There’s a common denominator with just about all horror movies: Some will survive, and some will fall victim to the killer. But what happens when the nightmares of a horror movie aren’t on the screen anymore and are now real life? What would you do if your worst nightmare became reality? Would you be a victim, or would you be a survivor?

Survivor: a person who survives, especially a person remaining alive after an event in which others have died.

You all know the cardinal rules of surviving a horror movie:

• Don’t have sex.

• Don’t drink or do drugs.

• Don’t say “I’ll be right back,” “Hello?” or “Who’s there?”

But what are the rules of surviving a real life horror situation?

• Don’t accept rides from strangers.

• Don’t take candy from strangers.

• Always lock your doors.

• Never answer your door if you don’t know who it is.

• Always be aware of your surroundings.

…and the list goes on and on, and even if you follow these rules, you still may fall victim to a crazy serial killer like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, etc., their crimes too horrendous to ignore.

Here are some people who survived real life horror and lived to tell about it. Some you may have heard of; others you may not have.

Teresa Thornhill

Robert Black was a convicted child murderer and pedophile who claimed four young victims in Scotland between the 1970s and 1990s. Teresa Thornhill was one of the few known survivors of his attacks.

Teresa was 15 at the time and was walking home when Robert Black saw her. He was parked in a van by her house and told Teresa that he was having car trouble; he asked if she knew anything about engines. When she got closer, he grabbed her and placed his hand over her mouth, pinned her arms by her sides, and tried to pull her into his van through the back doors. She screamed and bit his arm, causing him to drop her just as one of Teresa’s friends came running up to help, scaring Black off. She ran to her home and her parents called the police. But it was too late; he had already disappeared.

Two years later Teresa remained traumatized by her experience, almost never going outside. She was one of the witnesses to testify against him at his trial, where he was convicted of three murders as well as her kidnapping. He received a life sentence for his crimes. To this day, police are still investigating his case and suspect him of many more murders.

Corazon Atienza

Corazon opened the door to her apartment on that fateful night of July 13, 1966, and unknowingly allowed the brutal killer Richard Speck into her and her roommates’ home. Speck proceeded to rape, stab, and mutilate her roommates while Corazon, wracked with fear, hid under the bed in the room. At one point, one of her friends was being assaulted on the bed directly above her. The attacks went on for almost six hours while she dared not to even whimper the entire time. Finally, at around five in the morning, it was over. Because he was highly intoxicated, he forgot about her and left.

She escaped through a bedroom window after he left and screamed for help. Her screams were heard by her neighbors, and her horrific nightmare came to an end. Speck was caught shortly afterwards, and nine months later a jury took only 49 minutes of deliberation to sentence him to the electric chair.

Larry Flynt

Yes, THE Larry Flynt of Hustler. He was almost assassinated by Joseph Paul Franklin in an event that left Mr. Flynt paralyzed from the waist down after he was hit by two bullets from Franklin’s high-powered rifle.

Paul Franklin was a serial killer who was tried and convicted for eight murders across the United States between 1977 and 1980. He claimed to have killed a dozen more in an attempt to start a race war. Franklin was a Neo-Nazi and a member of the Ku Klux Klan who spoke of being “at war.” Franklin believed that Flynt was a direct contradiction to his highly religious beliefs and his moral stance against pornography.

Franklin received the death penalty. Flynt actually lobbied for Franklin’s sentence to be commuted to life in prison due to his stance against the death penalty itself, but despite Flynt’s best efforts, Joseph Franklin was executed in November 2013.

Jennifer Asbenson

Jennifer was walking to a bus stop to catch the bus that would drop her near the children’s home where she worked. She decided to go to the store that was by the bus stop and make a purchase, but by doing so missed the bus. Moments later Andrew Urdiales pulled up in a car and asked her if she needed a ride. Being that he did not seem threatening and seemed like a nice guy, she accepted the ride. He dropped her off for work in time for her shift, which ran from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. and drove off.

When she got off work, Urdiales was standing outside waiting for her. He said, “Let me give you a ride home.” She was not frightened him at all, and her thoughts were that he wasn’t dangerous and that if he had wanted to do something to her, he could have done it the evening before. As a result, she accepted the ride once again.

But things changed once she was in the car this time. He put a knife to her throat, tied her hands behind her back, and drove off to the desert. He then forced her to perform sexual acts, tried to rape her, and then strangled her. He played around with her by opening the door telling her to get out; yet, just as she was about to run, he yanked her back by her hair and put her in the trunk, where she desperately searched for the release mechanism. When she found it, she waited for what seemed the right moment and jumped out onto the road. She was found by some Marines, who drove her to safety. Urdiales was later caught and convicted of the murder of two other women and given the death penalty. Then later he was convicted of another murder and received another death sentence. He was then convicted again in California for the murders of five other women.

Tali Shapiro

On the way to school on the morning of September 25, 1969, Tali was walking along when Rodney Alcala (also known as “The Dating Game Killer”) stopped her and asked her if she wanted a ride. She told Alcala that she wasn’t allowed to talk to strangers, but Alcala told her that he knew her family and it would be okay. Alcala eventually enticed her inside his car by telling her that he had a beautiful picture to show her.

Alcala then took Tali to his nearby apartment, where he beat and sexually assaulted her. Luckily for Tali, a good samaritan who had seen Alcala with her and thought it was suspicious called police, who broke down the door to find her lying in a pool of blood, unconscious and naked with her legs spread apart and a bar across her neck. Alcala was eventually convicted of child molestation for that crime, but he was then later convicted of the murder and torture of five other young girls. He was sentenced to death.

We should applaud these survivors and all the other survivors out there. Playing by “the rules” does not guarantee that you would survive a killer’s attack, but at least if you play them, you may have a chance at becoming a survivor instead of a victim.