The Truth Is Just As Scary as Fiction...If Not Worse

True Horror Stories

Ok. I think I’ve said this before. I’m a chicken. I’m an evolved chicken because I can admit that I’m a chicken. I think Descartes said, “I’m a chicken, therefore I am.” …but the odd thing is, I like watching horror movies.

Maybe “watch” is a strong word. I like what happens when I plan to watch a horror movie. I like to watch trailers for horror movies and decide if I could even remotely, in the wildest and farthest reaches of my lily-livered imagination think I could possibly sit through two hours of blood, guts, and demonic possession. Once I’ve determined that there isn’t one horror film on the planet I can watch and not scream like a teen at a concert, I find one I know I won’t be able to watch and, well…plan to watch it.

I get the snuggie (a must for a proper chill), the popcorn, and a cross because one can never be to sure (just kidding). I get my body guard (to be honest, the helpless soul who’ll have to baby-sit me through this – usually my husband), we turn off the lights (the first sign that this won’t go well) and proceed to watch the movie (through the little hole in the snuggie I burned with a candle).

In the end, I do more laughing than screaming. The “made you jump” scenes are funny because you kinda feel foolish jumping at something that’s not even happening around you. …and my husband and I are so goofy, it takes us a long time to recover from laughing…me at jumping and him at me. It’s fun! Then I get close to him again (the best part because he always smells soooo good) and we continue with the movie. Good times!

It is a good time because in the recesses of my mind, I know that the winged creature wearing a trench coat and fedora who’s killing innocent people on a dark and lonely highway then eating their organs can’t possibly be real. Some weirdo somewhere ate some bad food, had a dream and made it into a movie. Good times!

It’s the movies based on real stories that really make a chicken out of me. You’d be surprised how many popular and wildly scary movies are actually based on real people. Seriously, just doing the research on this gave me the furry willies. Keep reading. You’ll get the furry willies, too.

Let’s start with the mother of all horror movies (pun intended)

Psycho

Pyscho's Norman Bates is loosely based on convicted murderer and grave robber Ed Gein, who, during the late 1950s, killed women and dug up corpses in Wisconsin. He also made human skin into tiny keepsakes and knickknacks, such as face masks, lamp shades made of women’s lips, bowls made of skulls, belts made of women’s nipples, and furniture slipcovers. Psycho novelist Robert Bloch based Bates on Gein, but changed the character from a grave robber and murderer into a serial killer who dressed like his mother. While institutionalized Gein admitted to killing these women (who looked like his mother) so he could make a skin suit that he could slip into and become her. Duuuuude.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Wes Craven based A Nightmare on Elm Street on a series of newspaper articles from the Los Angeles Times about a strange phenomenon where young Asian refugees would mysteriously die in their sleep. It was reported that many would refuse to sleep, saying they had terrifying nightmares feared they would die in their sleep.

One story Craven heard about was about the son of a physician who was about 21 years old. Everybody in his family keep insisting that he go to sleep.  The young man kept saying, "No, you don’t understand; I’ve had nightmares before—this is different." They gave him sleeping pills and supposedly he did, but he managed to stay up anyway. He stayed up for six or seven days. Finally, he was watching television with the family, fell asleep on the couch, and everybody said, "Thank god." They literally carried him upstairs to bed; he was completely exhausted. Everybody went to bed, thinking it was all over. In the middle of the night, they heard screams and crashing. They ran into the room, and by the time they got to him he was dead. They found a Mr. Coffee maker in his closet, full of hot coffee that he had used to keep awake, and they also found all his sleeping pills that they thought he had taken. He had spit them back out and hidden them. They had an autopsy performed, and there was no heart attack; he just had died for unexplained reasons.

Child's Play

(I can tell you now, knowing this was based on a true story, all dolls go into the trash…tonight!)  In 1909, a Key West painter and author names Robert Eugene Otto claimed that one of his family's servants placed a voodoo curse on his childhood toy, Robert the Doll (sounds like the name of a serial killer doll, doesn’t it?). Supposedly, the doll would mysteriously move from room to room, knock furniture over, and conduct conversations with Otto. Robert the Doll was left in the attic until Otto's death in 1974. When new owners moved into Otto’s Florida home, they also claimed mysterious activities - connected to the doll - would happen in the house. Today, Robert the Doll is on display at the Custom House and Old Post Office in Key West, Florida (not that I will EVER go there). It’s all very Annabelle-ish.

The Girl Next Door

Based on the novel of the same name, The Girl Next Door is based on the 1965 murder of Sylvia Likens, a 16-year-old girl from Indiana. Sylvia and her sister Jenny were left in the care of Gertrude Baniszewski, a family friend, when their parents left town as traveling carnival workers. Baniszewski, along with her children and a few neighborhood kids, locked Sylvia in the basement, where they tortured and abused her until she died of a brain hemorrhage and malnutrition. What the…what??

The Hills Have Eyes

As this 15^th century legend goes, Sawney Bean, the son of a landscaper, had no desire to follow in his father’s footsteps.  Instead he took his wife and headed for a coastal cave in Bennane Head, Scotland. There he would live and raise his family of eight sons, six daughters, eighteen grandsons, and fourteen granddaughters, most of which were the product of incest.

Sleeping the days away in their cave and waiting for the cover of darkness, the Bean’s would ambush travelers robbing and then murdering them. The bodies were then taken back to the cave where they were dismembered and prepared for dinner. For twenty-five years, the family operated in secret. Although nearby villagers were aware of the disappearances, as well as the occasional body-parts which washed up on their shores, they were unaware of who was responsible for the crimes. Eventually, a would-be victim was able to fight off his would-be murderers and the Bean Clan was found, captured, and put to a grisly death. It’s said they killed and ate over 1,000 victims.  This is just a whole new level of nope.

The Serpent and The Rainbow

This movie is based on the experiences of Ethnobotanist Wade Davis who traveled to Haiti to research the real case of Clairvius Narcisse, a supposedly real zombie. Here’s what happened to ol’ Clairivus.

Clairvius checked into a local hospital way back in 1962 because he didn’t feel so well. Once at the hospital, he began to feel feverish, had trouble breathing, and felt what he claimed were bugs crawling all over his skin. It wasn’t too long after that doctors pronounced him dead. Clairvius was buried a few days later. End of story, right? Well, it was the end of the story until one day in 1981 when Angelina Narcisse, Clairvius’ sister, saw him walking down the street. A bizarre sighting considering not one, but two American doctors had declared him dead back in 1962.  I actually saw this movie and it is, to put it mildly, creep-py.

Now, after learning that these movies are based on true life events, you aren’t more scared to watch them then you are, indeed, my Horror Movie Hero! …and I’ll just stick to PG-13 slashers.