Imagine driving down a dark and lonely road late at night when a strange man wearing a hooded jumper, his face hidden, forces your car to slow down before running madly towards your door, yelling and screaming.

It sounds like something out of a horror movie, but the scenario was real.

A spooky piece of dashcam footage captured a man, near Cessnock, NSW, frightening motorists at the weekend.

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The footage had gone viral on social media, and the driver made an official complaint to police.

NSW Police issued a statement on Sunday after several complaints of “suspicious behaviour by a man near the Kearsley and Elrington areas” Saturday night and Sunday morning.

They said police located a four-wheel drive, silver Mitsubishi Triton, on Hebburn Road, Elrington about 1pm, and spoke to a man who had been sleeping inside the vehicle.

“A subsequent search of the car resulted in police finding a small amount of crystal methylamphetamine, or ice,” a police spokesperson said.

The driver who recorded the terrifying footage told Fairfax Media he spotted a four-wheel drive blocking the intersection on Kearsley Selections Road about 1.30am on Sunday.

He said the man was standing on the road, still as a statue.

The video shows the motorist slowing down while the mystery man slowly approached the car, before turning his head away.

As the car almost stopped the man lunged forward and screamed, then the motorist stepped on the accelerator and sped away.

The dash cam recorder captured the man phoning his wife, who was travelling a few minutes behind him, to warn her of the terrifying encounter.

“I almost stopped before I could go around this guy, and as we went past he just lunged at our door,” the woman, who also spoke on anonymity, told Fairfax Media.

“We still don’t know what he was trying to do, whether he was trying to rob us, was he trying to take our car or was he trying to hurt us.

“It has really shaken us up.”

This is freaky http://t.co/xlE0YOkNTr — Kylie Adoranti (@KylieAdoranti) May 31, 2015

Well, this is terrifying – man lunges at cars on a deserted road after forcing them to slow down. http://t.co/A7OmjIkNAu

— justin barbour (@justinbarbour) May 31, 2015

A police spokesperson said the man was arrested and charged for drug possession.

They said he was refused bail and expected to appear at Maitland Local Court on Monday.