15 terrifying horror movies inspired by true stories – The A.V. Club

(from left) Lili Taylor in The Conjuring; Vivien Leigh in Psycho; Drew Barrymore in Scream.Photo: Todd Gilchrist/ New Line Cinema; Universal Pictures; Dimension FilmsThe only thing scarier than the horror movies Hollywood makes are the real-life stories that inspire them. For decades, horror films have thrived by using the all-too-common “based on a true story” label, or the less reliable “inspired by true events,” to create a fiction believable enough to sell tickets and make audiences white-knuckle their theater seat armrests. Terrifying classics like The Exorcist or Psycho owe their existence in large part to very real, and very unsettling, events that form the bedrock of their narratives. So as Halloween creeps around the corner, here are 15 horror movies (listed in order of release) based on (or at least inspired by) some real-life nightmare fuel.1. Psycho (1960)Alfred Hitchcock’s black-and-white classic Psycho is as timeless as its real-life origins are infamous. The story of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) and his “mother” issues is said to be inspired by the story of Ed Gein, a Wisconsin man who was convicted of murder in the 1950s but is suspected of having a much higher body count. On top of being a killer,…
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