Rob Lowe says a hairy encounter in the Ozarks left him fearing for his life after he encountered the mythical 'Bigfoot' - or one of its relatives.

Lowe, 53, said he was filming his new A&E documentary series The Lowe Files when an encounter with a so-called 'wood ape' left him 'lying on the ground thinking I was going to be killed.'

'I'm fully aware that I sound like a crazy Hollywood kook right now,' the Parks & Recreation star admitted to Entertainment Weekly as he recalled the encounter.

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Ape escape: Rob Lowe (center) says he met a Bigfoot-like creature while filming his new paranormal documentary series with sons and Matthew (left) and John Owen (right)

Monkey business? Lowe claims he met the 'wood ape' in the Ozarks and that his show, The Lowe Files has 'no BS'. Pictured: A famous file photo allegedly of Bigfoot

Lowe said the bizarre meeting occurred on the Ozark Mountains, which stretch between Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

He was in the woods there filming for his new show, in which he and his two sons Matthew, 23, and John Owen, 21, explore mysterious phenomena across the country - in this case legends about a 'wood ape'.

'A wood ape is the local vernacular for a Sasquatch or a Bigfoot,' Lowe said. 'This is what I love about our show. We have fun with all of this.

'We hit the bullseye between true believer and skeptic in a fun way. [The locals] talk to you about the wood ape in all seriousness.

'If you call it a Bigfoot or a Sasquatch, they roll their eyes… as if that makes it less outrageous.'

But things went awry when the wood ape came looking for them in return, he said.

Drumming up success: Lowe (seen in the series apparently holding a ritual to summon the beast) said the 'ape' marched up to his heavily armed group of ex-military trackers and left him cowering on the floor in fear for his life

'We’re 100 miles from the nearest town,' he recalled. 'We spent 45 minutes on the most rugged, brutal mountain trails. It's one in the morning.

'There are a lot of serious former military men with loaded weapons, then something starts approaching our camps that is defying their orders to stop and their warnings that [they were] armed.'

Lowe doesn't say quite how the encounter ended - he's saving that for the episode, which makes up the final, one-hour installment of the series.

Trailer footage shows him topless and banding a drum, apparently in a ritual to summon the beast; he promised that the series is all true, with 'no BS'.

Other episodes include a visitation from a poltergeist that left him in no doubt about an afterlife, Lowe said.

The handsome star is accompanied by his sons, who are considerably sharper than such a goofy premise might make them appear: John Owen attended Stanford University, while Matthew went to Duke.

If it all sounds bizarre, Lowe isn't too upset - he admits the tone of the show is a cross between Anthony Bourdain and Scooby Doo, and that he is caught between skepticism and hopful thinking.

'I watch [shows like these] hoping to believe, because a world in which Bigfoot exists and aliens exist, to me, is more interesting and fun,' he said.

'That's the spirit of our show.'

The Lowe Files starts its first season of nine episodes on August 2 on A&E.