The 18 best horror movies based on real events

Fear is not exactly a pleasant emotion. However, many people enjoy watching movies of this genre film. And it is that this type of feature films arouse great terror in the viewer, with shocking and tense scenes that, often, produce great anguish.

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Horror movies based on real events

Horror films, although they are usually fictional works, in some cases, are based on real cases.

Here we present you the best films of this genre that have their origin in certain stories.

1. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Freddy Krueger is one of the best known characters in horror movies. The physical appearance of him: with the burned face, the green and red striped sweater, his hat and his knife gloves, he makes Freddy truly a terrifying monster. Although many find it difficult to believe that this story is true, because Freddy appears in the nightmares of the children and adolescents of Elm Street to murder them, he was inspired by a real case.

As Wes Craven, the creator of this feature film, tells the origin of "Nightmare in Elm street" He is in a family that fled the concentration camps in Cambodia to the United States. The vast majority of relatives recovered from their black past, but one of the sons, who suffered nightmares from the Cambodian genocide, died in his sleep.

2. Devil Doll

Another of the myths of horror movies is "Chucky", the diabolical doll. This story, which seems untrue, was based on what happened to Robert Eugene Otto. Well, it was more based on a legend. It turns out that Otto received a gift from his maid. He was a doll he called Robert. Apparently, the maid was a practitioner of black magic. Since he received the gift, Otto spoke alone and strange things began to happen in the home where he lived. Otto claimed that the doll had a life of its own and some neighbors said that the doll would look out the window when no one was home.

The parents decided to lock the doll in the attic. Years passed and, after the death of Otto's parents and due to his inheritance, he returned to his old home and was reunited with the doll. At first she found it curious to meet again with this close bond with him, but supernatural things happened and she decided to lock him up again. But when Otto died, the house came into the hands of another family, and the daughter, by chance, came across the Robert doll. The little she did not seem to like the doll, that she tried to murder him. This story (or legend) inspired the story of Chucky, and Robert is currently in a museum.

3. Shark (1975)

Few are unaware of the story of a gigantic white shark that makes the life of a series of bathers bitter. This story, inspired by a novel by Peter Benchley, is based on what happened in 1916, in New Jersey, when five bathers disappeared. The remains of three of them were found in the stomach of a large shark, and nothing was heard from the rest. It seems clear that the great shark had something to do with it. "Shark" It is a true classic.

4. Psychosis (1960)

Psycho is one of the most successful and remembered scary movies. This Alfred Hitchcock film is based on the story of Ed Gein, one of the most notorious murderers in America's criminal history. The also known as "butcher of Plainfield" (Wisconsin) committed several crimes and his case reached Hollywood. You can know her biography in our two articles:

• Life and psychological portrait of Ed Gein, "the Plainfield butcher" (1/2)
• Life and psychological portrait of Ed Gein, “the Plainfield butcher” (2/2)

5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is another movie inspired by Ed Gein's macabre story. This character, despite his numerous crimes, only killed two people. Ed Gein also inspired the movie "The Silence of the Lambs."

6. Terror in Amityville (1979)

This classic horror film arises from the events that took place in 1975 at 112 Ocean Avenue, in Amityville. This was the new home of the Lutz family, who had to leave the house shortly after. According to legend, it is a cursed house, since previously, on November 13, 1974, the DeFeo family was murdered there.

7. The girl next door (2007)

The girl next door is one of those films in which real life goes beyond fiction. It is based on the story of Sylvia likens, a young woman who was given to a family to take care of her. Sylvia's family and some neighbors abused her to death.

8. Henry: portrait of a murderer (1986)

A film by John McNaughton, who spent several years anonymous due to his brutality until it was released. Henry Lee Lucas, is the character and inspiration of the film, a psychopath who murdered eleven people.

9. Inseparable (1988)

This feature film tells the story of two gynecologist twins who served the upper class of New York. They were inseparable, they exchanged in meetings and even women. But his life changed when they met a model and it all ended in tragedy.

10. The Exorcist

We all know the movie "The Exorcist". It is based on the stories of Anneliese Michel and Ronald Doe, who were exorcized. The latter case is also the inspiration for a book by writer William Peter Blatty, which inspired the script for the film.

11. Ente (1981)

Another of those stories that are not quite credible but that attract the attention of film directors. This film is about Doris Bither who, in 1974, claimed that she had been repeatedly violated by a paranormal entity: a mysterious invisible creature. It is true that this is unlikely, but this curious story was the inspiration for this film.

12. Zodiac (2007)

This film reviews the history of the Zodiac killer, that he was a psychopath who performed in California between December 1968 and October 1969 and who allegedly murdered 37 people. The film tells how Robert Graysmith (in the film Jake Gyllenhaal) becomes obsessed with the case and sets aside his private life to try to find the murderer.

13. Borderland

This film tells the story of three friends from school, who come across a sect that makes sacrifices on the border of Mexico with the United States. This movie is based on real events that happened in 1989, in Matamoros (Mexico). It is about the murderer Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo.

14. The Boston Strangler (1968)

The film is based on the life of Albert de Salvo, known as the Boston Strangler, a murderer who terrorized the inhabitants of this North American city in the early 70s. It is a great film that makes the hair stand on end, in which the history of this criminal character is revived.

15. Citizen X (1994)

Andrei Chikatilo He is one of the best-known assassins in the former Soviet Union, and this film focuses on the ghoulish case of him. But it does not treat the story from the character of the criminal, but from the lives of the people who go in search of him. This killer killed 53 people.

16. The mud boy (2007)

A story that is based on the case of Cayetano Santos (better known as Petiso Orejudo), an Argentine boy committed several murders. However, the story deviates from the original content and esoteric scenes appear. A scary movie that you cannot miss.

16. From hell

A fiction that is inspired by the events that occurred around the figure of Jack the Guttedr. During 1888, the inhabitants of the district of Whitechapel (London), lived a wave of crimes. Five were the victims of this psychopath whose identity is still unknown today.

• Related article: "Jack the Ripper: analyzing the psychology of the famous criminal”

17. Gacy the Killer Clown (2003)

The clown is a figure who is responsible for making children's parties fun and memorable. But a well-known case, that of the clown John Wayne Gacy, turned this adorable image of clowns into terrifying. and macabre history, as he committed several dozen crimes. This movie is based on his case.

• You can learn more about this case in our article: "John Wayne Gacy, the grim case of the killer clown”

18. Deranged (1974)

The case of Ed Gein, which has been discussed previously, was not only curious because of the murders he committed, but because the police found in his house a large number of corpses that belonged to the robbery of bodies of various graves. This feature film, like many others, is inspired by his case.

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