Some of the most iconic horror movies are actually inspired by real events. We rank the top ten!
When we think of movies based on real events, we might first think of dramas or perhaps war films. Rarely does the connotation of “realistic” become associated with the horror genre, and yet maybe it should. Many of the most iconic horror movies ever made are at least loosely based on real events. I don’t know about you, but knowing that some of the most nightmarish films ever made were actually inspired by real life experiences makes them seem even more frightening…
In the spirit of Halloween I have assembled a list of my top ten picks of horror movies that are based on real events. For each film I give a brief overview of the real-life events that inspired the film. My ranking is based on how iconic the film has become. The reasoning being that if a film has become heralded in its genre for its horror elements, then the central idea behind it (being based on a real event) resonated not only with other filmmakers, but audiences as well.
- The Birds (1963)
The Real Life Event: The film is based loosely on a short story by Dauphne du Maurier, written in 1952. That short story was inspired by Maurier’s witness of a farmer being attacked by seagulls. However, director Alfred Hitchcock had his own experience to add to the final product. In the early 60’s when Hitchcock was researching for his next project, biologists in California had found evidence of algae poisoning in local seagull populations. This type of algae was caused by water pollution from the growing urban population, and resulted in behavioral changes to other types of animals that had ingested it.
The Birds was not the most popular film upon release, but has become better appreciated over time. Its connection of horror elements to the natural world without relegating itself to becoming a sci-fi B-movie was innovative, and would inspire future horror icons like John Carpenter and M. Night Shyamalan in their own more naturalistic approaches. It is considered the last great film from legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock.
- Jaws (1975)
The Real Life Event: The film was based upon the 1974 novel by Peter Benchley. Benchley had grown up in Nantucket and would often fish. During that time he had grown interested in sharks. In 1964, a fisherman caught a large Great White shark off the coast of New York, and this inspired Benchley to write a story about a shark that attacked people. When an editor voiced interest in the idea, Benchley began researching sharks further. He eventually found an account of a 1916 incident when a single shark killed 4 people and injured another on the Jersey Shore during one single week.
Jaws may not be associated with horror first and foremost, but it touches on a topic that is frightening to anyone who has swam in the ocean. The film’s vast success, essentially starting the “blockbuster era”, made it hugely influential which is why I had to include it on this list. That helps to make up for the fact that it doesn’t follow any real life events as closely as other films on this list.
- Child’s Play (1988)
The Real Life Event: A southern folklore tale tells of a boy named Robert Otto who was given a doll. Robert became enamored with the doll and began dressing it up and calling it by his own name. The family reportedly experienced a number of strange occurrences, such as furniture being moved around, toys being mutilated, and strange laughter – all of which the child blamed on the doll. People who encountered the doll would say that it would change facial expressions, could speak, and move on its own.
Some say the story of Robert the Doll is what inspired Child’s Play, but that isn’t 100% accurate. The story of Robert the Doll is what started the trope of an evil children’s doll, which is what Child’s Play creator Tom Mancini would play off of for his film. Mancini was most inspired by the 80’s Cabbage Patch Kids obsession, which he would use to create a film about an evil toy, Chucky. Today, Chucky is as popular as ever and remains as strong a horror movie icon as any.
- Scream (1996)
The Real Life Event: The Gainesville Ripper was a serial killer who murdered five students over the course of a few days in 1990. The killer was a thief and was committing a burglary when he came across two students asleep at night. He murdered them in gruelsome fashion and posed their remains to be found by others, and over the course of the next few days found more student victims. The grotesqueness of his murders caught media attention and caused panic among local students.
Kevin Williamson was the writer of what would become Scream, and he was heavily influenced by the reports of the Gainesville Ripper when writing his initial treatment. He used elements of those attacks and combined them with his love of classic slasher movies. Scream would go on to resurrect the slasher subgenre in the 1990’s, and became a huge pop culture phenomenon that remains to this day.
- Poltergeist (1982)
The Real Life Event: In the 1950’s the Hermann family began experiencing strange occurrences in their home on Long Island, New York. They heard noises of bottles being opened and things spilled on the floor. They thought it was pranksters at first, but it happened over and over again. Others, including the Police became involved and witnessed the strange occurrences themselves. Eventually a paranormal specialist was brought in and believed the strange events were being caused by a Poltergeist. Soon after, the strange events stopped occurring.
The Hermann Poltergeist incident was well publicized, and helped to inspire director Tube Hooper and writer/producer Steven Spielberg. Spielberg wanted to make a horror movie sequel to Close Encounters, but Hooper wanted to make it more like a ghost story. Spielberg would write a modern version of the Hermann account, but the inspiration remained. Poltergeist became a huge success and has become a genre classic.
- The Conjuring (2013)
The Real Life Event: The Amityville Horror is a novel based on the experiences of the Lutz family living in Amityville, New York in which they experienced a haunting and a series of paranormal activities at their home. Ed and Lorraine Warren were paranormal investigators, and visited the house after the Lutz family’s experiences. They became famous because of their documentation of their findings at the Lutz residence, and would go on to become known as some of the foremost experts of paranormal discoveries.
The Conjuring takes place before the events of the Amityville Horror, depicting a fictional encounter of the Warrens at another residence. While Amityville Horror generated its own classic film franchise, it never really garnered the critical acclaim of similar films like The Exorcist. The Conjuring represented a heralded 21st century revival of that type of film with focus placed not just in the shock factor but in the production and storytelling. And more than just scratching that particular horror movie itch, this film and its sequels were huge box office hits.
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
The Real Life Event: The exploits of serial killer Ed Gein inspired many films, including this one. Gein was a serial killer in the 1950’s who became best known for his grotesque displays of violence towards his victims. He would mutilate corpses, including digging up bodies from graveyards in order to take body parts as trophies which he would keep in his house. Gein was socially awkward and had been abused as a child by his mother. Most famously he had been collecting body parts to create a “woman suit” in order to become his mother.
Although The Texas Chainsaw Massacre claims the events that it depicts were true, that was an intentional lie by director Tobe Hooper who wanted to propagate misinformation and paranoia just like he felt the government and media do on a regular basis. Instead, he was influenced by media coverage of murder sprees by serial killers, including the one described above. This inspired him to create a “faceless killer”, essentially establishing many of the tropes that would come to define the slasher film subgenre. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre would become a hit film, but it was also a benchmark in violence and gore and the type of shocking thrills that horror films could be capable of.
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
The Real Life Event: The film was inspired by several different things witnessed and experienced by director Wes Craven. Initially inspired by reports of “Asian Death Syndrome” in the 1970s. The stories told of refugees from southeast Asia who fled to the US only to be haunted by nightmares, some of them even dying in their sleep. Craven would combine this with images from his childhood, specifically of an old man who frightened him and would become the inspiration for Freddy Kruger.
When Craven was teaching at film school, he witnessed a student film that parodied contemporary slasher films. He combined this with the idea of a killer who haunts you in your dreams, coming up with the idea of a film that purposefully plays into the tropes of horror films in order to blur reality. A Nightmare on Elm Street became a huge hit, founded a quintessential slasher franchise, and has since become championed for how it helped to bring horror into the pop culture scene.
- The Exorcist (1973)
The Real Life Event: The novel The Exorcist, was based on a number of different events. These include the account of a demonic possession of a boy in 1949 (The Exorcism of Roland Doe) who underwent several attempted exorcisms provided by Catholic priests. The author of the novel also based his protagonist off of an archeologist named Gerald Lankester Harding, who worked to recover the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Exorcist was a very controversial film upon its release, despite mixed reviews. The MPAA threatened an X-Rating, and indeed it gained a legacy for shocking audiences with its grotesque imagery. While tame by today’s standards, it highlighted the idea of utilizing a shock factor for entertainment purposes, something we would become very familiar with in horror films all these years later. The film earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, and has since become recognized as one of the greatest and most iconic horror films ever made.
- Psycho (1960)
The Real Life Event: The novel Psycho was inspired by the exploits of Ed Gein (see #4 on this list). Author Robert Bloch later learned that he lived somewhat nearby to the famous serial killer. From this perspective he proposed the idea that even the most unsuspicious people could have a dark side. Gein’s story also inspired Bloch in that the serial killer had lived a large portion of his life with his mother, who was a religious fanatic.
Psycho received mixed reviews upon its release, but word of mouth quickly spread and it became a huge hit. It was a marked departure for legendary director Alfred Hitchcock, but today is realized as one of his best films. This film established the slasher genre, and pushed the boundaries of what films could get away with in terms of violence and sexual content. It inspired countless other films and reignited a fascination with an altogether new type of horror movie in the 60’s and 70’s.
