The bug is that the game freezes in the scene where Buddie first mentions the Dame Woods Demon. It can happen two different ways, see below.
The first is that if I enter the entrance way from the top the game becomes unresponsive as soon as Buddie asks if the president has heard of the Dame Woods Demon, but right before the protagonist says it sounds lame. The second way is that if I enter from the sides it seems like the game might possibly be entering a second, different cut scene after the first scene plays to completion because it involves Buddie reentering from a different place than he exited and asking if we've seen Father Parker, looking at the bench where he placed his raincoat and saying it's gone, which implies that the scene was supposed to end earlier and then I'd swipe it and the story would progress again later. The game then freezes after Andy says they can't just shoot at some random shadow in the woods cause it might be a person and Brad says he agrees with the dweeb. No further action is possible, no further progression in the scene happens.
By 'how to proceed' I mean that 'has anyone else had this bug and do they know how to get past it.'
Lacking a way to get past the scene (no one was answering) I asked instead if there were perhaps early saves I could copy and simply play from there. As in, past the part where I can no longer continue playing but early enough that I wouldn't miss TOO much story.
37011. First time I've played this game.
PC.