Hollywood Exploit: Horror Movies Based on a True Story

If you look over some of the most successful, and acclimated, horror movies of all time, you will see that many of them state that they were based on a true story. The Exorcist, Psycho, The Amnityville Horror, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist, and The Shining are some that come to mind at a moment's notice. Do not think, though, that all of the horrific scenes that happened in the movies played out in real life. The scenes that scare us the most simply happened in the daydreams and nightmare of the directors.

Many of us are drawn to horror movies based on a true story. We believe that we can relate to the characters since they are based on people that we might meet in everyday life. We believe that their struggles must be real, and could possibly happen to us one day in the future.

Hollywood as always taken its own personal liberties with any idea that was thrown in it's proverbial lap. While all of the aforementioned stories have a loose basing in real life, none of them come close to telling the real story. A horror movie based on a true story, is still a story that was thought up in someone's mind.

Let's take Poltergeist for a moment in our argument about horror movies based on a true story. In real life, the family believed that poltergeist activity was centered around their daughter. Did their daughter get sucked into a TV? No. Did a long-armed toy attack the children of the family? No.

When talking about horror movies based on a true story, let's take a look at Psycho and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Both movies have characters that are based off of the same real person, Ed Gein. The only similarities that one could infer between Norman Bates and Leatherface is that both are killers and both got dressed up for a kill. I have an article that reveals the real Ed Gein that you can read here.

Let us try making a horror movie based on a true story from scratch. Let us say that we have a man who has to travel to a far off country to deliver a package. Once he gets to the person that he is supposed to give the package to, a storm hits, and he needs to spend the night. He talks to his host about his lady friend, and the host becomes infatuated with her.

In our horror movie based on a true story, the man heads home to be with his lover. The host follows him, and tries to kidnap the young lady. The host kills anyone who gets in his way since all he can think about is the girl. All of these events could happen in real life. I am sure that if we spent time going through murder cases, we could find this kind of story. Oh, wait, we need to name our horror movie based on a true story. How about we call it, Dracula?

The next time that you see a horror movie that is based on a true story, try to figure out what the shreds of truth are. See if you are able to separate the fact from the fiction. Then, look up the original story online to see how much of the fact and fiction you were able to discern.