10 Horror Movies Inspired by Terrifying True Stories

'Annabelle'

Annabelle was the first follow-up to 2013's The Conjuring and was released in 2014. The evil, possessed doll was first introduced in The Conjuring and has its own backstory. Paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren believed there was a real Raggedy Ann doll possessed and would mysteriously leave messages around its owners' house.

'Child's Play'

Child's Play, the 1988 horror classic that spawned the Chucky franchise, was inspired by a doll thought to be haunted. The doll was named Robert and was once owned by a painter named Robert Eugene Otto. He received the doll from an abused servant who worked at his parents' house. She was a voodoo expert and allegedly possessed the doll to torture the Otto family.

'The Silence of the Lambs'

The Silence of the Lambs is one of the most acclaimed horror/thriller films of all time. Based on Thomas Harris' novel, the story involves a young FBI trainee getting advice from cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter to track down another serial killer known as "Buffalo Bill." The killer skins his female victims' corpses. FBI special agent John Douglas said Bill was inspired by several serial killers, including Ted Bundy, Ed Gein and Gary Heindick.

'The Exorcist'

William Friedkin's The Exorcist, an adaptation of William Peter Blatty's novel, was inspired by the 1949 Washington Post article headlined "Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devil's Grip."

"Maybe one day they'll discover the cause of what happened to that young man, but back then, it was only curable by an exorcism. His family weren't even Catholics, they were Lutheran," Friedkin explained in a Time Out interview. "They started with doctors and then psychiatrists and then psychologists and then they went to their minister who couldn't help them. And they wound up with the Catholic church. The Washington Post article says that the boy was possessed and exorcised. That's pretty out on a limb for a national newspaper to put on its front page. I don't think you'd see that too often nowadays."

'The Conjuring'

James Wan's The Conjuring features Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga playing ghost hunters inspired by Ed and Lorraine Warren. Lorraine, who died in April 2019, was even a consultant on the film and claims many of the events in the film happened. Andrea Perron, who Shanley Caswell as portrays in the film, insisted she interacted with an angry spirit called Bathsheba.

'The Amityville Horror'

Jay Anson's 1977 book The Amityville Horror was inspired by George and Kathy Lutz, who moved into a Long Island home where Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot and killed six members of his family in 1974. The Lutz family claimed they experienced several paranormal phenomena during their time at the home. The book became a movie in 1979 and was followed by several sequels. In 2005, a straight remake was produced, and direct-to-video films based on the franchise are still being made.

'Psycho'

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was a game-changing horror/suspense movie in 1960. Anthony Perkins gave an acclaimed performance as Norman Bates, who was thought to be inspired by Ed Gein, a Wisconsin murderer who is said to also be an inspiration for The Silence of the Lambs' Buffalo Bill and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Leatherface. Psycho also inspired the prequel series Bates Motel, starring Freddie Highmore as Norman Bates.

'Scream'

One of horror master Wes Craven's most beloved films is his 1996 classic Scream. The movie's Ghostface villain was inspired by the Gainesville Ripper Danny Rolling, who killed five Florida students using a knife in August 1990. Rolling was executed in 2006.

'A Nightmare on Elm Street'

Wes Craven came up with the idea of Freddy Kreuger after reading a Los Angeles Times story about a son of Cambodian refugees who suffered from terrible nightmares.

"He told his parents he was afraid that if he slept, the thing chasing him would get him, so he tried to stay awake for days at a time. When he finally fell asleep, his parents thought this crisis was over," Craven explained to Vulture. "Then they heard screams in the middle of the night. By the time they got to him, he was dead. He died in the middle of a nightmare. Here was a youngster having a vision of a horror that everyone older was denying. That became the central line of Nightmare on Elm Street."

'Jaws'

Jaws novelist Peter Benchley claimed the idea for Steven Spielberg's classic came from a 1964 article about a fisherman who caught a 4,500-pound great white shark off Long Island. Benchley wondered what would happen if a shark like that attacked a beach and would not leave. The book and movie also referenced a 1916 shark attack off the Jersey Shore.