Many scary movies appear too far-fetched and chilling to be true, but that’s not always the case. Some horrors have been based on true events and it’s terrifying to think that what you’re watching on screen has happened in real life…
5. Psycho (1960)
Psycho originated as a 1959 thriller written by American writer Robert Bloch. It went on to become one of the greatest horrors of all time and among Alfred Hitchcock’s most memorable productions. But, what was the truth behind the creepy Norman Bates?
It’s widely understood that Bloch’s character of Norman Bates was based on Ed Gein, a man who committed a series of gruesome crimes in America and had an unhealthy obsession with his mother. The grim truth about Gein only came to light in 1957, following the suspicious disappearance of Bernice Worden — who was later found gutted inside Gein’s house of horrors. Alongside Worden’s body was furniture made from human skin and bones, body parts from another victim and clothing items that Gein had made from human flesh.
Gein’s crimes inspired other horrors after Psycho too, such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre which had a character who wore a human face mask.
4. Eaten Alive (1977)
Eaten Alive was directed by Tobe Hooper and told the story of a savage hotel owner called Judd, who fed his victims to his pet alligator. Although the film itself was criticised by some, the true story behind the horror is worth discussing.
It is supposedly based on the murderous Joe Ball, a bar-owner who lived in a small Texan town during the 1930s. He was the owner of five alligators, who he fed with the bodies of women he had murdered. Although he was only found to have murdered two women, it’s been rumoured that he killed many more — making a name for himself as the Alligator Killer.
Ball’s five alligators were kept to the back of his saloon and were a source of entertainment for the bar’s guests some nights. He reportedly fed them with live cats, dogs and any other unfortunate animals that he came across. Many women were employed to serve tables at the bar, many of whom he entered relationships with, but then they started to go missing.
Further suspicions were raised when the bar-owner had left a dubious barrel behind a neighbour’s barn. When Ball learnt of his interest to the police, before he could be arrested he shot himself in the heart. Later on, an accomplice came forward to say that he had helped Ball murder two of his victims, but their bodies hadn’t been fed to the alligators, they were rotting nearby.
Although there was no evidence that Ball had fed human meat to his alligators, the speculations still live on. And then there was his wife, who lost an arm in a ‘car accident’. Make of that what you will…
3. The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
The Exorcism of Emily Rose follows the prosecution of Father Richard Moore, who is arrested for the death and exorcism of 19-year-old Emily Rose. The story of the young girl’s possession girl is told through flashbacks that are retold in the courtroom. Although this story seems too unrealistic to be true, there are some facts behind the film.
The real-life Emily Rose is said to be Anneliese Michel, a girl born in Germany in 1952. When she was 17, she began to suffer from convulsions and was diagnosed not long after with Grand Mal epilepsy (which can cause seizures that lead to loss of consciousness and violent muscle contractions). She then began to experience devil-like hallucinations when she went to pray and reported that she heard voices.
Anneliese carried out disturbing actions too — she ate flies and spiders, bit the head of a dead bird and could be heard screaming through the walls for a long period of time. After her parents turned to exorcisms to ‘cure’ her, they caused her a lot of bodily harm that went on for 10 months, at which point she died of severe dehydration and malnourishment. Her parents and the priests involved were all charged with her death.
It is thought today that it was schizophrenia and epilepsy which was causing her trauma.
2. Veronica (2017)
Veronica is a Spanish horror film that follows the story of a young girl and her friends, who try to summon the spirit of Veronica’s dead boyfriend with a Ouija board. They end up contacting her late father instead and they all become haunted by a terrifying force. There is some truth behind the horror though.
In Madrid in 1992, the mysterious death of Estefania Gutierrez Lazaro sparked intrigue. Similar to the story of Veronica, Estefania used a Ouija board to try and contact one of her friend’s dead boyfriends following his death in a motorcycling accident. One teacher, who interrupted the séance at school, reportedly saw smoke entering the young girl’s nose and mouth. After this happening, Miss Lazaro began suffering from unexplained seizures and hallucinations where she saw creepy shadows in her room. She eventually died in hospital, though her cause of death is still unknown.
One year on from her death, the police visited her family home, where they were greeted with loud noises from an empty porch and doors opening in an “unnatural way”. Creepy…
1. The Amityville Horror (2005)
The Amityville Horror follows the story of a married couple who move to a new house in Amityville. However, they soon discover that it has an unsettling history. And, there is some creepy truth behind the horror.
In 1976, George and Kathleen Lutz very suddenly left their newly bought house in Amityville with claims from George that a “very strong force” had driven his family from the home. George claimed the reasons behind him leaving were “because of our concern for our own personal safety as a family”. When more details emerged further down the line, it was reported that the children were thrown up the stairs by a supernatural force, one child was possessed, and eerie cold spots emerged around the house.
But was it entirely unexplained? In 1974, six members of the DeFoe family were shot dead at the same address by one of the sons who lived there too. Although he initially claimed that he found the bodies in the locked house, he was later convicted of the murders, declared mentally ill but not legally insane. Could it have been the deceased family of Defoe’s haunting the Lutz’s?
There’s still a lot of speculation surrounding the story, as certain members of the Lutz family admitted some exaggeration around their claims. Many court cases have also followed in an attempt to find the truth. Currently though, the house has been entirely renovated and was bought most recently in 2017.
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