Horror Buff StuffAre you the "horror person" on your virtual trivia team? Meet your new secret weapon: lists about everything even you don't know about movies scarier than the sound of a child's laughter in a cemetery after dark.
Updated October 22, 2020 30.7K votes 6.6K voters 523.4K views
Voting Rules
Vote up the movies you still love, even if they aren't factually accurate.
Based on a true story. It's a tagline sure to attract curious viewers to any movie making the claim, but horror movies supposedly based on true stories are especially compelling. The idea that creepy and unexplainable events are happening all around us, and that real people have to live through such terrifying traumas, are unspeakably compelling. Sadly, however, the truth can sometimes get lost in creative interpretation.
So, while some classic movies may declare otherwise, these horror films claiming to be true are, in reality, stretching the real stories to fit a certain narrative. In many cases, events have been greatly embellished to create a more chilling and powerful story. In other instances, the movies are based on outright fabrications, and are basically entirely fictional. Hollywood is Hollywood after all, and making up exciting stories is what they do best. Let's explore a few horror films that aren't based on true stories... despite what the filmmakers might claim.
The Conjuring has a stronger factual basis than most other horror movies "based on a true story." Paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren did indeed meet a family, The Perrons, who were experiencing what, for all intents and purposes, was a haunting.
But the movie took some pretty substantial creative liberties with their story. The biggest stretch was the movie's portrayal of Mrs. Perron trying to kill her own kids. By all recorded accounts, that just never happened.
Actors: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor, Ron Livingston, Shanley Caswell
Some of the events in The Exorcistreally happened, but the larger story is all fiction. William Peter Blatty, who wrote the novel the film was based on, used a single newspaper article about a teenage boy who claimed to be possessed by demons as his inspiration. "Everything is made up," Blatty told The Washington Post. And, yes, that includes the head-twisting and pea-soup vomiting.
Actors: Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn
The classic film The Amityville Horror takes place in a home haunted by restless and vengeful spirits, who do their best to try and drive out the new owners. While the Lutzes, the real-life family who lived through this experience, stand by their story, others have raised questions.
There are more than a few inconsistencies in the Lutzes' recollections, and some theorize they were just trying to make a profit off the real tragedy: six murders occurred in their house the year before they moved in.
Actors: James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don Stroud, Natasha Ryan
The Conjuring 2is said to be based on the "true story" of the Enfield Poltergeist haunting in London, England, investigated by Ed and Lorraine Warren. In real life, the Warrens did investigate the claim, but they weren't the main investigators by any stretch.
In August 1977, single mother Peggy Hodgson called the police after her children claimed the furniture was moving by itself and knocking was coming from the walls. The case of the Enfield Poltergeist was investigated by law officials and paranormal experts alike, and the conclusions were varied. Some corroborated the Hodgson family's story, while others dismissed it as a hoax. Ultimately, two of Peggy's children, Margaret (13) and Janet (11) were believed to be playing a giant trick on everyone. As an adult, Janet even admitted that she and her sister "made up 2%" of the paranormal occurrences; as soon as the sisters were taken away from the home for psychiatric evaluation, the hauntings stopped.
Actors: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Madison Wolfe, Frances O'Connor, Lauren Esposito
The original version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre never claimed to be based on real events, but the 2003 remake did. The truth, however, is much different. There never was a "chainsaw massacre" like the one featured in the movie. Many hypothesize the filmmakers were basing their story on the real-life account of serial killer Ed Gein, who really did kill people and wear their skin. But there were never any chainsaws involved. Also, the Gein murders happened in Wisconsin. But, to be fair, The Wisconsin Non-Chainsaw Skinning doesn't have the same ring to it.
Actors: Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain, William Vail
The real story behind The Exorcism of Emily Rose is just as heartbreaking as the movie you see on screen, but it bears little resemblance to what filmmakers want you to believe happened. In the late 1960s, a German teenager named Anneliese Michel started suffering from epileptic seizures, which ended up taking over her life. The teen, who was deeply devout, thought she was possessed, and thus underwent multiple exorcisms.
Eventually, she died of malnutrition brought on by the fasting she had to undergo for the exorcisms. Most experts agreed that her "possession" was really just seizures due to her epilepsy, and that the pious girl was looking for a spiritual answer to a medical problem.
Actors: Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Jennifer Carpenter, Colm Feore
