What’s scarier than a horror movie? A horror movie based on a real-life incident, of course! So, here we are with Top 5 horror movies based on real life incidents. And don’t forget to look under your bed before you go to sleep tonight. Actually, you might want to lock all your doors and windows and share your location with your whole damn group chat too. Just to be safe.
The Conjuring
Yeah, this movie immediately sprang in my mind too after reading the title. How could we miss this one, in our list of Top 5 horror movies based on real life incidents?
The movie: Directed by James Wan, the film follows: The Warrens (demonologists), help a family who is disturbed by a dark presence and experiences supernatural phenomenons after they move into their new farmhouse.
Real-life story: The Conjuring is based on real-life experiences of paranormal investigators and demonologists, Ed & Lorraine Warren. The Conjuring is a movie based on their paranormal experiences with the Perrons, a family, who moved into a farmhouse in Rhode Island and experienced ghostly and terrifying occurrences in 1971. This James Wan scare-fest is frighteningly effective and surprisingly spiritual. But the images it offers will haunt you long after you turn the lights back on!
The Amityville Horror
The movie: Directed by Andrew Douglas, shows a young couple terrorized by demonic forces after moving into a house that was the site of a mass murder a year before.
Real-life story: Based on the book of the same name, The Amityville Horror follows the paranormal events that terrorized the Lutz family. On November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered six members of his family at 112 Ocean Avenue, on the south shore of Long Island, New York. A year later, the Lutz family moved into the same house. George Lutz claimed that he used to wake up every night at 3:15 am which eerily was the time DeFeo carried out his murders.
They left the house after 28 days. And let’s face it…who wouldn’t leave? This movie definitely had to be there in the Top 5 horror movies based on real life incidents.
Child’s Play
The movie: Child’s Play is a 1988 horror film directed by Tom Holland. A single mother gives her son a doll for his birthday, only to discover that it is possessed by the soul of a serial killer.
Real-life story: Painter and Author, Robert Eugene Otto, once owned Robert the Doll. The doll is said to be possessed by evil spirits and has a terrifying reputation. Otto was given the doll in 1906 by a servant who apparently was skilled in black magic and voodoo. Supposedly, Robert, the doll would mysteriously move from room to room, knock furniture over, and indulge in conversations with Otto. Oh man, I would seriously freak out if Lily (my doll) starts speaking. She won’t….right?
A Nightmare on Elm Street
The movie: A group of teenagers are killed by a burnt janitor with bladed gloves in their sleep to take revenge from children whose parents were responsible for his untimely death.
Real-life story: Wes Craven based this movie on a series of newspaper articles from the Los Angeles Times about a strange phenomenon where refugees from Asia would strangely die in their sleep. According to reports, many of them would refuse to sleep; citing terrifying nightmares that they feared, would lead to death. Also, a boy stayed up a phenomenal number of days (six-seven).
But finally, one day as he was watching television with his family and fell asleep on the couch, his family, they heard screams and crashing in the middle of the night.
They immediately ran into the room, but unfortunately, by the time they got to him, he was already dead. They also had an autopsy performed, and to their surprise, there was no heart attack. This really gives you the chills and has rightly been included in our list of Top 5 horror movies based on real life incidents.
The Exorcist
The movie: When a 12-year-old girl is possessed, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.
Real-life story: The film was based on a 1949 article in The Washington Post headlined, “Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devil’s Grip.” According to the priests, they experienced the boy speaking in tongues, the bed shaking and levitating, and objects flying around. The Exorcism was 1 of three official Catholic, Church-sanctioned exorcisms in the United States at the time. A journal kept by Father Raymond Bishop detailed the 3 exorcisms which were performed on the boy.
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Stay tuned to The Hollywood Tribune for latest updates on horror movies based on real-life incidents and more news from Hollywood and Beyond. Also, don’t forget to share this article with your closest ones who too are horror fans like yourself and ask them whether they have seen all the 5 movies on our list of Top 5 Horror Movies Based on Real Life Incidents.
