Horror Movies Based on Real-Life Stories

‘Terror Street’

While there is still great debate about whether the paranormal events that allegedly occurred at 112 Ocean Ave. in Amityville, NY are true, the murders that led to the story being written are certainly true.

On November 13, 1974, 23-year-old Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr. He got up in the middle of the night and fatally shot his entire family: his parents, Louise and Robert Sr. and his siblings Dawn, Allison, Marc and John. . According to Syfy, he then ran to a nearby bar to report the crime and initially tried to blame it on someone else before confessing that he had committed the murders.

DeFeo Jr. A year after he was sent to prison, the family home was put up for sale when George and Kathleen Lutz moved in with their three children. The Lutzes would continue to report a number of paranormal activities occurring in the house; Street of Terror origin. Apparently, the abuse was so severe that they had to flee the house in the middle of the night, just a month after moving in.

The Lutzes’ story has been the subject of much debate, especially considering that the next family to inherit the house (James and Barbara Cromarty) resided in the residence for ten years without any paranormal incidents.

‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’

No, there has never been a real child killer haunting young people’s dreams.

But the concept of Freddy Kruger emerged A Nightmare on Elm Street director Wes Craven after reading an article about a boy who died in his sleep after experiencing terrifying night terrors..

“I would read an article Los Angeles Times “It’s about a family who escapes the Killing Fields in Cambodia and manages to reach the United States,” he said. Vulture In 2014. “Everything was fine and then suddenly his little boy started having very disturbing nightmares. “He told his parents that he was afraid that whatever was chasing him would catch him if he slept, so he tried to stay awake for days.”

“When he finally fell asleep, his family thought the crisis was over. Then they heard screams in the middle of the night. When they arrived, he was dead. He died in the middle of a nightmare. Here it was.” He had a vision of horror that was denied by young and old alike. This became the main thrust of the story. A Nightmare on Elm Street.“

‘Magic’

Although filmmakers had some creative freedom in making the film Magic, The gist of the story is based on the real-life Roger and Carolyn Perron, who moved into 1677 Round Top Road in Rhode Island in 1971 and experienced some supposed paranormal activity in the house.

And although paranormal investigators Ed Warren (a self-described demonologist) and his wife Lorraine Warren, a clairvoyant and medium, play a large role in the film, they were not an integral part of the story. Magic in real life. According to actually Providence Magazine When they arrived, Roger Perron kicked them out of the house.

The film is based on books written by Andrea Perron, the couple’s eldest daughter who is old enough to remember the spooky events.

‘Annabelle’

According to the Warrens, the ghosts of the real-life Annabelle doll were so terrifying that they had to lock her up in their occult museum in Monroe, Connecticut.

And although their story has never been confirmed, according to All That’s Interesting, paranormal investigators claim they were summoned by a priest named Father Cooke when two young women – Donna and Angie – wanted to perform an exorcism to get rid of a demon’s spirit. Her dolls included a dead 7-year-old girl named Annabelle Higgins.

By then, Donna and Angie had been informed by a medium that Annabelle’s spirit was “benevolent and just wanted to be loved and cared for,” according to All That’s Interesting.

However, upon arrival, the Warrens explained to the young women that they had been misinformed and that Annabelle was “in search of a human host.” The couple ordered an exorcism and then transported the doll to the occult museum, where it currently resides.

‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’

With a star-studded cast including Laura Linney, Campbell Scott, Tom Wilkinson and, of course, Jennifer Carpenter, events The Exorcism of Emily Rose almost as chilling as the real-life events on which the film is loosely based.

Emily Rose is inspired by a 19-year-old teenager named Anneliese Michel, who died after almost 70 exorcism sessions in Bavaria, West Germany, according to Collider.

Raised in a deeply religious family, Michel was diagnosed with schizophrenia and epilepsy in his youth. However, things took a dark turn when her convulsions turned into hallucinations and she began to believe she was possessed. Michel then insisted on exorcism, and his parents sought help from Father Arnold Renz and Father Ernst Alt, who performed a series of exorcisms starting in September 1975.

According to Collider, “Anneliese frequently needed to be restrained, either by holding her or chaining her to a chair, during hour-long rituals.”

The young teenager died on July 1, 1976, and his parents, Ana and Joseph Michel, along with the clergy, were charged with negligent homicide because he had stopped taking his medication and was found to be malnourished and dehydrated. The Exorcism of Emily Rose It follows the complex case of four adults who have to debate the validity of their beliefs and the facts of the case.

Collider says all parties were found guilty, but “barely given leniency, sentenced only to prison, and given three months probation.”

‘Spiritualist’

Although this case did not end as tragically as Anneliese Michel’s case, the events behind it Spiritualist still fascinating.

Thirteen-year-old Roland Doe was grieving the death of his Aunt Harriett, a spiritualist who “taught him many things, including how to use a Ouija board,” according to All That’s Interesting.

After Harriett’s death, the child began to experience strange events; scratching the wall, seeing water mysteriously dripping from the pipes and walls, and most frighteningly, feeling your bed moving.

His family then sought help from some Catholic priests, and Father E. Albert Hughes performed the first exorcism on Doe in February 1949. A few days after the ritual, scratches spelling out “Louis” appeared on Doe’s body, which her mother took to mean that they needed to leave Maryland to get more help.

Family St. He went to St. Louis, where he met St. Louis, who agreed to expel young Roland. They connected with the Rev. Walter H. Halloran and the Rev. William Bowdern of St. Louis University. They worked on the child until April of the same year; eventually the boy revealed that the demon possessing him was gone.

Decades later, it was revealed that the young boy had grown up to a completely normal adulthood. According to this Vanity FairRoland Doe was actually NASA engineer Ronald Edwin Hunkeler, who helped land on the moon in 1969. His identity was only revealed after his death in 2020.

‘Poltergeist’

Steven Spielberg knows how to make an outstanding movie for 1982PoltergeistThe screenwriter had a lot of material to work with.

The film is based on real-life events that took place at the Herrmann home in Seaford, Long Island in the ’50s.

According to LongIsland.com, one morning in February 1958, James Herrmann received a phone call from his distraught wife Lucille, saying strange things were happening in their home. The teenagers, who reportedly heard inexplicable popping noises around the house, later found caps filled with “shampoo, bleach and a bottle of holy water” removed from the respective bottles. The family ignored this macabre event; James even believed that a strange chemical reaction might have caused the explosion.

However, strange events increased in the following weeks. Once, the Herrmanns even called the police, but the police could not explain. Devout Catholics then appealed to a priest, but after he prayed over the house, things “escalated further with figures shattering and a bookshelf randomly falling.” The Seaford ghost case was covered nationally and Life Magazine published an article about it.

After documenting 70 separate incidents between February 3 and March 10, 1958, the Herrmanns evacuated their suburban home.

‘Ritual’

Story Ritual loosely based on a book titled Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist By Matt Baglio.

Although some aspects of the film are exaggerated for dramatic effect, the true story goes like this: Father Gary Thomas had been selected to study exorcism when he met journalist Matt Baglio at an exorcism class. From there, Baglio followed the priest as he traveled around Rome to fulfill his new mission.

Currently, the real-life Father Thomas is at St. Thomas in Menlo Park, California. He serves as director of the foundation year program at Patrick Seminary and University.

‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’

Most of what goes on in Texas Chainsaw Massacre disturbing. But perhaps no other character in the movies is as scary as Leatherface, the menacing basement-dwelling killer who eats people and disfigures their faces after killing them.

And while the character was never a real person, his characteristics were based on serial killer Ed Gein, who was known to “exhume corpses from cemeteries and leave memories with their bones and skin.” Cosmos.

‘Foreigners’

This Bryan Bertino thriller is a combination of three separate real-life events. First, and perhaps most obviously, the fictional thriller is inspired by the Manson Family home invasion and murder of Sharon Tate and her friends Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, and Wojciech Frykowski, as well as the visiting caretaker of the house, Steven Parent.

Foreigners According to Screen Rant, some parts of the Keddie Cabin Murders, in which four people were killed in a small resort town in California, are also included in this movie. The case went cold because the killers were never caught.

Finally, Bertino also took inspiration from his own childhood for the film. One day, while the famous director was alone at home, he was frightened by a group of strangers who knocked on his door and asked for someone who did not live there. Although he later learned that the perpetrators had robbed unoccupied houses, the incident left an unforgettable mark on the future director and he used the incident as part of the film.