What is more spine-chilling than the fact that the horror movie you are binging is based on true stories. The very idea of the existence of a true story that is too crafted in the form of horror movies is what true horror fans enjoy.
So, we’ve prepared a list of the best horror movies based on true stories and true events.
31 Best Horror Movies Based on True Stories:
31. The Haunting in Connecticut
- Director: Peter Cornwell
- Cast: Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen, Amanda Crew, Kyle Gallner
- IMDB Rating: 5.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 16%
About The Haunting in Connecticut:
This Peter Cornwell directed movie; The Haunting in Connecticut is supernatural horror movie. It is about a family who moves into an old house. Soon enough everyone in the family start experiencing paranormal activities and weird presence around them. Later they find out that the house used to be a funeral parlor earlier.
This spine-chilling movie is produced by Gold Circle Films and is supposedly based on true events experienced by Snedeker family. After the success of the film The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia, a sequel was also announced. However, it wouldn’t be a direct sequel to the movie.
30. Wolf Creek
- Director: Greg Mclean
- Cast: John Jarratt, Nathan Phillips
- IMDB Rating: 6.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 54%
About Wolf Creek:
With its ultra-violent depiction of Australian tourists being pursued and terrified in the Outback, Wolf Creek gave survival horror a significant boost. Greg McLean’s renowned horror film draws inspiration from a series of heinous events that occurred in his home country.
“The killer in Wolf Creek was based on two genuine Australian killers“, McLean told Starburst Magazine. The true story element is where he started – he’s a cross between Bradley Murdoch and Ivan Milat. So, it combines components of those historical personalities, as well as a lot of Australian archetypal characters and cultural mythology and weaves those characters together to create the character.
Milat and Murdoch were convicted and responsible for the deaths of several hikers during the period.
29. Annabelle (2014)
- Director: John R. Leonetti
- Cast: Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton, Alfre Woodard, Patrick Wilson, Miranda Otto, Brian Howe
- IMDB Rating: 5.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 29%
About Annabelle:
Given the completion of The Conjuring (2013), another film was developed based on Ed and Lorraine Warren’s paranormal investigations. Ed and Lorraine did explore a ghostly doll named Annabelle in reality, and the doll became a popular attraction to the couple’s now-closed paranormal museum.
The story recounted in the Annabelle film, on the other hand, is nearly a prologue to the “actual” tale of a student nurse and her roommate who were haunted by a Raggedy Ann doll they dubbed Annabelle, and it is also slightly influenced by the Manson family murders.
28. The Amityville Horror
- Director: Andrew Douglas
- Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Chloe Grace Moretz, Rachel Nichols, Jimmy Bennet
- IMDB Rating: 5.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 23%
About The Amityville Horror:
The Amityville Horror, perhaps the most renowned horror film based on horrible, apparently true events, has devoted more than four decades to bringing viewers night terrors with the narrative of a new couple and their home in Amityville, New York haunted by vengeful spirits. The actual Lutz family, the family depicted in The Amityville Horror claimed to have endured a destiny identical to that of their fictional counterparts four years before the film’s premiere.
When the family moved into an Amityville home one year after Ronald DeFeo Jr. slaughtered six of his family members there, they described a month of unusual sounds and even stranger images that eventually drove them from their residence.
However, the Lutz family used some major creative licenses in their study. Their allegations have been refuted in the years thereafter. Yes, there is no black ooze, ectoplasm, or nasty odors.
And, in particular, no cloven hoofprints in the snow. Given that there was no snow on the ground on the day the Lutz family experienced their paranormal activity. But leave it to Hollywood to not allow reality to get in the way of delivering their version of the story.
27. The Town that Dreaded Sundown
- Director: Charles B Pierce
- Cast: Charles B Pierce, Earl E Smith
- IMDB Rating: 6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 42%
About The Town that Dreaded Sundown:
A masked killer hunted, murdered, and terrified individuals in the twin cities of Texarkana, Texas, and Texarkana, Arkansas in the spring of 1946. The murderer attacked eight victims over 10 weeks, killing five of them. The majority of the murders, such as the Zodiac killer, occurred near lovers’ lanes.
The crimes were dubbed “The Texarkana Moonlight Murders” by the press, and the story was adapted for the big screen in Charles B. Pierce’s The Town That Dreaded Sundown. The two people who survived the Demon’s attacks could only describe him as being roughly 6 feet tall and dressed in a pillowcase with eye holes ripped out.
26. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
- Director: Scott Derrickson
- Cast: Jennifer Carpenter, Laura Linney
- IMDB Rating: 6.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 44%
About The Exorcism of Emily Rose:
This Emily Rose exorcism story is based on the true events of Anneliese Michel, a young woman of German who died from dehydration and hunger after 67 exorcisms were conducted on her over 10 months. Regrettably, Anneliese Michel was most likely merely suffering from mental health concerns.
Anneliese was born in 1952 in Germany into a devotedly Catholic family. She was hospitalized with severe depression and epilepsy insanity at the age of 16 in 1968 and was cured in psychiatric facilities unsuccessfully. She was suicidal by 1972. The Exorcist was released the next year.
Anneliese had convulsions and hallucinations, growled, and had “violent reactions” to religious items. Then she began seeing “demon faces” and hearing voices warning her she would perish in hell.
Lucifer, Cain, Judas, Nero, and Hitler, she claimed, seized her. Two priests started conducting exorcism on Anneliese in 1975. These harrowing sessions were taped and are still available on audio. She died of thirst and hunger in 1976, aged 24, following 67 exorcisms.
25. The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It
- Director: Michael Chaves
- Cast: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga
- IMDB Rating: 6.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 56%
The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It Plot:
This film is based on a historic case that the Warrens counseled on, which was the first time in U.S. history that someone attempted to build a defense based on demonic possession. The Glatzel family began to encounter hauntings after moving into a new home.
During an exorcism, family friend Arne “Cheyenne” Johnson urged the demon to possess him rather than the afflicted 8-year-old boy. Johnson murdered his landlord months later in a crime he claims he does not recall.
Hold on tight.
Own #TheConjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It now on Digital and Blu-ray. Click here to own: https://t.co/0B1uKsy3dP pic.twitter.com/sH81aYFJuE
— The Conjuring (@TheConjuring) August 26, 2021
24. A Killer in the Family
- Director: Richard T. Heffron
- Cast: Robert Mitchum, James Spader, Lance Kerwin,
- IMDB Rating: 6.7/10
A Killer in the Family Plot:
This made-for-television film is based on a true tale in which a father persuades his three sons to assist him and his cellmate in escape from prison. They certainly do. Surprisingly, at the time, inmates’ families were permitted to accompany them on picnics. The sons arrived with a cooler full of sawed-off shotguns and revolvers.
After escaping, things quickly spin out of control, as the prison-break plot escalates into even more violence, including a killing spree. Gary Tison is the genuine name of the father who started all of this, and the local Arizona newspaper offers an in-depth explanation of his life and misdeeds.
23. The Strangers
- Director: Bryan Bertino
- Cast: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman
- IMDB Rating: 6.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 48%
About The Strangers:
Bryan Bertino, the film’s writer/director, says he got inspiration to write The Strangers after a scary childhood incident in which someone came to the door and inquired about someone who didn’t live there (similar to the film’s “Is Tamara home?” sequence).
Bryan later found that numerous homes in his neighborhood had been looted, and he believes he spoke with someone who was scoping out his house. Bertino claims that elements of the Manson family killings inspired his writing, particularly the idea of people wanting to murder strangers “for no reason.”
22. Vacancy
- Director: Nimrod Antal
- Cast: Luke Wilson, Kate Beckinsale
- IMDB Rating: 6.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 55%
About Vacancy:
Vacancy (2008) follows a dissatisfied couple as they stay at a run-down country hotel in the midst of nowhere. While the narrative of finding the motel owner is part of a faux-documentary ring that is entirely made up and not based on any actual case, there is a true story of a motel owner who built crawlspaces in the ceiling above the rooms to spy on his visitors.
Gay Talese, a well-known writer, published a letter from a motel owner who claimed he watched on his guests for over 15 years.
21. The Untold Story
- Director: Herman Yau
- Cast: Anthony Wong, Danny Lee, Emily Kwan
- IMDB Rating: 6.9/10
About The Untold Story:
On August 4, 1985, ten individuals were slashed and brutally murdered inside a Chinese restaurant in Macau, all relatives of the family of a guy named Zheng Lin. Lin was the owner of the Eight Immortals restaurant, and he owed a large gambling problem to a guy who had left Hong Kong years before due to another gambling-related murder.
Huang Zhiheng, the assassin, claimed Zheng Lin and his family had fled the country, and he restored the Eight Immortals restaurant only days after the murders. Zhiheng managed the operation for months before apprehending by the police. The media coverage of the heinous crime and its aftermath spawned an urban legend in which people claimed that Zhiheng exploited the bodies of others.
Anthony Wong, a critically regarded actor, starred in The Untold Story (1993), a film based on the killings of the Eight Immortals. Wong portrays Wong Chi Hang (another spelling of Huang Zhiheng) as a frightening and crazy man with terrifying anger.
The film appears to recreate the killings quite correctly, capturing the essential aspects but sensationalizing the event with unsettling violence and a lot of gore. The film also focuses on the police team that is investigating the murders. The shenanigans of the cops lend a lot of fun to the film, making the violence feel even more unsettling.
20. Child’s Play
- Director: Tom Holland
- Cast: Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif
- IMDB Rating: 6.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 71%
About Child’s Play:
Remember Chucky, the terrible — but also rather amusing — killing doll? Robert the Doll, a real-life cursed doll, may have inspired that little fellow. Eugene Robert Otto, a small boy in the 1900s, gets a doll. The doll, like Chucky, ends up tormenting the youngster and other children who inherit it.
Now it’s in a museum and people claim it as a doll suffering from demonic possession. The personnel at the Key West location where the doll is kept claim weird occurrences such as changes in Robert’s facial expression, demonic cackling, and some have even seen Robert reach his hand up to the glass.
19. Eaten Alive
- Director: Tobe Hooper
- Cast: Marilyn Burns, Robert Englund, Mel Ferrer
- IMDB Rating: 5.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 33%
Eaten Alive Plot:
Tobe Hooper’s Eaten Alive (1976) is a kitschy exploitation film. The plot revolves around the proprietor of a run-down motel in Texas who kills and/or feeds his pet crocodile. Judd (Neville Brand), the proprietor, and the basic idea of Eaten Alive were influenced by a guy named Joe Ball, whose true misdeeds became an urban legend in portions of Texas.
After prohibition ended, Joe Ball built a pub in the little town of Elmendorf, Texas, according to Texas Monthly (near San Antonio). Ball’s bar was well-known in the area for its raucous customers as well as the live alligators Ball maintained in a pool outback. Mealtime for the alligators was a popular feature at the pub, and Ball was one of the regulars.
18. The Entity
- Director: Sidney J. Furie
- Cast: Barbara Hershey, George Coe, David Labiosa
- IMDB Rating: 6.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 67%
The Entity Plot:
The Entity (1982) is based on the 1974 case of Doris Bither, a mother of four who claimed she was sexually assaulted by the ghosts of three men. Doctoral students in parapsychology from the University of California, Los Angeles examined Bither, and they later acted as technical consultants for the film.
“The Entity Haunting” dubbed the case. Many dismiss it as a result of the Satanic fear caused by the success of The Exorcist, but the Ph.D. students documented the physical problems of Doris and her family members, as well as unusual light formations around the family.
Doris Blither’s son was pushed out across the room and broke his wrist as a result of the haunting, which is one of the oddest coincidences in The Entity case. During filming, the actor who played her son fractured his arm while acting out a scenario based on a true story.
The Entity is a well-received horror/thriller film from the 1980s that takes many liberties. Despite the sexual abuse, it is also a feminist story with an exceptionally powerful female lead by Barbara Hershey.
17. Fire in the Sky
- Director: Robert Lieberman
- Cast: Travis Walton, Robert Patrick
- IMDB Rating: 6.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 42%
About Fire in the Sky:
Fire in the Sky (1993), a movie inspired by true incident from the mid-1970s in Arizona. It seems implausible but numerous sources confirmed it. One can find all of the specifics in Travis Walton’s book, which describes his experience with an Extraterrestrial in 1975.
He and around a half-dozen other road crew members were blinded by a yellow beam of light, which was later determined to be a UFO. The other members ran when the thing struck Travis with a beam of light and seemed to kill him.
Travis, on the other hand, was discovered five days later, naked, shivering, and a dozen pounds lighter. He claimed to have been escorted onto the spaceship.
16. The Mothman Prophecies
- Director: Mark Pellington
- Cast: Richard Gere, Mark Pellington
- IMDB Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 52%
The film’s marketing aggressively stressed the fact that it was based on true events. But how genuine was it? Especially since this is a film about a mysterious monster who can make phone calls and predict the future?
About The Mothman Prophecies:
In Point Pleasant, West Virginia, there is an urban legend concerning a being known as the Mothman. However, no concrete evidence exists to support the existence of this paranormal entity.
The Mothman is a humanoid entity with bright red eyes and a 10-foot wingspan, according to legend. On November 15, 1966, it was originally spotted in Point Pleasant. The Mothman sightings stopped after a local accident happened on December 15, 1967, claiming 46 people.
15. The Clovehitch Killer
- Director: Duncan Skiles
- Cast: Dylan McDermott, Charlie Plummer
- IMDB Rating: 6.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
About The Clovehitch Killer:
The Clovehitch Killer is a fictional depiction of a family man who is also a serial killer. If you recognize any of the film’s elements, it’s because the character is based on the real-life BTK strangler who terrorized Wichita, Kansas between 1974 and 1991. Aside from the murders, Dennis Rader had a wife and children who were startled to learn he was a serial killer.
14. Targets
- Director: Peter Bogdanovich
- Cast: Peter Bogdanovich, Boris Karloff
- IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Targets Plot:
Targets is a crime thriller about a good-hearted insurance agent who embarks on a killing rampage and a famous horror actor who is thinking about retiring because people are no longer terrified of his horror movies because the news is so brutal.
About Targets:
The wholesome character is based on real-life serial killer Charles Whitman, a previous Eagle Scout, Marine, and engineering major who killed his mother and wife after setting up shop inside the University of Texas (UT Austin) clock tower. Whitman then went on a 96-minute shooting spree, killing 14 people and injuring 31 others.
According to Quentin Tarantino, Target is “still one of the most powerful pleas for gun regulation in American cinema”.
The film isn’t a drama with a social commentary buried within (as is typical of Corman), but a social analysis with a thriller concealed inside. It was one of the most moving pictures of 1968, as well as one of the best directorial debuts of all time. And, in my opinion, the greatest film ever made by Roger Corman.
13. The Poltergeist
- Director: Tobe Hooper
- Cast: Heather O Rourke, JoBeth Williams
- IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Steven Spielberg wrote the story for The Poltergeist (1982) and Tobe Hooper is the director. Spielberg claims he came up with the idea as a follow-up to his film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Instead of danger from the skies, a lovely neighborhood childhood home was the cause of horror this time.
The Poltergeist Plot:
This cult classic is based on the true story of Long Island, New York residents James Herrmann and Lucille Hermann in 1958. When the Herrmann family moved into a new home, they saw genuine poltergeist activity, such as bottle caps “popping” off of jars at random and bookcases tumbling over for no apparent cause. Inviting a clergyman to sanctify the house exacerbated the situation.
12. Borderland
- Director: Zev Berman
- Cast: Rider Strong, Sean Astin
- IMDB Rating: 5.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
“Borderland” is based on the real events of horrifying killings perpetrated and directed by Adolfo Constanzo; a Palo Mayombe practitioner who led a cult known as the Narcosatanists. Constanzo performed human sacrifice in his practice of Palo Mayombe (an established African religion) to nourish his nganga, a unique cauldron that he claimed protected his band from harm – see, they were not only cultists but also prodigious drug smugglers. Constanzo is responsible for 15 verified deaths, though the figure moves far higher.
Borderland Plot:
“Borderland” is loosely based on the account of actual events surrounding a victim Mark Kilroy, an American scholar who was abducted, tormented, and ritualistically slain to keep the Narcosatanists from being arrested by the authorities.
It also closely follows Palo Mayombe’s ceremonies and practices, preferring to describe the religion instead of reducing or deleting it to make the video more appealing to a wider audience. The presence of Palo Mayombe in “Borderland” heightens the film’s terror, as spectators recognize that these are real-life customs.
11. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile
- Director: Joe Berlinger
- Cast: Zac Efron, Lilly Collins
- IMDB Rating: 6.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 71%
About Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile:
This Netflix Original chronicles the story of Ted Bundy, one of America’s most heinous serial killers. The book of Ted Bundy’s long-term lover, Elizabeth Kendall, acts as the principal source material for the film, which Michael Werwie scripted.
The book is The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy, and you can buy it on Amazon to give the film additional context about what stands dramatized and what is true. It also contains disturbing images of Elizabeth and her daughter’s lives with Ted. The film is incredibly unsettling and does an excellent job of depicting what it would be like to be a young single mother connected with a predator such as Ted Bundy.
10. The Conjuring
- Director: James Wan
- Cast: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Joey King, Shannon Kook, Lili Taylor
- IMDB Rating: 7.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 68%
The Conjuring Plot:
Ed and Lorraine Warren were paranormal investigators who provided advice on the Amityville Terror case. They also became interested in another real-life case involving a supposedly haunted property in Rhode Island held by the Perron family. Lorraine Warren remains adamant that the apparition was real to this day:
Andrea Perron, the eldest of five girls, eventually came out to explain that The Conjuring took certain liberties with reality, but that she had experienced a demon known as Bathsheba. Bathsheba Sherman, it turns out, had resided at the house inside the mid-1800s. What are the chances?
9. Candyman (1992)
- Director: Bernard Rose
- Cast: Tony Todd, Virginia Madsen
- IMDB Rating: 6.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 78%
About Candyman:
Candyman is a paranormal horror film about a ghostly whose name is “Candyman” that appears when you pronounce his name 5 times in a glass. Although the film gets inspiration by a Clive Barker short tale in Liverpool, the setting moved to Chicago for the film.
The Cabrini-Green Housing Project, by chance, was the site of a real-life murder of a lady called Ruthie Mae McCoy. An attacker entered McCoy’s flat through the bathroom mirror, which linked to the adjacent apartment, and killed her.
8. River’s Edge
- Director: Tim Hunter
- Cast: Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hooper
- IMDB Rating: 6.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
About River’s Edge:
In Northern California, a group of delinquent youths hears their friend confess to murdering his lover. The group divides, with some swearing allegiance to the murderer and others lamenting the loss of the dead girl. “He walked in the door, and I went, ‘Oh my gosh, this is my boy!'” recalled the casting director of Keanu Reeves.
The controversial crime thriller was based on the true tale of Marcy Renee Conrad’s rape and murder in Silicon Valley in 1981. Her 16-year-old boyfriend raped and strangled the 14-year-old before abandoning her in a gully.
Her boyfriend then returned with pals, thinking seeing her lifeless body might interest them. Anthony Jacques Broussard, the boyfriend, remains imprisoned.
7. Dead Ringers
- Director: David Cronenberg
- Cast: Jeremy Irons, Genevieve Bujold
- IMDB Rating: 7.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
Dead Ringers Review:
Dead Ringers (1988) is a disturbing film. Stewart and Cyril Marcus, identical twin gynecologists who practiced together in New York City, inspired David Cronenberg’s film. In Cronenberg’s adaptation, the twins exchange women, switch positions during surgery and engage in other unsettling activities.
Consider this film to be a cross between American Psycho (2001) and the television show Nip/Tuck, but now with twins. Cronenberg’s version is fictitious, but the bizarre climax, in which the twins isolate themselves from society and die from what appears to be a suicide attempt or barbiturate withdrawal, is based on truth. However, Stewart and Cyril Marcus were unusual people in real life, and some who knew them believed the truth about these twins maybe even crazier.
6. Scream (1996)
- Director: Wes Craven
- Cast: Neve Campbell, Mathew Lillard, Courtney Cox
- IMDB Rating: 7.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
About Scream:
Scream a scary movie, is based on a genuine story, not on a pair of high school serial killers terrorizing their classmates. In August 1990, the community of Gainesville, Florida, was thrown into a frenzy after a serial murderer perpetrated a string of particularly heinous killings over four days. The Gainesville Ripper was later apprehended and identified as Danny Rolling, who also slaughtered an entire family in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Kevin Williamson, a writer, and aspiring actor were housesitting in Los Angeles in 1995 when he saw an episode of the tabloid news show Turning Point about Jack the Ripper. Williamson, who was alone in a strange home, sought to divert himself by contacting a buddy.
Their topic shifted to horror films and which ones they like. Williamson hung up the phone and penned 18 pages about a woman discussing horror movies on the phone with a serial murderer. Scream’s opening scene gets inspiration by this.
5. Nightmare on Elm Street
- Director: Wes Craven
- Cast: Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, John Saxon
- IMDB Rating: 7.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
About Nightmare on Elm Street:
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a horror movie based on a novel of the same name (1984). Wes Craven, the late creator of Nightmare on Elm Street, disclosed to Vulture that the notion of kids being haunted in their sleep by Freddy Krueger arose from reading a real-life article in the Los Angeles Times about a Cambodian family whose little son suffered from terrible, vivid night terrors.
“He told his parents he was frightened the creature hunting him would get him if he slept, so he tried to remain awake for days at a time,” Craven recounted in an oral history of his legendary film.
This young lad in real life, like most of the youths on Elm Street, died in his sleep, most likely as a result of Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome rather than a ghoul wearing a mask with knife gloves.
4. Silence of Lambs (1991)
- Director: Jonathan Demme
- Cast: Sir Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Ted Levine
- IMDB Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
About Silence of Lambs:
Silence of the Lambs, the only horror film to win Best Picture, established Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter a terrifying household name while bringing Thomas Harris’ bestseller and the true crime cases that inspired it into the national spotlight.
Based on Harris’ novel, Ted Tally’s Oscar-nominated script created serial killer Buffalo Bill by combining various real-life FBI investigations. Ted Bundy, like Bill, pretended his injury to attract his victims. Bundy, like Lecter, also assisted in the creation of a criminal profile to aid in the capture of the prolific Green River Killer.
What about Bill’s infamous torture pit in the basement of his house? That part of Agent Clarice Starling’s prey links to real-life serial killer Gary Heidnik, who murdered and tortured six victims in Philadelphia.
3. The Conjuring 2
- Director: James Wan
- Cast: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Madison Wolfe, Patrick McAuley, Lauren Esposito
- IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
The Conjuring 2 is the second installment of the supernatural horror film series, in a genre rife with sequels and spin-offs. The film follows real paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren on another investigation in Enfield, 1977.
The Conjuring 2 Plot:
Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators, arrive in London in 1977 to aid the Hodgsons. Peggy Hodgson seeks help after fearing her girl is haunted, and her four children are plagued by mysterious incidents as a malevolent demon takes control of Janet, her second eldest child.
However, there is something more dangerous, not only for the inhabitants, as well as for the investigator-couple, which they could never have predicted.’
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- Director: Tobe Hooper
- Cast: Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen, Teri Mcminn, William Vail
- IMDB Rating: 7.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
About The Texas Chainsaw Massacre:
Talking about Slasher scary movies based on true stories, Tobe Hooper’s seminal horror movie, partially based on the real-life and actions of serial killer Ed Gein, seized on Gein’s renowned escapades to help create one of the genre’s most iconic and scary figures: Leatherface.
Leatherface was front and center on the film’s marketing campaign, wearing a mask of raw human flesh similar to the ones worn by Gein’s lamps at home (cringe), as was a “based on factual events” appellation used to draw a wider audience. Even though the plot is nearly fiction, despite the famous tagline, it’s no less horrifying that key plot specifics can link to real-life disasters.
1. The Exorcist
- Director: William Friedkin
- Cast: Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow
- IMDB Rating: 8.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 84%
The Exorcist Review:
The Exorcist, probably the most horrific horror movie ever produced (and surely one of the finest), becomes much scarier when you realize that its story about a young Washington, D.C. girl possessed by a demon is based on a true story.
The actual exorcism of a 14-year-old child in 1949 influenced William Peter Blatty, who penned both the Oscar-winning screenplay and the popular 1971 novel. Blatty, a Georgetown University student at the university, was captivated by a Washington Post piece titled “Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reportedly Held in Devil’s Grip“. Decades later, novelist Thomas B. Allen wrote about the genuine tale in Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism, published in 1993.
According to Allen, the young boy in the case, like Regan (Linda Blair) in The Exorcist, interacts with an Ouija. To save the youngster from the evil possession, two priests — just as in the film — conducted the rite of exorcism 20 to 30 times. That is truly terrifying.
