Whenever you watch a horror film, there is always a certain comfort in the fact that what is on the screen is not real. Well, that's not always the case.
Some of the most dramatic and terrifying horror films are actually loosely based on what you might call a true story. Here are just seven of them.
Happy sleeping!
1. The Exorcist
The film is often listed as one of the most terrifying films of all time and rightly so. When Regan MacNeil starts acting incredibly strange, her mother calls in the local priest to perform an exorcism when all other means of help are exhausted.
Based on a book by William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist tells the true story of an exorcism that was performed on a 13-year-old boy from Maryland. The details are a little more difficult to source now, perhaps to protect his identity, but he went on to live a normal life.
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street
Everyone knows the terrifying story of Freddy Krueger, a child murderer who comes back to haunt the children of the people who killed him.
However, not many know that director Wes Craven based the films on a series of articles he read about some men in Laos, Cambodia who were refusing to go to sleep as they reported they were being attacked in their dreams.
One man in particular passed out while watching television, was carried to bed and during the night began screaming and thrashing around. By the time his family got to him, he was already dead.
3. The Conjuring
The story of a family who are haunted in the new farmhouse they move into is based on the true story of paranormal investigators, the Warrens.
Roger and Carolyn Perron and their five daughters were haunted by a spirit who would stink of rotten flesh and levitate beds at 5.15am. The family called in paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, to help rid them of the demon.
Lorraine remained an official consultant on the film and the Perrons stand by the events, claiming most of the film is pretty accurate.
Yes, even Annabelle.
4. Psycho
Yes, you may freak out anytime you meet a man who is remotely attached to his mother in future but Norman Bates, the freaky motel owner who kills women who stay there, was actually based on Ed Gein, a Wisconsin man who was arrested for murdering two women and digging up countless others who he thought resembled his mother. He skinned the bodies to make lamp shades and a “woman suit” in the hopes of becoming a woman.
Gein was also inspiration for another horror, the brilliant The Silence of the Lambs.
5. The Entity
The Entity tells the story of a woman who experiences attacks by a demon she claims is the Devil and let's be fair, it's still positively terrifying.
The true story originates in 1974 when paranormal researchers Kerry Gaynor and Barry Taff investigated the case of Doris Blither, who claimed she was physically and sexually assaulted by an entity. Objects would move, floating lights and they even saw a human apparition.
6. The Hills Have Eyes
Another Craven film which is loosely based on a true story, The Hills Have Eyes revolves around a family who are ambushed in the middle of nowhere by a group of cannibals.
The true story originates from Scotland where a family headed by Sawney Bean, began to live in the caves and turned into cannibals. By the time they were hunted down and captured, the family numbered 48 in total and were responsible for the deaths of about 1000 people.
7. Child’s Play
A possessed doll wreaks havoc on a family after he is given to a child for his birthday. It's every parent's nightmare really.
However, it will become more of a nightmare to discover that Chucky is based on the true story of a voodoo doll who was given to Key West painter Robert Eugene Otto by a Jamaican nurse.
Otto’s family complained that they heard screaming during the night and that things would randomly go missing from his room. After his death, the new family who moved in to the house claimed the doll moved and was trying to kill them. Robert the Doll even has his own website.
