- Scary films are a popular genre with many people,
but what makes them tolerable
is that they are fiction, right?
The horrendous atrocities and gory details of these films
could not have possibly happened in real life, or did they?
(evil laughing)
(chainsaw roaring)
Here are 10 horror films based on real events.
Number 10 is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Released in 1974, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre
told the story of a twisted group of killers
terrorizing a bunch of teenagers.
And what's worse is that it was based on a true event.
To be more specific, it was actually based on two events.
The first is well-documented.
In 1957, Ed Gein, a loner who lived on a Wisconsin farm,
brutally murdered a woman called Bernice Worden.
He also dug up corpses from a nearby graveyard.
When the police arrived at his farm,
they discovered that he had made a suit
from his victims' skin which he would actually wear.
This grisly discovery became the basis for Leatherface
in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Another influence on the film was the legend of Sawney Bean,
a man who led a Scottish clan
sometime between the 13th and 16th centuries.
They reportedly ate over 1,000 people.
And if you thought these stories were disturbing,
we've just begun.
Number nine is The Entity.
The Entity was originally released as a novel back in 1978
and then made into a film four years later.
It tells the story of a woman who is terrorized
by a malevolent spirit in her own home.
The film is based on a true event
known as the Doris Bither case.
This was an alleged haunting in California
in the early-1970s, where Doris Bither claimed
that she was attacked in her bed each night
by three supernatural entities.
The case was investigated by Barry Taff and Kerry Gaynor,
who both photographed orbs
and documented other strange phenomena.
However, the most terrifying of these
was when Doris attempted to summon the entity
by swearing and shouting into thin air.
Reportedly, a green mist formed in the corner of the room
and the outline of a man could be seen within it.
Take this as a lesson:
The paranormal are not something you want to provoke.
Number eight is Open Water.
The 2003 film Open Water explored a horrific situation:
being stranded in the sea, surrounded by man-eating sharks.
While being a low-budget film,
Open Water did well at the box office and enticed audiences
with its based-on-real-events claim.
Those events surrounded the disappearance
of Thomas and Eileen Lonergan in 1998.
While diving in the Australian Great Barrier Reef,
they were separated from their diving group,
which left the area without them.
And no one noticed they had disappeared
until two days later.
Their bodies were never recovered
and only some diving equipment
and a diving slate were ever found.
The slate, which is used to write messages
between divers underwater, gave their location at the time
and had a scrawled message pleading for help.
It's not known exactly what happened to the couple,
but it's a good guess that they either drowned
or were eaten by sharks.
Number seven is It.
Stephen King's It is such a popular horror story
that it's been adapted into a film twice.
But while the story of Pennywise the Clown
terrorizing the children of a small town
continues to captivate audiences around the world,
they may be surprised to learn that this supernatural tale
may have been inspired by a real event.
Some argue that Stephen King was influenced
by the serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
Arrested in 1978, Gacy murdered at least 33 teenage boys
and young men over a six-year period
and was referred to by many as the Killer Clown.
This is because Gacy often attended children's parties
dressed as Pogo the Clown.
This horrific tale reminds us
that sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction.
Number six is Wolf Creek.
The 2005 Australian horror film Wolf Creek
was marketed as being based on real events.
Though the filmmakers were never actually able
to say what those events were for legal reasons,
many have speculated that Wolf Creek
was based on the crimes of two horrific murders.
In the film, three backpackers
are traveling across the Australian Outback
and encounter a twisted killer.
This is very similar to the accounts
of Ivan Milat's murders during the 1990s.
He would kidnap foreign backpackers
and bury the remains in a nearby large forest.
Another true-life case cited as an influence on Wolf Creek
is that of Bradley Murdoch,
who murdered an English backpacker named Peter Falconio.
They encountered each near a place called Barrow Creek,
but Falconio's girlfriend was able to escape
into the wilderness.
Peter's body has never been found.
Number five is Ravenous.
The Western horror film Ravenous was released in 1999
and is sad to have been based on
the macabre confessions of Alfred Packer.
In the film, a lieutenant in the United States Army
is sent to rescue a group of people
trapped in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada.
When he finds what's left of the group,
it turns out that they had resorted to cannibalism.
While this is happening, those nearby are warned
about the curse of the Wendigo,
that those who eat human flesh will crave it forever,
and that one of the survivors of the group
may have already consumed human flesh.
In reality, Alfred Packer, during April of 1874,
traveled with five prospectors looking for gold in Utah.
Only Packer even returned and it was soon discovered
that he'd eaten the other men.
Number four is Fire in the Sky.
1993's Fire in the Sky depicts the alleged events
surrounding one of the most infamous
alien abduction cases of all time.
The film follows a group of loggers
who encounter a UFO in the White Mountains of Arizona.
The UFO abducts one of the men
and we see his terrifying experiences play out.
In the alleged true story,
a logger by the name of Travis Walton
was abducted by aliens on November 5th, 1975.
He claimed that he was taken from his truck
when a beam of light knocked him unconscious.
He then woke to find himself in a hospital-like room
with three alien creatures, aided by several humans,
performing experiments on him.
Travis then found himself five days later
walking along a highway
as the UFO flew off into the distance.
He was described by his family
as disturbed and never the same again.
Number three is Annabelle.
The 2014 film Annabelle is a prequel
to James Wan's The Conjuring series,
but this story of a haunted children's doll
was reportedly based on a real event.
Famous paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren
were called in to investigate
a bizarre case of doll possession.
A student nurse had contacted the couple,
claiming that her Raggedy Ann doll
was moving around on its own
and speaking to the nurse and her roommate.
Lorraine Warren, who claimed to be psychic,
told the nurse that the doll was possessed
by the spirit of a dead girl named Annabelle Higgins.
In order to protect others from its evil reach,
the Warrens took Annabelle and placed her
in their Museum of Occult in demonic artifacts.
Annabelle has now appeared in three movies
and has terrified millions of people,
alongside those who have experienced the real doll.
Number two is The Strangers.
Released in 2008, The Strangers follows the story
of a young couple who are hounded
by a group of masked killers for seemingly no reason.
However, the film was actually based on
two real-life events.
The most famous of these were the Manson Family murders.
These took place in 1969.
At the behest of their cult leader, Charles Manson,
his followers broke into a house in Beverly Hills
and killed those inside.
This included director Roman Polanski's pregnant wife,
Sharon Tate.
As Manson had instructed,
they were to totally destroy everyone in it
as gruesome as they possibly could.
And they certainly did that,
and the horrific crime influenced a number of films,
including The Strangers.
The director was also influenced by a chilling moment
when he was a child,
when a group of burglars came to the door of his home
while his parents were away.
And number one is The Exorcist.
Directed by William Friedkin, The Exorcist is often voted
the greatest horror film of all time.
It's also based on a real-life exorcism.
In the film, a 12-year-old girl named Regan
is possessed by a demon, perhaps even the devil himself.
An exorcism is then performed, with terrifying consequences.
The event which allegedly inspired the film
and the book before it
was the exorcism of a boy called Roland Doe in 1949.
His name was changed to protect his identity,
but those involved claimed that the demonic forces
moved objects around Roland
while he spoke in languages unfamiliar to him
and in a demonic voice.
While some things in The Exorcist were exaggerated,
the core elements of Roland's story are real,
which makes this film extra chilling.
So, those were 10 horror films based on real events.
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