©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection There are two types of people out there: those who eat, sleep, and breathe Halloween and horror and those who start sweating at even the thought of watching scary movies . If you're in the former camp (you brave soul, you!), then you probably live for true-crime podcasts , haunted houses, and all that spooky sh*t. And you probably know that the most terrifying stories are based in reality. With most horror flicks , you can turn on the lights when it ends and say, "Phew, I'm safe, it's just a movie." But when the words "Based on a true story" pop up on the screen, well, that's when things get real.
Maybe your idea of horror is blood and gore. Maybe you like psychological thrillers that mess with your head. Or maybe you're all about ghosts and paranormal phenomena. Whatever you're into, there's a scary film inspired by actual events for every subgenre, and they're chock-full of serial killers , supernatural encounters, and seriously disturbing incidents. While you probably already know about the classic inspired-by-real-events scary movies like Poltergeist , Psycho , and The Exorcist , you mayyyy not be as familiar with some of the more recent scary flicks based on reality—all of which are available to stream right now. They range from mildly unsettling to fully nightmare-inducing, so if you're up for a good scare this spooky season, then these are the real-life scary movies you need to stream tonight...with the lights on, maybe.
If you’ve seen all the other Conjuring movies and thought the Warrens had already seen it all, then guess again. The Conjuring: Last Rites is based on another real-life case, known as the Smurl haunting, where a couple claimed a demon wreaked havoc in their home for 15 years. Talk about an unwelcome guest!
This one is based on the very real (and very scary) serial killer Ed Kemper, so the filmmakers had no shortage of disturbing material to go off. If you’re not familiar, Kemper was active in the ’60s and ‘70s and murdered his grandparents, his mother, his mother’s friend, and six other young women.
No Tears in Hell is inspired by Russian serial killer Alexander Spesivtsevm (AKA the Siberian Ripper), though it takes some pretty big creative liberties, like relocating the story to Alaska.
If Alaskan horror is really your thing, you can also check out The Frozen Ground. Nicholas Cage plays a state trooper investigating Robert Hansen, a real-life serial killer who was active in Anchorage for more than a decade.
Russel Crowe plays Father Gabriele Amorth, a real Catholic priest who was the exorcist for the Diocese of Rome (yes, that’s a real thing). He wrote books about his encounters, and the movie follows one case in particular: the alleged possession of a young boy who may just have a connection to a much bigger conspiracy.
In case you didn’t know, the Freeway Killer was the nickname given to serial killer William Bonin. From 1979 to 1980, he murdered at least 14 teenage boys and young men in Southern California, and this movie is directly based on his horrifying spree.
A serial killer that isn’t human? Say more. Well, this movie is about a crew that gets sent to capture a crocodile rumored to have killed hundreds of people. The film was inspired by a real-life Nile crocodile in Burundi named Gustave that became known for attacking people, though the movie adds a touch more drama.
Most people have heard of John Wayne Gacy—the serial killer who murdered more than 30 young boys and men in the ‘70s—but watching this dramatized version of his life unfold really reminds you that real life can be way scarier than fiction.
Natalie Dormer plays a woman who travels to Japan looking for her missing twin sister in Aokigahara, a real forest near Mount Fuji that’s been dubbed the Suicide Forest. The movie takes the IRL location and turns it into a fictionalized, supernatural horrorscape.
What would you do if you started to suspect your father was hiding a dark and twisted secret? Well, in The Clovehitch Killer , a teenager begins to suspect exactly that. Although the story is fictional, the filmmakers incorporated elements of the real-life BTK Killer to help build the character.
This movie, about a Manhattan family that moves to New York's Hudson Valley and starts experiencing spooky paranormal activity, was based on Elizabeth Brundage's novel All Things Cease to Appear . And as it turns out, that book was inspired by two real-life things: the 1982 axe murder of Cathleen Krauseneck and the author's own paranormal experiences, so it really hits ya from every scary angle.
Let me clarify right off the top that no, there wasn't anyone running around in a Ghostface mask IRL killing people, BUT this now-classic horror movie was inspired by serial killer Daniel Rolling, aka the Gainesville Ripper. He was caught after murdering five college students in Florida over a span of four days, but later admitted to even more killings.
In The Entity , a single mom in LA is repeatedly attacked by an invisible poltergeist, and as you can guess, no one believes her. And the same thing happened for real back in 1974 to Doris Bither who claimed to have been attacked and raped by a paranormal entity and enlisted the help of a parapsychologist to investigate what was happening.
Yup! Even Jennifer's Body is inspired by a true story: the tragic killing of 15-year-old Elyse Pahler. In the movie, Megan Fox's character, Jennifer, is a high school student who becomes demonically possessed following a Satanic sacrifice and begins killing her male classmates. In real life, Elyse was murdered by a group of boys who believed the devil would give them powers in exchange for the sacrifice.
If you're a big true crime junkie, you might have guessed that the characters of Henry and Otis in this movie are based on real-life serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole. The two terrifyingly carried out A LOT murders together, though it's hard to say exactly how many because they tended to make false confessions.
If you're not the kind to believe in aliens, then you mayyy not agree that this was based on a true story. But if you are, then you should know that Communion is based on the alleged experiences of author Whitley Strieber, who said he had a not-so-fun time being abducted by aliens.
An Australian horror movie about three backpackers being hunted by a serial killer in the outback? Sign me up! Although, knowing it's based on not one true story but TWO makes it almost too scary. The first inspiration is Bradley Murdoch, who murdered a backpacker in 2001 in a remote part of the country, and the second is Ivan Milat, who murdered several backpackers in Australia in the '90s.
This Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe flick is loosely based on the story of the Smalls Lighthouse. Back in 1801, two men who didn't particularly like each other were stationed alone at a lighthouse having to share a cramped space (just like in the movie). When one of them got sick and died, the other (out of fear of being accused of murder) just lived with the dead body until he could be rescued. Unfortunately by that point, he'd already experienced a full-blown mental collapse.
Inspired by the Jonestown massacre, this movie is done in a found-footage kinda style so it even feels more real than your typical horror film. In it, a Vice journalist tries to track down his sister who's living in a secretive religious commune that's moved to a remote area only accessible by helicopter.
This one's another alien abduction story, but this time based on the alleged experience of forestry worker Travis Walton. He claimed to have been abducted in Arizona and taken aboard a flying saucer for five days for observation by aliens. Even a lot of UFO believers think this story is a hoax, so take it with a space-ship-sized grain of salt.
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Source: Entertainment
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