There are A LOT of horror gems out there, many the result of a twisted creative genius
with an obsession with the macabre, but others have very real truths surrounding them, such
as the ones we’ve listed for you today.
Hey guys, welcome back to Top 5 Scary Videos, I’m your host Lucy McPhee, and today I’m
joined by a very special, and familiar guest, Kelly Paoli.
Say Hi Kelly!
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Right, now that’s covered, let’s jump into our list of the Top 5 Scary Real Life
Horror Stories That Inspired Movies.
5 Open Water In 1998 an American couple, Tom and Eileen
Lonergan went scuba diving with a tour group near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
However, they did not return.
Nearing the end of the session the diving company miscounted the number of divers on
board, abandoning the couple in the middle of the ocean, only to realize the grave mistake
they made 2 days later.
By this point, Tom and Eileen, were gone, the only remains being a diver’s slate with
an S.O.S message that read, “Monday Jan 26th”1998, 8am.
To anyone who can help us” we have been abandoned on a gin court reef by MV outer
edge 25 jen 98 3pm.
Please help us, come to rescue us before we die.
Help!!!”
Now, the film that this story inspired was the 2003 horror Open Water, directed by Chris
Kentis.
It follows the same premise, 2 American divers abandoned at sea and forced to survive, not
just the deadly waters, but the creatures within it.
If you have a fear of water, open spaces, sharks, or have abandonment issues, I don’t
recommend you watch this film.
4 Child’s Play In 1909, Robert Eugene Otto claimed a servant
of his family had placed a curse on his childhood doll, and that it would go from room to room,
banging on doors, knocking over furnitures and would even conduct conversations.
The doll was left in the attic until Otto’s death in 1974, and when new owners moved in
it wasn’t long until they themselves started questioning the mysteries surrounding the
dolls.
The doll, famously known as Robert the Doll, is displayed at Key West Fort East Martello
Museum.
Now of course we all known the film in question that this devious doll inspired was Child’s
Play, aka the creepy, overall wearing, knife wielding, Chucky.
That bastard.
Child’s Play is a slasher released in 1988 and directed by the legendary Tom Holland.
It follows a serial killer, Charles Lee Ray, on the run from homicide detectives, and when
he is fatally shot in a toy shop he uses a Voodoo spell to transfer his soul into a “Good
Guys” dolls, thus creating Chucky.
Take a look.
3 Psycho During the late 1950’s a grave robber named
Ed Gein, killed women and unearthed corpses in Plainfield Wisconsin.
He gained infamy after authorities discovered he was fashioning trophies and keepsakes from
the bodies he murder and exhumed.
From a wastebasket made of human skin, to bowls made of human skulls, his crimes were
rupungent.
He was found guilty in 1968 and was remanded to a psychiatric facility.
He would later die in 1984 from cancer-induced liver failure at the age of 77.
Now, there are a handful of films inspired by the crimes of Ed Gein, but the most notable
is arguably the 1960’s psychological horror, Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
The film follows Marion Crane, a secretary seeking shelter at a secluded motel, and suffers
a grim fate at the hands of a delusional killer, Norman Bates.
The film was a trailblazer for the slasher genre, and during its release depicted unprecedented
acts of violence and sexuality, because seeing a women and a man sharing the same bed was
completely unfounded apparently.
Anyway, the film went on to be arguably Hitchcock’s most successful film, even resulting in three
sequels, a remake, a made-for-television-spin-off, and a prequel television series.
Only one of those we’re allowed to discuss, the others should be burned and never spoken
of again.
2 A Nightmare On Elm Street In the 1970’s a series of newspaper articles
were printed in the Los Angeles Times about a group of Southeast Asian refugees who were
suffering disturbing nightmare were refusing to sleep after fleeing to the United States
to escape the war and genocide in Cambodia and Vietnam.
A few of the refugees died in their sleep and the name Asian Death Syndrome was quickly
coined.
It oddly only affected men between the ages of 19 - 57 and doctors summed it up as sudden
unexplained death syndrome or Brugada Syndrome.
Craven stated that the newspapers never correlated the three articles, and stated “ the third
one was the son of physician.
He was about 21.
Everybody in his family said almost exactly these lines : “You must sleep.
He said, “No you don’t understand; I’ve had nightmare before -- this is different”.
Sound familiar?
Well this quickly inspired Craven to start writing up his masterpiece, A Nightmare On
Elm Street, a film that follows a group of teenagers plagued by the same nightmare, a
man covered in burns and wielding knives for fingers, Freddy Krueger.
In the film, the dreams the teens have come to life, if Freddy slashes you in your nightmare
you ain’t coming back.
I doubt this is what happened to the refugees, but it’s a creepy theory.
The film was such a hit it resulted in 6 sequels, a Friday the 13th crossover, and a 2010 remake
of the original.
1 The Exorcist In 1949 The Washington post headlined an article
“Priest Frees Mt.Rainier Boy reportedly held in Devil’s grip”.
It went on to details a rite of exorcism on the boy with the pseudonym, “Roland Doe”.
The priests who administered the exorcism reported that the boy spoke in tongues, as
well as the bed shaking and hovering above the ground.
The exorcism was one of only 3 that the Catholic Church officially sanctioned in the United
States.
William Peter Blatty was inspired by the article and immediately began to write his novel,
and following that the screenplay for The Exorcist.
The film itself follows a young girl, Ragan, who after playing with a ouija board, and
communicating with an entity named Captain Howdy, becomes possessed.
The film is a distressing watch as we witness the young girl walk backwards on her hands
down the stairs, stab herself repeatedly with a crucifix, and
even twist her head completely around.
An exorcism is administered and we watch on as two priests are tormented by the demon
within the child.
William Friedkin the director of the film discussed the true events that inspired the
film, stating that, “Maybe one day they’ll discover what happened to the young man, but
back then, it was only curable by an exorcism.
His family weren’t even catholics, they were Lutheran.
They started with doctors and then psychiatrist, and then psychologists and then they went
to their minister who couldn’t help them.
And they wound up with the Catholic church.”
For those who have seen the film you’ll know this is the same journey Ragan goes on,
successfully adding to the films fear factor.
When no credible doctor can come up with any feasible explanation, and the only cure is
an exorcism, it’s a frightening feeling for the audience.
It makes it feel like this could happen to anyone.
Back to the newspaper article though, Friedkin lastly went on to state, “It’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.”
Well there have it!
What did you guys think?
Have you seen all of these movies?
Were there any we missed?
Leave us all your thoughts and feelings and the comments down below and perhaps we can
do a part 2.
A big thank you to Kelly Paoli for joining us today!
Question for you though...what’s the name of this channel?
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See ya later.