I’m sure most of us have been there at some point: hands that cover our eyes, peeking at the screen, jumping with fright and sleeping with the lights on. But we tell ourselves it’s just a film, right? It’s not real; it can’t hurt us! But what about those films that are rooted in the truth? It becomes a whole lot creepier once you realise it could happen to you…
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Eaten Alive (1976)
Set in Louisiana and directed by legendary director Tobe Hooper, this film is based around a rundown hotel called The Starlight Hotel. The place is run by a disturbed, disfigured owner called Judd, who has been known to wield a scythe. There’s also a resident crocodile that lives in the surrounding swamps. Soon, guests at the hotel start to go missing.
The film was loosely based on suspected serial killer Joseph Douglas Ball. Joe Ball, as he was known, was also nicknamed the Alligator Man and the Butcher of Elmendorf. He is known to have murdered two women but is suspected of killing as many as 20. Ball built the Sociable Inn in Elmendorf, Texas, in the 1930s, alongside a pond that contained 6 ‘pet’ alligators. He would charge people to view them, especially at feeding time. Dinner would mainly consist of live cats & dogs (I know, I know, sorry, but it’s true). It wasn’t long until people in this area started going missing without a trace, including his ex-girlfriends and his wife. It’s believed that Ball misunderstood the term corpus delicti (concrete evidence of a crime, such as a corpse) and was convinced that without a body, there was no crime. When finally questioned by sheriffs’ deputies in 1938, he pulled out a gun and fatally shot himself. Later, an associate of Ball admitted he had helped him dispose of 2 bodies and led police to the remains of 2 women.
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
This film has two versions: the original Wes Craven film and the 2006 remake. In the original, the Carter family are travelling to a holiday destination. The family consists of parents Bob & Ethel, kids Bobby, Brenda & Lynne, Lynne’s husband Doug, their daughter Katy and the two dogs Beauty and The Beast. In Nevada, they are warned by a petrol station owner to stay on the main road; however, soon after, the family has an accident and comes off the road. Beauty runs off towards the hills, followed by Bobby, who finds her mutilated shortly afterwards. After returning to the petrol station for help, the family are told the story of murderer Jupiter, who lives in the hills with an alcoholic sex worker and their children. Soon, the Carter family discover a world of depravity, pain, and cannibalism.
As with many of Wes Craven’s horrors, this was based on a true story. Alexander ‘Sawney’ Bean was the head of a Scottish clan in the 16th century. Legend has it that he lived in a coastal cave with Black Agnes, a vicious woman who was rumoured to be a witch. Between them, they had eight sons, six daughters, 18 grandsons and 14 granddaughters, with many of the grandchildren being products of incest. They survived by robbing and killing those who dared to walk by; they would dismember the corpses, eat some parts fresh and pickle the rest. The family supposedly murdered and cannibalised over 1,000 people. One story says that when they were finally caught, the men had their genitalia, hands and feet cut off and left to bleed to death. The women and children were burned alive.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
The original - not the remake (we don't talk about the remake). A firm favourite with horror fans, A Nightmare on Elm Street was the first film in what was to be a massive franchise. Teenager Tina Grey had a nightmare; she was attacked by a disfigured, burnt man wearing blades on his hand before waking up. However, she notices that her nightdress is ripped. Later, her boyfriend Rod awakes to find Tina being dragged across the floor and ceiling by an unseen entity; she is cut to ribbons and eventually dies. Freddy Krueger, a child killer burnt alive by the kids' parents, has returned to take revenge on the families that killed him.
Since the success of the film, director Wes Craven told how he found inspiration from a sad story about a refugee child from the Cambodian genocide. The child was too scared to sleep and was terrified of being attacked in his dreams and not waking. Craven said ‘when he finally fell asleep, his parents thought this crisis was over. Then, they heard screams in the middle of the night. By the time they got to him, he was dead. He died in the middle of a nightmare.’ Strangely, this wasn’t a one-off incident. In the 80s, dozens of refugees mysteriously died in their sleep, mainly young men in their 20s and 30s. The L. A. Times ran headlines such as ‘Night Deaths of Asian Men Unexplained’. Some blamed nerve gas they may have been exposed to, but, as Doctor Larry Lewan said, ‘nerve gas doesn’t act this way. There’s no evidence. Secondly, if it was nerve gas, why does it affect only males and why only during the night?’. Good question.
Child’s Play (1988)
I think most of us know the story of Child’s Play, the killer doll possessed by serial killer Charles Lee Ray (played by the excellent Brad Dourif). After being chased by a homicide detective and fatally shot, Charles uses voodoo to transfer his soul to a Good Guy doll, that year's must-have Christmas toy. Karen Barclay buys the doll for her 6-year-old son, and chaos and violence ensue when the child realises ‘Chucky’ is alive.
Although screenplay writer Don Mancini says it was based on the Cabbage Patch Dolls Christmas craze of the 80s, many believe he took inspiration from a real-life ‘haunted’ toy, Robert the Doll. Robert is a 40” doll, created as a one-off by the Steiff company and may have been initially painted to look like a clown or a joker. He resides at the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West, Florida. Before being given to the museum, Robert belonged to Robert Eugene Otto (known as Gene), who had been gifted the doll by his grandfather in 1904. He had real-life what people described as, ‘an ‘unhealthy’ relationship with the doll that continued into adulthood. According to the legends, Robert moves, giggles, and is very aware of what is going on. As a child, Gene would say, ‘I didn’t do it, Robert did it,’ and people would report hearing footsteps that weren’t Gene’s. Reporter Malcolm Ross said when seeing Robert for the first time, ‘It was like a metal bar running down my back, at first when we walked through the door, the look on his face was like a little boy being punished.’ When someone commented on Gene being a fool, the doll’s look changed to disdain. After being displayed in the museum, cameras & electrics would malfunction, and accidents await those who disrespect Robert.
The People Under the Stairs (1991)
Personally, it is one of my favourites from Wes Craven, and I believe it is seriously underrated. This comedy horror starts with the young Fool and his family being evicted by the Robesons. The Robesons are a couple called Mommy & Daddy and have a daughter called Alice and a ridiculous amount of wealth thanks to greed. Fool breaks into the Robeson house with two men, Leroy and Spencer. They find Spencer dead in the basement, but, possibly more disturbingly, they find cages of deformed children. Leroy is found by Mommy & Daddy and is shot dead, while Fool escapes to another part of the house where he meets Alice. Here, she explains about the children in the basement; if they see evil, their eyes are removed. If they hear evil, their ears are removed. If they speak evil, their tongues are removed. Can Fool and Alice escape the disturbed Mommy & Daddy?
The inspiration for this film came from a newspaper article Craven had read. Burglars had targeted a house and broke in, resulting in the police being called. The police arrived at the scene and were confronted with a horrifying scene. The couple who lived in the house had two children locked in the basement with no way of escaping. I can’t find much on this original story but, shockingly, there are many similar stories. Joseph Fritzl kept his daughter Elisabeth in a secret compartment in the basement of their house. He repeatedly raped her and even had children with her. David Allen & Louise Ann Turpin kept their 13 children in captivity, tied to beds, beaten, starved, and only allowed to shower once a year. Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped by Wolfgang Přiklopil and kept prisoner in a cellar for over eight years. And these stories don’t even scratch the surface.
Scream (1996)
Another Wes Craven classic, this slasher film became a hit thanks to the creepy villain Ghostface. In the first scene, student Casey receives a phone call from an unknown person. The caller threatens her and then reveals her boyfriend tied up outside on the patio. The caller asks her questions about horror films but murders her boyfriend after she gets one wrong. Casey is murdered, and her corpse is left hanging from a tree for her parents to find. Other students, especially protagonist Sydney, start receiving phone calls, and the brutal murders continue.
Craven took his inspiration from Daniel Harold Rolling, more infamously known as The Gainesville Ripper. It was 24th August 1990 when Rolling broke into an apartment occupied by 17-year-old students Sonja Larson and Christina Powell. He stabbed Sonja to death before raping and stabbing Christina. A day later, he raped, murdered, and decapitated 18-year-old Christa Hoyt. On the 27th, he broke into the apartment of 23-year-old Tracy Paules and Manny Taboada. After struggling with Manny, Rolling killed him before raping and murdering Tracy. Apart from Manny, all the victims were petite, Caucasian brunettes with brown eyes. At trial, he told how his motive was to become a ‘superstar’ like Ted Bundy. Urgh. He was executed on 25th October 2006.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Lawyer Erin Bruner takes the case of Father Richard Moore, a Catholic priest charged with negligent homicide. He had tried to perform an exorcism on 19-year-old Emily Rose, who was believed to have been possessed by a demon; ultimately, this resulted in her death. Throughout the trial, there are flashbacks to what happened to Emily. An argument between beliefs in the supernatural and science ensues, with more questions being asked than answered.
The film was based on the exorcism of Anna Elisabeth ‘Anneliese’ Michel, born on 21st September 1952. At the age of 16, she had a seizure and was diagnosed with psychosis, followed by a diagnosis of depression. Anneliese began to hear voices and wouldn’t allow religious items near her despite being on medication. Her family became convinced she was possessed, and the exorcisms began in secret; they stopped all contact with medical staff and relied entirely on the Catholic Church. Anneleise would crawl around on the floor, barking like a dog and licking her urine off the floor. She broke the bones in her knees and damaged her tendons from kneeling in prayer. After 67 sessions, Anneliese died of malnourishment and dehydration whilst being restrained; she was 23 years old. The priests were found guilty of manslaughter and received a 6-month suspended sentence. The courts believed the parents had suffered enough, and they were free to walk.
An American Crime (2007)
This film centres around Gertrude Baniszewski, a mother who agrees to look after two young girls, Sylvia and Jennie, while their parents move around with a travelling carnival. The deal is that the parents will pay Gertrude $20 a week towards their care. The sisters are viciously beaten with a belt when there is no sign of the money. Soon after, Sylvia regularly becomes the brunt of Gertrude’s temper, and her life becomes a living hell.
This film was based on the sickening story of Sylvia Likens, and tragically, the film was pretty accurate in its retelling. Sylvia was born on 3rd January 1949, and was just 16 years old when she was placed into the care of Baniszewski. If payments from her parents were ever late, she would be beaten while Baniszewski was shouting, ‘Well, I took care of you two little bitches for a week for nothing’. It wasn’t long before Sylvia received the majority of the abuse, physical and emotional. It started with Sylvia being kept hungry, thirsty, beaten, and accused of theft. Baniszewski became convinced that Sylvia was having sex with numerous boys and, after noticing a slight swelling on her stomach, decided Sylvia was pregnant (she wasn’t). Sylvia was kicked repeatedly in the genitals and stomach; this continued until Sylvia was left incontinent due to the damage caused. She was forced to eat a hot dog covered in condiments, and when it caused her to vomit, she was made to eat that too. Baniszewski’s children joined in with the beatings and humiliation, and even the neighbourhood kids were invited around. They could pay to watch Sylvia strip and masturbate and burn her with cigarettes. It wasn’t long before Sylvia was kept permanently naked and forced to live in the basement, and the words ‘I’m a prostitute and proud of it’ were carved brutally into her stomach. She died from malnourishment and injuries on 26th October 1965. Despite many people, including neighbours and family, being aware of the abuse, no one reported it.
Compliance (2012)
Compliance is based at ChickWich fast food restaurant. The manager, Sandra, receives a call from ‘Officer Daniels’, who claims he has had complaints from a customer who was stolen from in the restaurant. Employee Becky is identified from the description, and ‘Officer Daniels' insists that Sandra detains Becky and does exactly as he says.
This film was based on the strip search phone call scams, specifically The Mount Washington scam. McDonald’s assistant manager, Donna Summers, was working in Mount Washington, Kentucky, when an ‘Officer Scott’ called the store. He claimed the manager had asked him to phone, and he gave a vague description of an employee accused of theft. Summers believed it matched the appearance of Louise Ogborn. The ‘officer’ demanded she be brought into an office and stripped (this was witnessed by another assistant manager, Kim Dockery). A cook was then asked to watch Ogborn, and then Summers asked her fiancée, Walter Nix JR, to watch Ogborn while Summers worked. The caller was on the phone the whole time, and Nix simply obeyed everything the caller asked him to do. This included making her dance and jump while naked, searching inside her vagina, and even forcing her to perform oral sex on Nix. After 2 hours, Nix left, and maintenance man Thomas Simms took over watching Ogborn but refused the caller's demands (hurrah for a bit of common sense, finally!). Summers realised something didn’t seem quite right (she’s a natural Sherlock) and rang the manager. He confirmed he hadn’t spoken to anybody about a theft. The real police were alerted, and the caller, David Stewart, was arrested (and later acquitted). Nix was arrested and pleaded guilty to sexual assault, and Summers was fired and given probation for false imprisonment. Ogborn, unsurprisingly, suffered from PTSD and received millions in compensation.
Hounds of Love (2016)
In the film, teenager Vicki Maloney is struggling with her parent’s separation and sneaks out to attend a local party. While out, she gets into the car of John & Evelyn White, a seemingly normal couple who offer her a lift. Before long, Vicki is being held captive by John & Evelyn in their house, with violence and domination inevitable. Vicki needs to escape before she’s murdered, and her only chance is to drive a wedge between the evil couple.
The film was based on a real-life couple from Perth, Western Australia, called David John Birnie & Catherine Margaret Birnie. In 1986, they murdered four women and tried to kill a 5th in just over five weeks, and they became known as The Moorhouse Murders. Their first victim was Mary Neilson (22 years old). They gagged her before chaining her to the bed. David raped her and strangled her to death while Catherine watched. Susannah Candy was 15 years old. The same fate awaited her, except this time, Catherine was the one to sexually assault the victim and kill her. Nolene Patterson was 31 years old and kept prisoner by the sadistic couple for three days; this was enough time for David to form an emotional attachment. Catherine grew jealous and ordered him to kill Nolene, which he did. Denise Brown was 21 years old when she accepted a ride from them; she, too, was chained up and raped before being killed with an axe. Kate Moir was their final victim. She escaped after Catherine forgot to chain her to the bed. The male police didn’t believe her story, but Constable Laura Handcock did, leading to the arrest of the couple.
Those are 10 films inspired by actual events. It ended up turning into a bit of a Wes Craven lovefest completely unintentionally, but I don’t see that as a bad thing. What do you think? What are your favourite films based on true events? As always, let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks for reading, take care of yourselves, and I will see you soon!
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