Scary Movies Inspired By True Stories

It is Halloween month, which means we’re going to up our spooky content game. Since so many of you saw similarities between the 2009 movie the orphan and the true story of Natalia Barnett, I thought it was high time we did a list of scary movies that were inspired by real-life events. Grab your candy corn and buckle up, You’re about to the top 10 scary movies that were based on true stories.

Top 10 Scary Movies Inspired By True Stories

10, Child’s Play.

so the doll that inspired Child’s play wasn’t as scary looking as Chuckie, but the story that goes along with him is definitely spooky. It goes back to 1909 when painter and author Robert Eugene Otto claimed that one of his servants put a voodoo curse on his childhood toy, Robert The Doll. Apparently, this female servant had been abused by his family, this was of course at a time when slavery was common, so she put a curse on Robert to get back at the family. Robert the doll put a sort of spell over otto, and otto would talk to him like he was a friend and his parents would often hear him having conversations with himself.





The scary thing is, otto’s parents heard the replies from Robert, that were made in a completely different voice. But that’s not all, Robert would move around on his own, from room to room. Otto would always blame Robert when furniture would get knocked over or when misfortune struck the family.

Otto’s parents would also wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of Otto screaming, and when they went to check on him, they saw Robert the doll by his bedside and all the furniture in his room tossed around. Robert the doll was eventually banished to the attic of Otto’s home until his death in 1974 when a new family moved in. The home’s new owners also claimed that Robert the doll would cause strange incidents. If you’re interested, you can actually go and see Robert. He’s on display at the Key West Fort East Martello Museum.

9, Open Water.

Open water is a film about an American couple who were abandoned by accident in shark-infested waters during their Bahamas vacation. It was an amazing film that was shot with handheld cameras on a budget. Open water is actually based on the story of Tom and Eileen Lonergan, American tourists who disappeared off Australia’s great barrier reef in January 1998. They’d spent years traveling the world, but before they returned home, they went to the great barrier reef.

They took a day trip on a passenger boat, where a crew would take them on 3 dives. On the 3rd dive at around 3 pm, they dove down together and were last spotted swimming about 12 meters down. When they came back up, the passenger boat had left without them. The danger of being left in the middle of the ocean is not drowning, but dehydration. A day later, on another boat tour, a diver found six dive weights on the bottom, but still, the crew had no idea they were left by tom and Eileen, who might have still been alive at that point.

And herein lies the thrill of the movie Several months later, a fisherman 100 miles north of the dive site found a dive slate, scribbled with the words, Monday, January 26th, 1998, at 8 am. To anyone who can help us. We have been abandoned on the Agincourt reef by MV outer edge. Please help us come to rescue us before we die, help. Over the following months, other belongings, including Eileen's wetsuit, fins, and dive jackets were found. The couple did not die by shark attack as the couple in the film open water. Instead, they likely died from a combination of dehydration and drowning. In case you’re wondering what happened to tom and Eileen sparked international outrage. No one even knew they were missing until toms wallet and their passports were found on the boat. Regardless, it was by most accounts an accident. An accident that inspired the 2004 film, open water.

8, Psycho.



He was sent to live out the rest of his life in psychiatric institutions. He finally passed away at age 77 at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in 1984. There were a couple similarities between Norman Bates and Ed Gein. Both had obsessions with their mothers and both their houses contained sealed off shrines to their dead mothers, and both of them also enjoyed wearing women's clothing. But the main difference between Bates and Gein is that Gein wasn’t really a serial killer. He only killed 2 people and desecrated a bunch of graves. Bates, on the other hand, murdered around 20 people. The more you know.



Alfred Hitchcock’s classic horror, Psycho from 1960 is one of the best thriller movies of all time. It was based on a novel of the same name written by Robert Bloch. And the main character in psycho, Norman Bates was actually loosely based on the real-life psychopath, ed gein. The notorious Wisconsin murderer and grave robber. The atrocities committed by Ed Gein earned him the nickname, the mad butcher of Plainfield, and that wasn’t a nickname given lightly. Gein murdered two women and dug up dozens of bodies from several local graveyards. He took the remains of these bodies and decorated his house with items made from bones and skin. Gein was eventually caught and was found guilty, but legally insane.He was sent to live out the rest of his life in psychiatric institutions. He finally passed away at age 77 at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in 1984. There were a couple similarities between Norman Bates and Ed Gein. Both had obsessions with their mothers and both their houses contained sealed off shrines to their dead mothers, and both of them also enjoyed wearing women's clothing. But the main difference between Bates and Gein is that Gein wasn’t really a serial killer. He only killed 2 people and desecrated a bunch of graves. Bates, on the other hand, murdered around 20 people. The more you know.

7, The Shining.

that hotel? It was inspired by a real hotel that’s said to be haunted even to this day. Its called the Stanley Hotel, it's a haunted resort in the state of Colorado. The shining is the story of a hotel caretaker who’s driven insane by evil spirits. But you know what? As if that already isn’t scary enough, the real story is a lot scarier. There are 142 rooms in the hotel, but one room has a terrible history. Room 217. Room 217 used to belong to a chambermaid, Mrs. Wilson, who is spending eternity cleaning up the room she’s trapped in. Guests who have stayed in the hotel report that they have been terrorized by strange incidents.

People report they wake up to the sensation of something poking them in the ribs if their room is messy. Steven King is also said to have spent a night in room 217 while he was battling alcoholism in 1974. He apparently had a terrifying nightmare that his son was being chased down the hall by a possessed fire hose. It was this stay in the hotel that inspired steven king to write the book, the shining, which is about an alcoholic writer who spends the winter being driven crazy by spirits in a haunted hotel.

6, The Girl Next Door.

The film is based on a novel by Jack Ketchum, that follows the story of a man named David who recalls memories from his childhood about a pair of orphan girls who were sent to live with their aunt. The orphans are tortured and degraded at the hands of their family members. All the while, David struggles to decide if he should intervene. The girl next door is actually based on a true story. 16-year-old Sylvia Likens was held captive by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski.

For three months, Gertrude, her children and other kids in their neighborhood abused and tortured Sylvia until she died from her injuries. Eventually, Gertrude, her eldest daughter Paula, her son John and 2 kids from the neighborhood were tried and convicted in May of 1966 of neglecting, torturing and eventually killing Sylvia. The counsels of the defendants called the case the most diabolical to ever be presented before a court or jury. To this day, the torture and murder of Sylvia liken is the worst crime ever to be committed in Indiana.

5, The Hills Have Eyes.

The hills have eyes is a story about a family who’s car breaks down in the desert. While they are stranded, they are targeted by a group of cannibalistic mutants. How could cannibalistic mutants be real? Well.. have you ever heard about Sawney Bean? The legend of Sawney bean is one of Scotland's most shocking legends. Alexander Sawney Bean was the head of a 45 member family in Scotland back in the 16th century. He left home with a woman named Agnes Douglas who was accused of being a witch. Neither of them was a fan of honest labor, and they were said to have robbed and cannibalized an innocent victim.

They sought refuge in a coastal cave where they remained for 25 years in hiding. The cave was very deep and was blocked by water during high tide, very difficult to find and very difficult to enter. The couple bore 8 sons and 6 daughters, who had incestual relationships, and they bore 18 grandsons and 14 granddaughters. The clan was said to have survived by ambushing passers-by at night and murdering them. The bodies were brought back to their caves where they were eaten. Sometimes body parts washed up onshore. This legend is supposed to be fictional but many experts believe it was based on a real story. Wes Craven used the legend of the sawney bean as his inspiration for his 1977 film, the hills have eyes.





4, The silence of the lambs.

The silence of the lambs revolves around a cannibal named Hannibal Lecter. No one knew that the character was based on a real person until 2013 when the 25th anniversary of the silence of the lambs was released. Hannibal Lector was based on an actual doctor from Mexico, Alfredo Balli Trevino, a surgeon who was convicted of murdering and chopping up his gay lover. Thomas Harris, who wrote the book that the movie is based on, actually met Trevino in the ’60s while he was working on a story for a magazine, and managed to score an interview with him after he performed life-saving surgery on one of the inmates.

He killed his lover for one of two reasons, he found out he was leaving him, or he refused to pay back money that was owed. Either way, Trevino ended up in prison and his murder was categorized as a crime of passion. He injected a drug into his lover's body, dragged his body into a bathtub, slit his throat with a scalpel and drained the blood. Afterward, he sliced up the body and stuffed the pieces into a box. Harris described Trevino as someone who had a certain elegance about him, which is pretty interesting because the guy chopped up his lover's body. But that definitely speaks to Anthony Hopkins's portrayal of him. Interestingly, after serving 20 years, Trevino was released in the year 2000 and continued to practice medicine, providing medical care for the poor until his death in 2009.





3, A Nightmare on Elm Street.

so Freddy Krueger's freaky face wasn’t based on a real-life person so you can cool your jets about that. But a nightmare on elm street was inspired by a terrifying true story. The movie revolves around a terrifying villain, Freddy Krueger, who’s the spirit of a serial killer who uses a gloved razor hand to kills his victims in their dreams, which causes their deaths in the real world as well. Wes Craven said he was inspired by an L.A. Times article that survived the killing fields in Cambodia. The family made it to the united states, but the boy was haunted by nightmares, likely fuelled by traumatic events.

The boy told his parents that he was afraid of something that was chasing him in his dreams, and so he refused to sleep for days at a time. Of course, your body will not allow you to stay awake for days at a time, so eventually, the boy fell asleep. But his parents awoke to a scream in the middle of the night. They ran to check on their son…but by that time it was too late. The boy died in the middle of a nightmare. BROO. The boy had died from Sudden unexpected death syndrome, a condition that affects young Hmong males and Filipinos. It claims anywhere from 43 to 100 victims per year. Basically… victims die of fright from their own belief of what happens in their dreams. This is where Wes Craven got his idea for a nightmare that can kill.

2, Scream.

The screenplay for the films was written by Kevin Williamson, an actor, who was captivated and horrified after reading about the tragic events that took place during the summer of 1990 at the University of Florida. Throughout 3 nights, Danny rolling murdered 5 students. He broke into the apartment of freshman roommates aged 18 and 17 and stabbed them to death before putting their bodies in sexually suggestive positions. The next day, he did the same thing to another victim, only this time he cut off her nipples, severed her head, then placed her head on a shelf so it looked at the body. I would not have wanted to come across that crime scene. Two days later, he struck again, killing 2 roommates, a man, and a woman aged 23. The murders took a tole on the community. Universities closed for a week, students took turns at night keeping watch. But Danny rolling didn’t kill again. Police didn’t figure out it was rolling until a year later, but by that time he was already in jail for an unrelated burglary charge. He was eventually sentenced to death, but during his court appearances, rolling would sing love songs to his fiance’, Sondra London. He also sang just before he was executed 15 years later in 2006.

1, The exorcist.