Horror movies often give us the thrill of experiencing suspenseful and life-threatening situations without putting ourselves in danger. But they can be especially terrifying when you learn that some of them are based on true events. Reality has no shortage of horrifying stories, and some of them have been brought to the world’s attention on the big screen.
The Conjuring and Annabelle Series
The Conjuring recounts Ed and Lorraine Warrens’ investigation into the Perron family of Rhode Island. In 1971, they claimed terror at the hands of Bathsheba Sherman, a 19th Century witch who cursed the land. The Conjuring 2 takes basis from the Enfield Poltergeist, which may have haunted the North London-based Hodgson family in 1977.
The spin-offs take inspiration from another Warren case. Annabelle and Annabelle: Creation are both inspired by a story about two roommates who claimed that the spirit of a young girl named Annabelle Higgins possessed their Raggedy Ann doll. They contacted the Warrens’ due to the doll’s malicious behaviour, and it resides in their Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut to this day.
Wolf Creek
The 2005 Australian movie Wolf Creek follows three backpackers who suffer through torture at the hands of the sadistic Mick Taylor. The story is based on the real-life murders and kidnappings carried out by Ivan Milat and Bradley John Murdoch.
Milat, known as the Backpacker Killer, murdered seven travellers and buried them in the Belanglo State Forest between 1989 and 1993. Murdoch captured British tourists Peter Falconio and Falconio’s girlfriend, Joanne Lees, in 2001. He killed Falconio, but Lees managed to escape.
The Haunting in Connecticut
In 1986, Allen and Carmen Snedeker and their four children rented an old house in Southington, Connecticut. The house was once used as a mortuary, and the family claimed to suffer great horrors. Among these were the seeing water turn blood red, smelling rotting of flesh, and demons assaulting them. They contacted Ed and Lorraine Warren, and Ray Garton chronicled the events in his 1992 book In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting.
The 2009 movie, The Haunting in Connecticut, takes a lot of liberties from the accounts of the story. The movie tones down many of the horrific elements, it changes the names of the people involved, and it excludes the Warrens’ role altogether. As a result, both the Snedeker family and Garton have distanced themselves from the film.
The Mothman Prophecies
In 1966 and 1967, several people claimed sightings of a large grey man-like creature with glowing red eyes and ten-foot wings plagued the city of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Many theories have attempted to explain the phenomenon of the Mothman, but the creature is often connected to the collapse of Silver Bridge on December 15, 1967.
The most noteworthy theories originate from John Keel’s 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, adapted into a movie in 2002. Richard Gere plays a reporter who travels to Point Pleasant following the death of his wife. His attempts to solve the mystery behind the creature lead him into strange and disturbing situations.
The Town That Dreaded Sundown
Over a three month period in 1946, a mysterious serial killer terrorised the city of Texarkana, Texas. The Phantom Killer attacked several couples under cover of darkness and killed five people and wounded three others. Police never caught the killer behind these attacks and remains unidentified to this day.
Thirty years later, The Town That Dreaded Sundown immortalised the case. The movie stayed true to real events despite changing some names and switching the setting to Arkansas. The film made a major impact on the horror genre as the killer’s use of a burlap sack to disguise himself may have inspired Jason Voorhees’ appearance in Friday the 13th Part 2.
