15 terrifying horror films you (probably) didn’t know were based on true stories
If you think Psycho, The Conjuring, and Scream are terrifying, imagine living through the true stories that inspired them
Film Features The Amityville Horror
The only thing scarier than the horror movies Hollywood makes are the real-life stories that inspire them. For decades, horror films have thrived by using the all-too-common “based on a true story” label, or the less reliable “inspired by true events,” to create a fiction believable enough to sell tickets and make audiences white-knuckle their theater seat armrests. Terrifying classics like The Exorcist or Psycho owe their existence in large part to very real, and very unsettling, events that form the bedrock of their narratives. So as Halloween creeps around the corner, here are 15 horror movies (listed in order of release) based on (or at least inspired by) some real-life nightmare fuel.
This article originally published on October 19, 2022
72 Comments
during a (no pun intended) deadly winter.there is no possible pun involved here
Literally.(You know, the actual definition of the word “literally”.)
How much you want for a hand-made man-skin lampshade?
Lemme check Etsy.
So are we not gonna mention that the Warrens were at Amityville? Or that they, like the Lutzes, have been debunked just a shitload of times?
Preach. Please get ANYTHING Warren related off of lists like this. If the Warrens were involved, rest assured it’s not real. These people are despicable grifters, who made a career at the expense of innocent people dealing with unspeakable grief.
I have never paid money to watch anything associated with the Conjuring films. I’ve *seen* them. I just haven’t paid money.If they can be ripoff artists so can I.
Incidentally, the Conjuring stuff in particular I find upsetting because Lorraine *directly* financially benefited from them as a consultant. And I believe I read at the time that her company was a beneficiary of any sequels that might come from the first film. Obviously that has spawned a “universe” of movies. Fucking gross. I’ve had mixed feelings about Wan since the first shitty Saw movie (it’s cheap, shitty, half-assed exploitation that used Danny Glover’s fucking *rehearsal* footage ffs) and the Conjuring stuff hasn’t turned me positive on him.
Uhm, you’re acting like only the Warren’s ghost stories aren’t real, instead of….. you know….. all of them?
haha good point, and you’re right. The problem with the Warrens, and I wasn’t clear in my post, is that they are particularly disgusting because their approach is best described as “tell grieving people that their family members died at the hands of ‘malevolent spirits’ rather than suicide prompted by crushing depression and/or individuals suffering from profound mental problems (ala the Amity killer).”
Likewise, that kid in Washington probably needed 20 or 30 exorcisms because exorcisms are a fantasy, and an infinite number of them would be insufficient to treat whatever medical problem he was experiencing.
Oh yeah, totally fair.I am a horror hound and LOVE demonic/exorcism shit. Love it. But IRL I’m a fairly hardline skeptic. I have no time for people who believe in ghosts or angels or ESP or whatever.It does require a certain amount of cognitive dissonance, yes.
“It does require a certain amount of cognitive dissonance, yes.”Why…. would it…? Do you require ‘a certain amount of cognitive dissonance’ to watch LOTR because you don’t believe in elves and dwarves and magic?
Because of people’s real life beliefs and the consequences thereof. I’m not saying that NOBODY believes in elves and dwarves and magic. I’m a HUGE Tori Amos fan and my girl believes in faeries. That’s goofy. I love her dearly anyway, but c’mon. There aren’t really any negative consequences for her belief. Whereas there are a plenty of lunatic Christians whose belief in demons and possession has resulted in untreated mental illness, physical and emotional assault, etc. Belief in ghosts has lead to a lot of emotional manipulation of grieving loved ones.Basically I find it hard to fully enjoy supernatural fiction sometimes because I feel like it contributes to the proliferation of those beliefs IRL.
I feel compelled to add that this isn’t unique to my love of supernatural horror. I’m a believer in gun control and don’t think there’s any good reason to carry one. But I am an avid fan of John Woo and a lot of FPS games. Woody Allen is a monster but I own and will continue to watch several of his early films. I’m a pacifist who doesn’t believe that violence is ultimately effective as a tool for long term positive change. (Short term? I can be convinced.) But I love professional wrestling.Lots of things I enjoy in my entertainment I don’t believe are good IRL.
Oh, I love horror movies beyond other forms of entertainment, and I totally agree with the writer’s assertion that the Exorcist is one of the best movies ever made. But just because a newspaper reports on the superstitious hokum peddled by child-rapists, that doesn’t make it real.
Horror author Ray Garton, in his younger years, ghost-wrote a lot of Warren material. He has zero positive to say about those charlatans.
Do either of those things mean that Amityville Horror is not based on a true story?No? Then why would that be relevant?
Eddie Murphy had it right (as usual) about how simple most haunted house movies should really be.ETA: I see Kinja still isn’t allowing clips, so:
eddie murphy – delirious (get out) – YouTube
When you’re in a horror movie, you make poor decisions.It’s what you do.
Love that they break that out every year. “You’re breathing on me!” always makes me laugh no matter how many times I’ve seen it.
A bit of a ripoff of the This Is The End closet scene dialogue, but it is still funny for a good reason.
I wonder if that’s a Kinja issue or a YouTube rights issue.(or a whynotboth.gif issue)
If it was Youtube you’d get the “this video can only be watched on Youtube” link.
Ah, good point.
Whenever we’re watching a haunted house movie my BF and I play a game where we decide exactly how much haunting we would put up with for that house. The house Poltergeist? Zero haunting, its a boring ugly tract house. Not worth it. The houses in Changeling or The Uninvited? Those are great houses, we’d put up with a lot of haunting for those. The pipes in our apartment building already make a huge amount of noise around 4AM, so we pretty much live with the haunting from Changeling now.
Should really make the Gein entry a double with Texas Chainsaw, which influenced Leatherface and the furniture in the Sawyer’s house.
It’s fair to say that the Gein case influenced Silence of the Lambs as well.
The EGCU (Ed Gein Cinematic Universe) is quite extensive.
Came here to say this, Ed Gein inspired films is a genre unto itself
i thought the exorcist was based on a boy who was exorcised at SLU.
It was both, the “Roland Doe” case involved exorcisms at both Georgetown, and then after he moved away from Washington, at St Louis Universityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorcism_of_Roland_Doe
Can we all finally admit the truth here?Poltergeist was really directed by Spielberg. Is there ONE moment of that movie that doesn’t look like his handiwork? OK, since he was working on ET around the same time, at least lets admit that Hooper went by his storyboards shot for shot.
IDK the dripping face meat scene at least feels Hooper to me. Scarred me for life.
Melting faces, though? Spielberg.
Well, that settles it. Toby Hooper also directed Raiders..
Good point.
No.I’m sorry, but as long as Hooper isn’t around to say yes or no and Spielberg himself doesn’t comment, we cannot “admit the truth”. I don’t give a shit how many people who worked on the set make this claim, it’s still just hearsay.And frankly I don’t know why that shit matters to anyone but weird Spielberg stans anyway.Sincerely,A weird Tobe Hooper stan
Also, the Cenobytes in Hellraiser were based on Richard Nixon’s notorious cocaine-fueled leather parties.
Daphne du Maurier is such a good writer that she was inspired by an event that happened ten years after she published her story. What a talent!
I’ve read “Rebecca”, so I can tell you that Daphne du Maurier was not a good writer.
Like Regan (Linda Blair) in the movie, the boy her character is based on also played with a Ouija Board. Ultimately, two priests—like in the film—performed the rite of exorcism to save the boy’s soul. Unlike Regan, however, who only needed one exorcism, the boy required the ritual to be performed 20 to 30 times. *never sleeps again.
Uh, you realize exorcism is bullshit, right?
Doesn’t matter – bullshit or no would you want to go through that ritual 20-30 times?
The phrasing – especially the word “required” – makes it sound like the horror of that anecdote is the reality of demonic possession, rather than some superstitious parents allowing two priests to scream gibberish at their sick child for months.
The horror isn’t about being possessed by demons – the true terror is being raised in a family dumb enough and religiously fervent enough to believe that it’s true and every “bad” thing you do means you need to have a demon exorcised!Chills, man.
Such a situation would lead to the denial of personal responsibility, like the pastor’s wife in the old Flip Wilson joke: “The Devil made me do it!”
Sure, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t work. Well, this one probably didn’t, because they had to repeat it thirty times. But I’m sure some have. Let’s call it a sometimes effective pseudomedical spiritual practice. Just because witch doctors are bullshit doesn’t mean they don’t do some people some good, even if it’s all a placebo effect.I’ve been to my share of shamans. It’s like getting a check-up. You feel pretty good afterwards, most of the time.
You’re a fucking idiot
The Exorcist
becomes even scarier when you consider its story about a young
Washington D.C. girl possessed by a demon is closer to truth than
fiction.Inasmuch as anything can be based on something that is itself fiction. They performed the exorcism 20 or 30 times because exorcisms don’t actually do anything.
Same goes for all the other paranormal entries on this list.
“In Poltergeist, directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Steven Spielberg (and, somehow, rated PG)”The PG-13 rating was introduced two years after Poltergeist was released.
Headline needs quotes around True.
The Amityville Horror was based on a real hoax!
real hoax
This article is fucking garbage.
“Based on a true story” is a real stretch for basically all of these. Besides the ones that are based on the bullshit ramblings of known grifters (fuck the Warrens and the filmmakers who have extended their fame), 90% of these are just an example of a filmmaker hearing about a scary way to die and having that inspire a movie.Star Wars isn’t “based on a true story” just because George Lucas once read an article about how spaceships are cool.
The Stephen King/ Misery is a stretch, the rest I can buy“The Town that Dreaded Sundown” freaked me out as a kid just from the newspaper ads touting it as a “true story” (the Texarkana Moonlight killer)
I love that the Town That Dreaded Sundown was made by the same director as The Legend of Boggy Creek I and II.
He was not untalented especially at shooting wilderness scenes
He had a decent eye for sure! I think Boggy Creek II’s presence as a MS3K film says much more about his lack of writing talent than his directing talent. Town That Dreaded Sundown and Boggy Creek I were both written by Earl Smith and I think it’s clear that Smith was the narrative talent. (And while Chuck himself is mostly okay as the Doc character, his son is wooden and AWFUL.)
The cover of the VHS box for that movie alone scared me to death when I was a little kid. The white pillow case hood with the eyeholes cut out. I still won’t even drive through Texarkana.
The original The Town that Dreaded Sundown is streaming on prime video now. I might finally overcome my fear and watch it … maybe
Wes Craven has another one of his films based on a true story: The Hills Have Eyes was partially based on the Sawney Bean clan:
Sawney Bean – Wikipedia
Yep, Jaws was based on a shark in real life. And not totally based on an Ibsen play. Not at all. Never even heard of Enemy of the People…..
Where’s “The Entity”?Also, “Silence of the Lambs” is a horror movie now? Huh.
Yeah, I’ve bucked that notion, too, only to be obstinately told “yes it is!”What Gumb and Lecter do are horrific, but at no point in the movie do I ever feel horrified.The book, OTOH, scared the piss out of me.
Okay, I want to hear this argument.
…who in the world doesn’t know that Amityville is supposedly based on a “true” story?
The Conjuring is not based on a true story, unless the “true story” is “some people told some lies”
Really need to use the quotes when you say based on “true” stories because a lot of these are, at best, tangentially related Most of the once based on supernatural(ie ghosts) have been throughly debunked.
The Nightmare on Elm Street one wins. Holy sh*
I wouldn’t call Silence of the Lambs a horror film, more psychological thriller.
Surprised you didn’t include The Strangers, which was based on the 1981 Keddie Cabin Murders, which still terrify me to my very core.