1.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
There was no Emily Rose, but there was Anneliese Michel. Intense
shaking and seeming loss of control over her body led doctors to
diagnose her with grand mal seizures. However, her behavior progressed
to include attacking family members, drinking her own urine and freaking
out over religious objects. The family eventually convinced priests to
perform multiple exorcisms. Anneliese died in 1976 of pneumonia, before
the last exorcism (there'd been 40 by that time) could be performed.
There's still debate over whether she was actually possessed (obviously,
because if it was confirmed that'd sorta be front page news).
2.
The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)
The Real Fear team investigates the truth behind this
2009 film, which, yes, is based on a true story. In the movie, a family
moves to a Connecticut home while their cancer stricken son receives
treatment at a nearby hospital. The house is haunted and those spirits
are PISSED (as in, they get violent). Which is really a shame because
having a kid with cancer is enough of a burden – having to deal with
angry ghosts is just downright cruel. In real life, the family of Carmen
Snedeker reported incidents in their Connecticut home during the 1980s.
John Zaffis – he of Haunted Collector – investigated the case (along with Ed and Lorraine Warren, featured in The Conjuring). As Lorraine Warren said, the actual case was "much, much scarier than any movie could ever be."
3.
The Conjuring (2013)
This
paranormal-investigators-take-on-a-very-haunted-house is indeed based on
a true story. Aforementioned investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren
(played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) were very much real (she's
still alive) and did help a family with their haunted farmhouse. The
Warrens also investigated the home that inspired The Amityville Horror.
4.
The Girl Next Door (2007)
Of all our tales, this one's basis in reality is perhaps the most
upsetting. The movie details the story of two teenaged girls, orphaned
by their parents’ death, who go to live with their aunt. The woman holds
them captive, beating and torturing them. She even lets her children
rape them. The film (and the 1989 Jack Ketchum novel from which it
sprung) comes from the real life case of Sylvia Likens, who was left
with a family friend, Gertrude Baniszewski, while her circus performer
parents traveled. Gertrude terrorized Sylvia similar to the events in
the film, ultimately leading to Sylvia's death. Prosecutors on the case
called it "the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of
Indiana."
5.
The Entity (1982)
Barbara Hershey stars as a young mother who gets raped and
tortured by unseen, otherworldly beings in this genuinely scary 1982
movie. Back in 1974, a woman named Doris Blither claimed she was
assaulted by invisible entities. While some laughed her off, two
paranormal investigators, Barry Taff and Kerry Gaynor, found evidence of
strange goings on in her home – including balls of light floating about
(similar to the electrical charges we see in the film).
6.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
No, there isn't a real life Freddy Krueger, although hipsters
have certainly commandeered his look (minus the glove and burnt face).
However, Wes Craven did admit that he was inspired partly by an article
he read in the L.A. times detailing how a group of Cambodian immigrants
all died while having nightmares. The gory details are investigated in Real Fear: The Truth Behind More Movies:
7.
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
Another Wes Craven classic. The movie is about a family stranded
in the Nevada desert and victimized by a group of cannibals. The real
life tale is that of Sawney Bean, a Scottish man born circa the
15th/16th century. Bean married and had 14 children, many of which were
the product of incest. The family were cannibals, lived in caves and
killed over 1000 people!
8.
Jaws (1976)
Okay, so there wasn't one great white shark that kept coming to life with a beef for the Brody family (most notably seen in Jaws: The Revenge,
where the shark beelines it down to the Caribbean to off Ellen Brody).
However, a series of great white attacks off the New Jersey shore in
1916 sent people into a complete panic, threatening tourism in the area.
9.
Eaten Alive (1977)
This little seen gem (from Tobe Hooper!) - starring miss Morticia
Addams, Carolyn Jones - is about a Texas psycho who feeds his enemies
or anyone that pisses him off to a crocodile. The inspiration was Joe
Ball, a real life serial killer who had a penchant for serving his
victims to crocs. Of course, Carolyn Jones wasn't really one of them.
10.
The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
This 2002 movie is about an encounter with the mothman, a winged
creature, appears in West Virginia and seems a harbinger for disastrous
events, like a bridge collapsing. In the late 60s, actual Mothman
sightings occurred in Point Pleasant, West Virginia - one of which
pre-dated the collapse of a bridge that killed 46 people.
11.
Open Water (2003)
This movie - about a couple accidentally left at sea by a diving
expedition, only to be surrounded and eventually consumed by sharks -
was so terrifying because it seemed so real. And it was. In 1998, a
married couple disappeared off the Great Barrier Reef, left behind by a
diving tour. Their bodies were never recovered.
12.
Wolf Creek (2005)
Two British women and an Australian man find themselves stranded
in the outback after their car breaks down. A truck driver kidnaps and
tortures them. The real life story is a fusion of two hitchhiker killers
- one of who, Ivan Milat, captured and tortured many travelers during
the 1990s.
13.
An American Haunting (2005)
ADAPTED FROM
http://www.chillertv.com/friday13/13-horror-movies-that-are-actually-true-stories
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