Dommek Jr. explains in the documentary that many believe Inukuns are "supernatural beings" that have "shamanic powers." They lived "side-by-side (with the Natives) until blood was spilled, and they left," preferring to live off the land, away from humans.

When we asked him about this in our interview, he said, "I always like to say that the farther north you go, the veil between myth and reality is very thin. It sounded to me like he had a hole torn into his reality by his encounter out there. The more time you spend up north, the more you realize that this is not out of the realm of possibility."

But Dommek Jr. knew that there was only one person who had the answers, so he spent years arranging an interview with Smith himself.

"We only had an hour and a half at the prison. It was very difficult to get the interview with him," Dommek Jr. explained. "Being in the prison itself is very nerve-racking, especially if you're someone who dabbles in anxiety and you know, feeling claustrophobic kind of, you know? The concertina razor wire is more menacing when it's frozen."

"I did walk away from that interview with more of a sense of humanity and humanizing Teddy, because the media kind of painted him as a monster. 'He's a horrible guy.' I knew he's probably not a hundred percent bad," he told us.

So what did Dommek Jr. believe really happened out there?

He couldn't confirm or deny the existence of Inukuns, but he had this to say: "Stories are meant to keep us alive. And the right story, if you remembered the right story at the right time, it could mean the difference between life and death."

"Blood & Myth" is based on the Audible original "Midnight Son" from Dommek Jr.

It's streaming now on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of Hulu and this ABC station.