You like horror-thriller type films? Great. We’ve got five films that were based on true stories. Some of which, you would’ve already known about at the time of the said movie’s release. But we bet you didn’t know the gory details. Ah hah! And that’s what we’re here for. So, here are five disturbing movies that were based on true stories:
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
The film is based on the real-life case of a German Catholic girl named Anneliese Michel, who suffered from epilepsy in Germany over 40 years ago. Or at least medically, they said she was suffering from epilepsy. What really went down was Anneliese suffering through her vicious fight against the so-called “epileptic seizures” that would take hold of her, and Anneliese being put through four-hour exorcisms on 67 occasions for the span of 10 months.
In the end, her body succumbed and her death certificate stated that she died from starvation and dehydration. Anneliese’s painful demise led to the courtroom battle lines that were drawn in “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”.
Open Water (2003)
Ah, who doesn’t love little indie films that successfully break into the box office? Made on a miniscule budget, “Open Water” has a story line that centers on a couple who were accidentally left for dead in shark-infested waters after a scuba diving mishap. The couple, Tom Lonergan and Eileen Lonergan were a married couple from Louisiana, United States.
They were mistakenly stranded in the Coral Sea while they were with a group of divers off of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in 1998. Needless to say, Tom and Eileen were never seen again, but the movie posits that sharks were responsible for their deaths.
Monster (2003)
Aileen Carol Wuornos was an American serial killer who was convicted of killing seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. The narrative of “Monster” is very much rooted in factual events, including Wuornos claiming that her victims had either raped or attempted to rape her while she was working as a prostitute.
She also claimed that all of the killings were committed in self-defense. In the end, Aileen was convicted and sentenced to death for six out of the seven murders and was executed by the State of Florida by lethal injection in 2002.
Zodiac (2007)
The “Zodiac Killer” was a serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. “Zodiac”, the film, chronicles the legendary real-life terror that consumed the Bay Area as the mysterious and terrifying killer amassed victims in the San Francisco area between 1968 and 1972.
The killer originated the name “Zodiac” in a series of taunting letters sent to the local Bay Area press – letters that included four cryptograms (or ciphers). Of the four cryptograms sent, only one has been definitely solved. The killer’s identity is still unknown.
From Hell (2011)
“Jack the Ripper” is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverish areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1988. The killer’s victims were typically female prostitutes from the slums whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations and the removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to proposals that their killer possessed anatomical or surgical knowledge.
“From Hell” is based on the case, with grounds on a hypothesis that “Jack the Ripper” was actually the Royal Family’s physician concealing a scandal that the family would desperately want to keep hidden. In reality, the killer was never caught.
