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Halloween is a time for fun, candy, bonfire and firework-watching, going to parties and of course watching terrifying Halloween movies all night.
Off the top of your head, you are thinking of the scariest film you have ever seen. Was it A Nightmare on Elm Street? Or what about the Halloween films? The Conjuring? The Ring franchise?
Can you think of a few films that were actually inspired by real-life events? You may be surprised by this list because we certainly are.
We are even more terrified by these films… now that we know the gruesome truth.
Here are the films that have been inspired by real-life events… the question is: will you watch them again knowing that they are based on real people? Read on to find out!
11. The Exorcist (1973)
Widely regarded as the scariest movie of all time, the story behind 1973’s The Exorcist proves to be just as chilling as what was shown on screen.
The iconic novel and film, which were both written by William Peter Blatty, were based on a 1949 article in The Washington Post headlined, “Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devil’s Grip.”
The article followed Jesuit priests William S. Bowdern, Edward Hughes, Raymond J. Bishop, and Walter H. Halloran as they performed the rite of exorcism – one of three official Catholic Church-sanctioned exorcisms in the United States at the time – on a boy in Maryland.
The priests claimed that a number of bizarre things took place which appear in the classic horror film, including that the boy was speaking in tongues, that the bed shaking and hovering, and that objects were flying around during the ordeal.
“Maybe one day they’ll discover the cause of what happened to that young man, but back then, it was only curable by an exorcism,” William Friedkin, the director of The Exorcist, told Time Out.
“The Washington Post article says that the boy was possessed and exorcised. That’s pretty out on a limb for a national newspaper to put on its front page … But you’re not going to see that on the front page of an intelligent newspaper unless there’s something there.”
10. Childs Play (1988)
Child’s Play is a 1988 American supernatural slasher film directed and co-written by Tom Holland and stars Catherine Hicks, Dinah Manoff and Chris Sarandon.
In 1909, Key West Painter and author Robert Eugene Otto allegedly claimed that one of this family’s servants placed a voodoo curse on his childhood toy, Robert the Doll.
After a while, the family noticed that ”Robert the Doll” would move from room to room within the house.
When new owners moved into the home, the family also claimed that the doll disappeared and ”moved around” in the house.
Today, Robert the Doll is on display at the Custom House and Old Post Office in Key West, Florida.
9. The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is a 2005 American legal drama horror film directed by Scott Derrickson and loosely based on the story of Anneliese Michel. The film follows a self-proclaimed agnostic who acts as defence counsel representing a parish priest.
Anneliese Michel apparently lost control over her body and doctors ended up diagnosing her with grand mal seizures.
However, her behaviour progressed to attacking family members, drinking her own urine and freaking out over religious objects.
She died in 1976 of pneumonia before another exorcism could be performed on her.
There is still debate over whether she was actually possessed.
8. The Girl Next Door (2007)
This one might be the most-upsetting horror film to come to life.
The movie is based on two teenage girls who go to live with their aunt after their parents die. Instead of looking after them, she beats, tortures and holds them captive.
The woman is that mad that she makes her very own children rape the two girls.
The Girl Next Door is based on Sylvia Likens, who was left with a family friend while her parents travelled the world.
Sylvia was left with a woman called Gertrude Baniszewski, who performed the same type of torture methods on the girl and eventually Sylvia was left for dead.
Prosecutors on the case called it ”the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of Indiana”.
7. The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)
The Haunting in Connecticut is a 2009 American psychological horror film directed by Peter Cornwell.
The film is alleged to be about Carmen Snedeker and her family. The film follows the fictional Campbells as they move into a house (a former mortuary, not creepy at all) to mitigate the strains of travel on their cancer-stricken son, Matthew. The family soon becomes haunted by violent and traumatic events from supernatural forces occupying the house.
In real-life, the family of Carmen Snedeker reported incidents in their Connecticut home during the 1980s.
It was said that the real-life incident was ”much, much scarier than any movie could ever be”.
6. The Entity (1982)
The Entity stars Barbara Hershey as a woman who is raped and tormented by an invisible assailant. The attack causes the woman to flee with her children to the home of her friend Cindy.
Back in 1974, a woman named Doris Blither claimed that she was assaulted by otherworldly beings. Some laughed in her face and didn’t take her seriously.
However, two paranormal investigators, Barry Taff and Kerry Gaynor, investigated the case and found evidence of strange goings on in their home – including balls of light floating about.
5. Open Water (2003)
The film Open Water focuses on two scuba divers who become stranded in shark-infested waters after their tour group accidentally leaves them behind.
The real-life inspiration comes from Tom and Eileen Lonergan, who were stranded at sea when their tour group left them behind while scuba diving near the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1998.
When the diving company realised two days later that the couple were missing, they organised a search party. Unfortunately, the couple was never found.
The only thing that was found was a diver’s slate with an S.O.S message on it that read:
“[Mo]nday Jan 26; 1998 08am. To anyone [who] can help us: We have been abandoned on A[gin]court Reef by MV Outer Edge 25 Jan 98 3 pm. Please help us [come] to rescue us before we die. Help!!!”
4. The Conjuring (2013)
The Conjuring is actually based on real-life paranormal investigator’s Ed and Lorraine Warren and their experience with Perrons, a family who moved to Rhode Island farmhouse and experienced ghostly occurrences and disturbances in 1971.
Director James Wan told Entertainment Weekly:
“When Insidious came out and was successful the story about the Warrens came to me and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is really cool’.
“But I didn’t just want to make another ghost story or another supernatural film. One thing I had never explored was the chance to tell a story that’s based on real-life characters, real-life people. So those were the things that led me to The Conjuring.”
Real-life folks Ed and Lorraine Warren did indeed help a family with their haunted farmhouse and also investigated the home that inspired The Amityville Horror.
3. Pyscho (1960)
Norman Bates in Psycho is loosely based on the convicted murderer and grave robber, Ed Gein.
Gein killed women and unearthed corpses in Wisconsin and also fashioned human skin into tiny keepsakes and knickknacks, such as face masks, belts and chair coverings.
Author Robert Bloch based Norman Bates on Ed Gein but changed the character from a robber to a serial killer and psychopath, who dressed like his mother!
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs are also based on real-life serial killers.
2. The Amityville Horror (1979)
The Amityville Horror is an American supernatural horror film that focuses on a young couple who purchase a home they come to find haunted by combative supernatural forces.
The story is based on the alleged experience of the Lutz family who bought a new home on 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York. This home belonged to a mass murderer who had been committed the year before.
Ronald DeFeo, Jr. had brutally murdered his family 13 months before they arrived. The family claimed that they saw green slime on the walls and red-eyed pigs staring into their kitchen and living room.
After only a month in their new home, the family moved out of the small town of Amityville.
1. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Wes Craven based A Nightmare on Elm Street on a series of newspaper articles from the LA Times about a strange phenomenon where young Asian refugees would mysteriously die in their sleep.
One of the articles was based on a physician who was given sleeping pills and was told to take them. Despite all efforts, the sleeping pills didn’t work and he stayed awake for several days straight.
Finally, the man fell asleep while watching TV. During the night, however, his family started to hear screams and crashing noises. The family ran into his room and by the time they got to him, he was dead.
An autopsy was performed, which confirmed no heart attack or a cause of death. Doctors simply said that there was no cause or reason for his death.
His family found a coffee-maker in his closet, as well as the sleeping pills that he never took in the end.
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