The best horror films work because you feel, in that moment, that what you’re seeing is real. Or even if it’s not real, you feel like it could happen to you, that it’s not so far-fetched that it’s impossible. Many horror films extract very real feelings from the most outrageous material, from evil Boogeymen to demon-possessed nuns, ghosts and gremlins, and Scandinavian cults with strange summer rituals. Some even pretend, Blair witch-style, that the events you see on the screen really happened exactly as you see them.
But there are also many horror films whose plots are taken from real life. Whenever possible, posters, trailers, and promotional material make it clear in large print that everything you are about to see is BASED ON A TRUE STORY, that it actually happened to someone, and that it could happen again. Sometimes it’s a little exaggerated, and these films are loosely based on their inspiring events, but it’s always a little scarier knowing that something like this actually happened.
For this list, we celebrate those horror films inspired by real life, whether they’re retellings of famous hauntings or just horror films whose villains were inspired by a local serial killer. There’s a little bit of everything here, from ghost hauntings to witch hauntings to guys running around with chainsaws and sharks and/or crocodiles circling just below the surface. Not everything in these films is absolute truth… but some of it is.
12 horror films inspired by real events
It’s always a little scarier knowing something like this actually happened.
Gallery credit: Emma Stefansky
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Gallery credit: Emma Stefansky