• From voodoo possessed children’s toys to the murderer who inspired almost every
horror villain we look at 15 chilling true stories that inspired horror movies.
15 – Hard Candy, • The story of a young girl luring a cyber
predator into a trap and torturing him is based is some fact surprisingly.
• The real world inspiration did not have to do with paedophile predators but Japanese
girls luring salarymen into dark alleys and beating the crap out of them jeez, that’s
embarrassing for them.
• Next time you see a kawaii school girl beckoning you into a dark corner you should
probably stay away… actually what are doing following schoolgirls into alleys anyway you
creep?
14 – The Exorcist, • Truth to the whole being possessed by
ancient demons and even the devil himself, surely it must only be the imagination of
Hollywood screenwriters.
• Well see The Exorcist was based on a book that was based on an account of an exorcism
performed by two catholic priests of a young boy named Roland Doe which took 30 attempts.
The reports say the boy was violent, spoke Latin and even had the words hell and evil
appear on his skin.
• At least there was no report of his head turning 360 degrees around his neck, not even
demons could be that cruel… that one is on the evil screenwriter.
13 – Child’s Play, • Okay I know what you are thinking, how
could a possessed doll be based on anything factual?
Killer dolls aren’t real at all.
• Well yeah you got me there but someone using voodoo on your childhood sailor doll
is.
Or at least that’s how the true story goes for author Robert Otto who pissed off the
wrong person and cursed the doll.
The doll was suspect of night time creepiness through Robert’s childhood, even allegedly
telling the boy it wanted his name.
Robert the doll was born.
• Robert the doll is now a key guest at paranormal conventions with quite the infamous
history behind him.
So Chucky is real if you aren’t a sceptic that is.
12 – 247 Degrees F, • So if you took one of those final destination
death traps and made the whole film about it you would have this film.
• Essentially what happens is a group of people become trapped inside a sauna and have
to escape…which is exactly what happened to three friends who got locked in when their
friend went to the toilet and then decided to head home…not realising he locked them
all in….or did he?
• Seeing as no one was killed probably not part of a murder plan but let’s say you
wouldn’t want to be locked in a deadly hot room with that guy any time soon
11 – I Spit on your Grave, • For many years and still to this day this
film has been called the epitome of the rape/revenge genre and it’s based on a real rape.
• Meir Zarchi who wrote and directed the film got the inspiration when while out walking
one night stumbled upon a rape victim who he helped to the police station.
After seeing the way she was treated by the police Zarchi got the idea of someone taking
justice into their own hands.
• So while people might call this film horribly sexist it was made it with the intention coming
from a good place at least…I guess best intentions don’t matter when you shoot one
of the most brutal rape scenes of all time.
10 – The Town that Dreaded Sundown, • This little known slasher flick is two
things, underrated and based on a very true real life murderer who was never caught.
• The film is your standard slasher fair about a masked killer terrorising 1940’s
Texas which happened with the Texarkana Moonlight Murders where the ‘Phantom Killer’ murdered
8 people over ten weeks.
The killer was never caught but police arrested 400 suspects which basically translates to
“We have no goddamn idea who it is”.
• Widespread panic was over the town and surrounding areas meaning they really did
dread sundown.
Hey at least the film didn’t take the lazy way out and just call it’s self ‘the phantom
killer’ or ‘Moonlight Murders’. 9 – Snowtown,
• Australia: home of beautiful beaches, very drunk men, dangerous wildlife and bank
vaults with bodies in barrels just waiting to be found.
• Snowtown while clearly based on a true story from the get go doesn’t diminish the
chilling nature of the murders carried out between 1992 and 1999 in the South Australian
town.
The group of killers led by James Bunting killed 11 people after torturing them and
then using barrels to store the bodies.
• But that’s not the worst thing you could find in a barrel in Australia, the whole thing
could have been filled with redback spiders.
That would be terrifying.
8 – Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, • This gritty and dark look into the mind
of serial killer was surely just made up in the mind of some sick twisted person right?
• Close it definitely was from the mind of a sick twisted person, that meaning it
was based on the stories of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas who may have murdered anywhere
between 11 and 3,000 people depending on who you believe.
• Of course is doesn’t matter how many people Lucas killed, either way it’s a pretty
disturbing look into the mind of a real life killer being played by Daryl’s evil brother
from The Walking Dead.
7 – A Nightmare on Elm Street, • Okay so burned child murdering demons
are now something to be afraid of or at least dying in the middle of a nightmare about one
is.
• Wes Craven got the idea for the wise crackin’ nightmare demon from an article that detailed
the deaths of a group of Cambodian Immigrants in their sleep which mythological has been
attributed to sleep demons.
But in reality it’s a genetic condition involving body rhythms or something.
• So while you can always die suddenly in your sleep at least it won’t be proceeded
by some horrific body mutilation and a lame pun.
6 – The Blob, • What?
The amorphous alien creature that ate human beings before being stopped by Steve McQueen’s
good looks was real?
• No it wasn’t but part of the story was based off a real event.
In 1950 police officers followed up on a reported meteorite fall and found an alien looking
jelly that while not consuming all humanity did suddenly dissolve and freak people out
giving rise to the carnivorous blob of movie fame.
• While this meteorite jelly is apparently fairly common when it comes to space jelly
it’s only a matter of time before we are all devolved by grape flavoured meteorite
goo. 5 – The Girl Next Door,
• One of the most notorious torture porn movies of the last decade is based on true
events because people are fucking monsters.
• The film is about a young woman being tortured in the basement of her suburban neighbours
which more or less happened to 16 year old Sylvia Likens in Indiana way back in 1965.
Sylvia was tortured by Gertrude Baniszewsk and her children until
she was killed.
• If anyone tries to convince you things were better in the past just remind them that
people were still fucked up enough to think family basement torture was a great bonding
activity.
4 – Wolf Creek, • Oh the Australian outback, if all the
venomous snakes don’t kill you then sure as hell some weird guy in a flannel shirt
will.
• One of the biggest horror films to come from down under is actually inspired by real
life serial killer Ivan Milat who murdered at least 7 people in the outback, mostly backpackers.
Milat would essentially kidnap the travels and torture them to death.
• So next time you plan a trip to the land down under remember two things….don’t
hitchhike and don’t trust kangaroo’s…those bastards will beat your ass down.
3 – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, • This one won’t be a surprise because
the series has played up the “True story” element waaayy too much.
• Truth is the film is based on a true story but that’s if you count there being no chainsaw
and no massacre as true.
Leatherface and the house were based mostly on notorious killer Ed Gein who would dig
up corpses and take the remains.
Constructing masks and furniture from the skin and bones he harvested.
• So no you don’t have to worry about someone in a mask made of human flesh chasing
you with a chainsaw…but you should probably get cremated if you don’t want someone making
a couch from your spine.
2 – Jaws, • Yes a movie series about a murderous shark
that sometimes wants to get revenge is based on a true story.
Kinda….Not really.
• Jaws it’s self is based on a book by author Peter Benchley who in turn based his
book off the story of a fisherman who caught a great white shark off the coast of Long
Island in 1964.
Along with this the novel also incorporated various shark attacks though history.
• So while a shark being blown up by an air canister may not be true, real life did
help inspire much of the concept behind the killer sea creature just like real life inspired
Quint’s drinking problem as well…
1 – Psycho, • Everyone’s least favourite momma’s
boy was in fact based on a real person who we have actually already talked about.
• That’s right the same guy who inspired Leatherface also inspired the creation of
Norman Bates.
Ed Gein not only loved digging up dead bodies but also had an unhealthy obsession with his
dead mother’s corpse.
• While we don’t know if Gein loved to dress in his mother’s clothes as much as
Bates did we do know that he was constructing a female skin suit to “get inside his mother’s
skin”….Jeez that’s a lot worse.