Random Terrifying Horror Movies And True Stories They're Based On (16 items)

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  (#8) The Serpent and the Rainbow

  • Bill Pullman, Paul Winfield, Michael Gough, Diamanda Galás, Paul Guilfoyle, Theresa Merritt, Zakes Mokae, Cathy Tyson, Dey Young, Francis Guinan, Brent Jennings, Badja Djola, William Newman, Conrad Roberts, Kimberleigh Aarn, Aleta Mitchell, Michael Jackson, Sally-Anne Munn, Rosa Bautista, Otilio Nerius, Gerard Matonbe, Ana Rosa Smith Avila, Miguel Valdez, Betty García Rodríguez, Venat Ruis, Luis Telemako, Rosemary Sylvain, Jean Pierre, Marie Carmel Noel, Barbara Guillaume, Jean-Baptiste Rosvelt, Americo Jose, Luis Tavare Pesquera, Ana Ramirez, Jackson Delgado, Buche, Saveur D'Orlean, Philogen Thomas, Maurice Altenor, Evencio Mosquera Slaco, Robert De James, Harold Desire, Lucienne Charles, Frantz Thomas, Josiana Sant Louis, Maxo Fercilien, Juliana Jose, Jacques Achilles, Providenia Alcantara, Claudia Pimentel, Rosa Charles, Robert Regaldo, Federico Nunez, Dikatel Charles, Suzette Cajusle, Ti-Blanc, Elias Gastavo, Johnny Pephanon, Francesco Chavez, Jaime Pina Gautier, Iversose Beuville, Ramon Cherry

  The Movie

  Working for a pharmaceutical company, ethnobotanist Dennis Alan is sent to Haiti to research a drug used in Haitian vodou in order to determine if the drug can be used as anesthesia. Alan finds a local witch doctor, who claims he can make the drug, but Alan is arrested, tortured, and ordered to leave the country before receiving the drug.

  Alan flees the country but not before forcing the drug out of the witch doctor. He returns home to Boston to meet with his employer, where the wife of his boss tells him in a possessed state that his death is imminent.

  The Reality

  The book on which the film is based is believed to have been inspired by the events of Haitian man Clairvius Narcisse. Narcisse was declared dead in 1962 after receiving a cocktail of drugs to mimic a coma.

  He was buried, but exhumed a few days later and given another set of drugs which brought him back to life in a zombie state. Narcisse was forced to work on a sugar plantation for two years until his master died, and he was freed and returned to his family in 1980.
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  (#12) Dead Ringers

  • Jeremy Irons, Jill Hennessy, Geneviève Bujold, Shirley Douglas, Barbara Gordon, Stephen Lack, Jacqueline Hennessy, Damir Andrei, Heidi Von Paleske, Nick Nichols, Lynne Cormack, Miriam Newhouse, Jonathan Haley, Nicholas Haley

  The Movie

  Identical twins, Elliot and Beverly Mantle, work as successful gynecologists in their own clinic. They seduce their patients, having sexual relations with the same women and without the women knowing the difference.

  Beverly falls in love with a troubled actress and seeks to distance himself from Elliot. After the actress finds out about the women-sharing practice, she distances herself from the doctors, which leads Beverly into a downward spiral, involving drugs and depression.

  The Reality

  Stewart and Cyril Marcus served as identical twin gynecologists in New York City. In 1975, their bodies were found, already partially decayed, in their shared apartment, having died from barbiturate withdrawals.

  Their lives and eventual deaths were chronicled in a series of essays and in a novel, all of which was inspiration for the film.
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  (#7) The Exorcism of Emily Rose

  • Laura Linney, Jennifer Carpenter, Tom Wilkinson, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Colm Feore, Henry Czerny, Chelah Horsdal, Campbell Scott, Kenneth Welsh, Mary Beth Hurt, J. R. Bourne, Lorena Gale, Cory Lee, Terence Kelly, Aaron Douglas, Joshua Close, Ryan McDonald, Taylor Hill, Julian Christopher, Mary Black, Duncan Fraser, Iris Graham, Marsha Regis, Marilyn Norry, Katie Keating, Sara Niemietz, Michael Brynjolfson, Darrin Maharaj, Joanna Piros, Liduina Vanderspek, George Gordon, Clay St. Thomas, Andrew Wheeler, David Berner, Allison Warren, Steve Archer, Arlene Belcastro, John Innes, Jeff Johnson, Bobby L. Stewart

  The Movie

  Attorney Erin Bruner represents Father Richard Moore in court against homicide charges after his attempted exorcism of Emily Rose. Emily, as shown in flashbacks, was believed to be possessed by demons. Her parents call upon Father Moore to exorcise the demons.

  As the attorney attempts to prove that Emily was, in fact, possessed and not suffering from psychosis and epilepsy as the prosecution argues, the lawyer experiences strange happenings of her own.

  The Reality

  The story of Anneliese Michel, a German woman born in 1952, inspired the film. Anneliese suffered from depression and epilepsy and was given an anti-convulsant drug by psychotherapists. That drug, along with her other conditions, was believed to have caused her to hallucinate and hear voices.

  Anneliese's parents believed she was possessed and arranged for an exorcism to be performed. As Father Renz performed 67 exorcism sessions, Anneliese stopped eating. She died in her sleep in 1976 from malnutrition and dehydration, weighing only 68 pounds. Her parents and the priests involved in the exorcisms were prosecuted later that year for neglectful homicide. They even went as far as to have the remains of Michel exhumed, as a nun said that she had visions of the body not decomposing, and that it was a sign of demonic possession. When it was removed from it's coffin though, the body was found to have been decomposing as normal.
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  (#15) The Girl Next Door

  • Catherine Mary Stewart, William Atherton, Mark Margolis, Jack Ketchum, Michael Zegen, Grant Show, Kevin Chamberlin, Graham Patrick Martin, Daniel Farrands, Blanche Baker, Peter Stickles, Austin Williams, Andrew van den Houten, Madeline Taylor, Daniel Manche, Blythe Auffarth, Krista Gall, Benjamin Ross Kaplan, Jennifer Alexander, Spenser Leigh, Gabrielle Howarth, Jocelyn Kuritsky, Dean Faulkenberry, Gary Patent, Eric Toth, Robert Tonino, Carlin Rizzo, Wynn Van Dusen, Lluis Fe Perez, Jason Rigsby, Alana Rader, Vivian Hernandez, Michael Nardella, Gerard Houarner, Dan Abram, J.M. Parkhurst, Christine Choo, Rory Douglas, Santo Silvestro, Leon Blot, Greg Northrop, Linda Addison, Monica O'Rourke, Kevin Carroll, Ashley Musteric, Andy Bennett, Nick Kelios, Lily Cohen, George Kloak, Dagmara Jankowska, Jeffrey Wolpert, David Auffarth, Janet Hefferan, Chris Steinacker, Nick Purritano, Anthony Stone, David Hefferan, Malgorzata Staniszewska, Beth Gittleman, Rhodi Hawk, Irene Katehis, Benjamin Laddin

  The Movie

  Gregory Wilson's The Girl Next Door is, perhaps, one of the most depraved horror films ever made. Released in 2007, the movie is chilling not because of a chainsaw-wielding serial killer or a twisted poltergeist. The true villain is both more human and more horrifying than any scary movie lover could imagine. A young teen girl, Meg, is the title character and the most sympathetic. After her parents die in a car accident, she and her younger sister are fostered by a mom in the neighborhood. 

  Nothing goes well for the orphaned girls, and Ruth, the woman who takes them in, is evil unadulterated. She beats Meg, burns her, and taunts her ceaselessly. Few adults believe the victim's claims, though. In fact, when the young teen tries to seek help, she is brutalized further. Ruth allows her biological sons to rape and assault Meg. Eventually, the innocent girl dies from neglect and abuse. Her sister barely makes it out of the toxic house alive.

  The Reality

  Unfortunately, Wilson's film is based on true events and a book written by Jack Ketchum. Sylvia Likens and her sister Jenny were the true victims in this Indiana crime. The girls' parents, Lester and Betty Likens, boarded the girls in Gertrude Baniszewski's house for $20 a week. When Baniszewski received payment late, she began to brutalize the children; Sylvia was her main target. She beat the young teen, sexually assaulted her, and encouraged neighborhood children to join the depravity. On October 26, 1965, police found Sylvia's fatally mangled body with over 150 wounds and bruises. Shockingly, Baniszewski was released from a life prison sentence on parole. She died a free woman.
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  (#4) Jaws

  • Steven Spielberg, Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, John Searle, Murray Hamilton, Peter Benchley, Carl Gottlieb, Lorraine Gary, Jeffrey Kramer, Susan Backlinie, Beverly Powers, Ayn Ruymen, Denise Cheshire, Ted Grossman, Rex Trailer, Craig Kingsbury, Allison Caine, Dorothy Fielding, Chris Rebello, David Engelbach, Belle McDonald, Christopher Sands, Fritzi Jane Courtney, Cyprian R. Dube, Duncan Inches, Jonathan Filley, Jay Mello, Robert Nevin, Robert Carroll, Alfred Wilde, Lee Fierro, Jeffrey Voorhees, Wally Hooper Jr., Jean Canha, Peggy Scott, Robert Chambers, Edward Chalmers Jr., Julie Taylor, Paul F. Tremblay, Gilbert Brand, Wayne Iacono, Janice T. Hull, Beardsley Graham, John Bahr, Jerome S. Tartar, Joy Stuart, Stephanie Hull, Alston Goff, William Lymon, Paul G. Thibodeau, Dick Young, Edwin C. Carlson, Carla Hogendyk, Henry Carreiro, Henry E. Scott III, Brendan Gallagher, Hershel West, Joseph G. Kraetzer, Gregory S. Dole, Steven Potter, Paul Goulart, Phil Murray, Philip Norton, Donald Poole, Richard P. Hewitt, Robert Whelden Jr., William O'Gorman, Francis A. Frank, Mike Haydn, William Pfluger, Elizabeth K. Gifford, Stephen Earle, Willis B. Gifford, Eleanor L. Harvey, Chris Anastasio, Joe La Creta

  The Movie

  As families vacation on the fictional Amity Island in New England, a gigantic 25-foot great white shark begins killing and eating tourists. Rather than losing out on the proceeds from the busy July 4th weekend of tourism, the mayor refuses to close the beach, and the attacks continue.

  Since someone has to be the hero, a group, including the town police chief, a marine biologist, and a shark hunter, spend night and day hunting this huge shark before it claims additional victims.

  The Reality

  The movie was based on the book of the same name by Peter Benchley. He got the story idea from incidents that happened during the summer of 1916 along the Jersey Shore. It seems that before the area was consumed by drug addicts, it was still a dangerous place. During that summer, five people were attacked while swimming off the coast. Four of the five died from their injuries. No one is sure if it was a great white shark specifically, since before this point, sharks were not highly researched and considered nothing more than man-eating monsters.
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  (#1) The Amityville Horror

  • James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Murray Hamilton, Helen Shaver, Val Avery, Don Stroud, John Larch, Amy Wright, K. C. Martel, Meeno Peluce, Michael Sacks, Natasha Ryan

  The Movie

  The original and the remake essentially have the same plot. An unassuming family, John and Kathy Lutz and their three children, purchase a home in Long Island, New York that was previously the site of a mass murder one year earlier. While stating they don't believe in ghosts, the family has a priest attempt to bless the home, which is downright hypocritical. Families with wishy washy views on the supernatural always get targeted in these movies. Stick with your guns, everyone.

  So, the priest becomes strangely ill and blind soon after the exorcism. In just four weeks, the family is forced out of the house following a series of haunted happenings. In the later version, Ryan Reynolds goes out in the rain in a t-shirt: this made watching the movie worth it for everyone's girlfriend.

  The Reality

  George and Kathy Lutz (you see, they changed George's name to "John" in the movie to protect his anonymity) spent four weeks in the Amityville, New York, house in 1975, 13 months after Ronald DeFeo, Jr. murdered six people in the home. According to the couple, during their time in the house they heard voices throughout the day, there were various "cold spots" throughout the house, and they even witnessed green slime oozing from the walls.

  Most experts and investigators who visited the house to study the paranormal claims dispute the authenticity of the story. The happenings are widely believed to be a hoax concocted for the best-selling book by Jay Anson.

  So you decide.

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