Worst2First: My Top Ten Real Life Horror Movies

Worst2First: 

My Top Ten Real Life Horror Movies

Edgar Allan Poe once said, "Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear."    We strive to be frightened, we love a good scare.  Otherwise we wouldn't ride roller coasters, we wouldn't bungee jump or skydive, and we wouldn't watch horror movies.  We think that most horror movies could never happen, and even though there's a 0% chance an undead monster like Jason Voorhees will come knocking on your door tonight, there's some horror films that are surprisingly based on real-life accounts.

In honor of the upcoming movie "The Conjuring 2," here are my personal top ten real life horror movies, Worst2First.  I've split each into two sections, taking after the old adage: "art imitates life."  The "art" is the film's story, and the "life" is the real life account it was taken from.

**There will be no spoilers.**

 #10

The Hills Have Eyes

The Art:
A family breaks down in the Nevada desert, and are stalked and killed by a family of cannibalistic savages who've hidden in the mountains for decades.

The Life:
Legendary horror director Wes Craven crafted this tale after the legend of Alexander "Sawney" Bean, the patriarch of a 16th Century family of cave dwellers who lived in the Nevada desert for over 25 years, and who were known for killing and eating over one thousand people before they were discovered and killed.

#9

Wolf Creek

The Art:
A gory story centering around three backpackers in the Australian outback who fall victim to a sadistic native who hunts and kills for sport.

The Life:
"Wolf Creek" was a tale taken from the real-life accounts of  Ivan Milat, who kidnapped, tortured and killed hitchhikers in the Australian outback in the 1990s, and Bradley John Murdoch, who was arrested for murdering a British tourist.

#8

The Amityville Horror

The Art:
The Lutz family bought a house on 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York, years after a man brutally murdered his family there, claiming demons told him to do it.  They only lasted less than a month before fleeing their home due to the supernatural events that haunted them.

The Life:
This is the most debated "real life" tale on the list, as before his death Mr. Lutz came forward and claimed it was all a fake, but there's still people who contend that the events in the movie actually happened, including the famous Ed and Lorraine Warren, who investigated the hauntings.  Lorraine Warren has even said that this case "has affected our personal lives more than any other case we've ever worked on in fifty-four years of research."

#7

A Nightmare on Elm Street

The Art:
Freddy Krueger is the legendary monster who stalks and kills children in their sleep. 

The Life:
While there's no real-life Freddy Krueger, Wes Craven once read a story about several Cambodian refugees - all children - died in their sleep.  The doctors couldn't find a medical cause for their deaths, they just fell asleep and died.

#6

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

The Art:
Part courtroom drama, part frightening battle between good and evil.  "Emily Rose" is about a priest on trial for murder after the exorcism he attempted resulted in the victim's death, and it's also about Emily Rose, the young girl tormented by demons inside her, and the living hell she went through.

The Life:
This film centers around the true-life tale of sixteen-year-old German Anneliese Michel.  She suffered from terrible shaking and loss of body control, which the doctors attributed to grand mal seizures.  However, it intensified as she started attacking family members, going crazy over religious items, and even drinking her own urine.  The family convinced the church to perform several exorcisms, and she died before they were completed.  She had endured forty of them before she passed away, and there's still debate whether or not she really had been demon-infested.

#5

Psycho

The Art:
After stealing money from her employer, a secretary ends up at the secluded Bates Motel, run by the mysterious Norman Bates, who has some severe mommy issues.

The Life:
This film - like several others - were loosely based off the life of Ed Gein, the most notorious killer in Wisconsin.  He murdered women and used their skin to craft a new face, as he identified himself as a woman.  This all happened after his mother passed away, and he became reclusive and psychotic.

#4

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The Art:
A group of friends find themselves at the mercy of a hillbilly cannibalistic family in Texas, one of whom is known as Leatherface - a man who wears human skin over his face to mask his deformities.

The Life:
Like "Psycho," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is loosely based on Ed Gein's murderous rampage, focusing on how he used the skin of his victims to make a human suit.

#3

The Conjuring

The Art:
Famous paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren are called upon to investigate a home where the spirits of the dead torment and haunt their family in their newly purchased Rhode Island farmhouse in the early 70s.

The Life:
"The Conjuring" is the story of the Perron family, who lived in Rhode Island in the early 70s and were victims of terrifying supernatural activity caused by a witch named Bathsheba Sheran, who lived and died on their grounds in the 19th Century.

#2

The Girl Next Door

The Art:
Two young girls are sent to live with their reclusive aunt after the deaths of their parents, and face a fate far worse than death.  The one girl - Meg - is tied to the rafters in the basement and endures unspeakable terrors at the hands of her aunt, cousins, and neighborhood kids.

The Life:
"The Girl Next Door" (and the Ellen Page-led "An American Crime") is based off an abhorrent act of terror in Indiana.  Sylvia Likens was given to Gertrude Baniszewski in 1965 to be taken care of when her parents go to be traveling circus workers.  Gertrude terrorized Sylvia by tying her up, and having her children and local children do unspeakable things to her, ultimately resulting in Sylvia's death.   Prosecutors called the case "the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of Indiana."

#1

The Exorcist

The Art:
Young, innocent Regan is possessed by a demon, and it's up to a priest to exercise the demon out of her before it's too late.

The Life:
"The Exorcist" was based off a book by William Peter Blatty, and it focused on the real-life exorcism of a young boy named Roland Doe, who was possessed by demons in 1949.  The exorcism was so frightening that several other books were written by people who witnessed it.