15 Facts About Scary Flicks Based On Real Events

Horror films are great because once the lights are up, the dread is over. You know you are safe. But all of these movies posit – what if, no? Because each of them is, surprisingly, in some cases, based on an actual true story. 

Sometimes the story is as prosaic as an odd thing that happened to someone, or a misheard story, and sometimes it happened to the creator or their loved ones. Sometimes it’s pretty chill, and other times it’s … not so great. Be warned, there’s triggering stuff in here, especially since it’s not funny “haha” a lot of the time – it’s … yeesh. You know? Because horror movies are fun and all, but sometimes they can be just a bit much. Look, we would throw in a random one in there about puppies playing soccer with kittens to lighten the mood, but Google would yell at us. Anyway, on to the horror ...

15

Scary Movies Based on The Gainesville Ripper Scream Scream has five sequels and a TV series, and until 2018's Halloween, was the highest-grossing slasher flick of all time. Not bad for a script written over a weekend. CRACKED.COM

Love You to Death: The Unofficial Companion to The Vampire Diaries, by chrissy Calhoun (via Google Books)

14

Scary Movies Psycho To cut costs, the film used the crew from Hitchcock's TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Slashing costs was also why he chose to film in black and white. Based on Ed Gein CRACKED.COM

The Moviehouse

11

Scary Movies Based on Texarkana Moonlight Murders The Town That Dreaded Sundown The film ends with the killer attending a showing of the film you're watching. Because they seemingly want to tempt fate, the real Texarkana shows the movie every year as part of a Halloween festival. CRACKED.COM

Encyclopedia of Arkansas

10

Scary Movies Based on Two separate Australian murders, neither of which happened at the actual Wolfe Creek Wolf Creek The movie went the extra step and even filmed at the location of another actual murder. CRACKED.COM

Focus On: 100 Most Popular Australian Films (via Google Books)

9

Scary Movies Based on Actual disasters in Norway The Wave In the film, a fjord falls and causes a 300- foot tsunami. At one point, the main character must dive into a submerged hotel, so the actor actually learned how to hold his breath for three minutes. CRACKED.COM

The Hollywood Reporter

8

Scary Movies Based on Co-writer Daria Nicolodi's grandmother Suspiria Apparently, when Nicolodi's grandmother was young, she attended a boarding school-and quickly left after finding black magic being practiced there. CRACKED.COM

The Guardian

5

Scary Movies Based on Barbora Škrlová Orphan Škrlová, a 34-year-old woman with the same disorder Esther has in the film, pretended to be a 13-year-old boy. CRACKED.COM

Radio Prague International, Newsweek

4

Scary Movies Based on Real-life ghost town Centralia, Pennsylvania Silent Hill To keep adding to her growing grimey look over the course of the movie, Radha Mitchell didn't wash her hair at all during filming. CRACKED.COM

IndieGala, Destinations Unknown

3

Scary Movies Based on Henry Lee Lucas Henry: Portrait of a Killer Michael I'm Yondu from Guardians Rooker, playing the title role, stayed in character to the point that his wife waited until after filming to tell him that she was pregnant. CRACKED.COM

The Moveable Fest

2

Scary Movies Based on Anneliese Michel's death The Exorcism of Emily Rose Jennifer Carpenter, who played the title role, did all of the hideous horrible contortions for real. Oh, also, her radio would go off every night and play Pearl Jam's Alive on repeat- specifically the I'm still alive bit. CRACKED.COM

Hindustan Times

1

Scary Movies Based on Jeffrey Dahmer My Friend Dahmer This film about Dahmer's high school years and friends, actually has one friend, Mike Kukral, in a cameo at the dance that he attended in real life, which sounds like the most surreal reunion imaginable. CRACKED.COM

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