Every fan of horror films at least once in his life heard that this hobby is unhealthy. Cruelty on the screen can damage the psyche of impressionable people, and for someone it can become a guide to action.
It is customary to treat such warnings with a condescending smile. But sometimes life itself gives us reasons to talk about the sinister power of horror. Cult movie villains have followers, and in the column of the criminal chronicle there are such stories that one might not help thinking: somewhere I have already seen this …
Let's remember ten horror films that are reflected in reality to one degree or another.
Queen of the Damned (2002)
In 2002, the year of the release of Michael Rymer's film, Akasha, the mother of all vampires, spoke to one of the viewers. It was the connection with the Queen of the Damned that the Scotsman Allan Menzies explained his actions, who beat his comrade Thomas Mackendrick to death with a hammer and knife. He argued that the vampire queen not only appeared to him in the flesh, but also promised immortality. For this, Menzies tasted the blood of the murdered man, who had the imprudence to mock the vampire theme.
However, Menzies was not helped either by mystical patronage, or by the fact that he had watched The Queen of the Damned more than a hundred times. After receiving an impressive prison sentence, after a year in prison, he committed suicide.
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Scream (1996)
Several deaths are associated with the cult slasher Wes Craven. The killer in the ghost mask attracted individual viewers so much that they decided to try on this role for themselves.
Most of the noise was caused by the case of Thierry Jaradin, a driver from Belgium. He invited 15-year-old Allison Cambier to visit, having romantic plans on her account. However, the girl did not reciprocate. Then Jaradin dressed in a Ghost Face costume and stabbed Allison three dozen times. The girl did not survive. The killer himself surrendered to the authorities and willingly cooperated with the investigation. No mental abnormalities were found in him. Jaraden was surprisingly calm, admitting that he just wanted to repeat the famous scene from "The Scream". And in the end he succeeded.
Halloween (2007)
In 2007, a remake of John Carpenter's classic film about the silent killer Mike Myers was released. Director Rob Zombie wanted to reimagine the story of one of the most recognizable movie villains, but unwittingly inspired 17-year-old Jake Evans to crime. The teenager was amazed at how easily, emotionally and cruelly, young Myers in the film deals with family members. Jake stole his grandfather's revolver and shot his mother and younger sister in cold blood.
During the investigation, he said that at first he planned to kill all relatives in general, and he wanted to use a knife, Myers' favorite weapon. But then I decided that my family should not feel pain when they die. After the deed, Jake called the rescue service and described in detail to the operator exactly how he committed the murders. According to the teenager, now what happened will always haunt him.
Judgment night (2013)
The psychological social thriller by James DeMonaco has spawned more than a series of sequels. Some of the young viewers believed that the US government really allowed citizens to kill with impunity once a year.
In fact, the title of the film should have been translated as "The Purge," and it was the purge in the spring of 2016 that 19-year-old Jonathan Cruz from Indiana took over. In addition to three murders, he is credited with kidnapping, attempted armed robbery, intimidation and grievous bodily harm. After the arrest, Cruz admitted that he was inspired by DeMonaco's films and the idea of "Killing is cleansing." In messages to relatives on the eve of the crimes, he wrote that he intends to purge every night.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Again Wes Craven, again a cult villain, and again people die in reality. The nightmare moved from Elm Street to British soil, where two Freddy Kruegers were discovered at once. Jason Moore was not very successful as an assassin, but he amazed the police with his ingenuity. He himself made the famous gloves with blades on his fingers, one of which was trying to stab a friend. Unfortunately for Moore, he turned out to be not timid and neutralized the attacker. Gore-Kruger only had to tell the investigators about the power he felt while trying on the weapon of the movie fancier.
But the schizophrenic Daniel Gonzalez went further and chalked up four ruined lives. He preferred to attack elderly people so that they could not fight back. He was inspired by the example of Freddie, he was obsessed with such fame and dreamed of standing on a par with the most famous maniacs of our time. However, Gonzalez's criminal career lasted only a few days. He was caught and sentenced by the court to six life sentences. In the summer of 2007, within the walls of a psychiatric clinic, Gonzalez opened his veins with a fragment of a CD.
Children's Games (1988)
Horror history has many charismatic villains. It would seem that with such a wealth of choice, psychos looking for an example to follow would not pay attention to the talking doll. Even if it is very vicious and bloodthirsty, as in the Tom Holland film.
However, it was the baby Chucky, who was inspired by the spirit of the maniac Charles Lee Ray in the plot of Children's Games, who became the model for Australia's most massive killer, Martin Bryant. In April 1996, Martin started shooting in Port Arthur, killing 35 people, including children.
Later, for each of the killed, he received a life sentence, although he could hardly assess the seriousness of the situation. The fact is that Martin is mentally retarded. This explains why, at 28, he admired the movie doll. The future killer adored Chuckie and constantly used his catchphrase: "Don't fuck with the Chuck!" In these moments, Martin Bryant seemed to himself really cool.
Buried Alive (1990)
Criminals do not always deliberately imitate movie characters, but this does not prevent them from accurately reproducing horror stories. For example, in Frank Darabont's film Buried Alive, the wife poisoned her annoying spouse. Having buried him properly and depicting a grieving widow, she jumped into the arms of a new lover. Now nothing stood in their way to their happiness. But the husband did not die. He managed to get out of the grave and decided to take revenge.
In 2011 in Britain, this story came to life. Marcin Kasprzak buried his fiancée Michelin in a cardboard box. At first, he invited her to disperse, but with one condition: their common child had to stay with him. Having received a refusal, Kasprzhak shot Mikhelin with a stun gun, tied her up, threw her into a box and buried her in a shallow hole. Ironically, the wedding ring saved the girl. She cut the ties with them, cardboard and eventually ended up on the surface, where she first called the police.
Kasprzhak, who before his arrest managed to change his family status on the social network and together with an accomplice to withdraw money from Mikhelina's account, received 20 years in prison.
Dark Waters (2001)
The details of Eliza Lam's death in a cheap Los Angeles hotel are easily recognizable by any Japanese horror fan. The movie "Dark Waters" takes place in a gloomy tenement building. It has dirty water everywhere and, of course, there are ghosts. The fault is the missing girl, whom they had long ceased to look for and whose corpse had been lying all this time in a water tank on the roof.
Eliza Lam was found in the same tank. Before disappearing, she came into view of the camera in the hotel elevator. The girl behaved strangely, as if she was hiding, and then talked with an invisible interlocutor. At the same time, no one entered the elevator.
Eliza's body was found in the tank only two weeks later, when guests began to complain about the strange taste of the water. The girl was naked, her clothes were floating nearby. According to the assurances of the hotel staff, an outsider could not get on the roof, because the alarm was working
Since Eliza had psychological problems, the investigation settled on the version of suicide. But there are too many strange things in the case to be so easy to believe.
Birds (1963)
Finally, there are times when not criminals, but as if life itself is trying to recreate a horror movie. For example, in January 2017 in Houston, Texas, residents were frightened by a huge flock of black birds. Like a single organism, she moved over the highway, obscuring the twilight sky. Thousands of birds circled the air, dived onto the asphalt and crashed into cars at full speed. According to eyewitnesses, the picture was truly creepy.
How can we not recall Alfred Hitchcock's film classics? In the film "Birds" in 1963, the birds, for unknown reasons, began to attack people. Ornithologists cannot explain the strange phenomenon in Houston. Fortunately, in reality there were no casualties: only cars were damaged. Broken glass and torn off mirrors are not the highest price to pay for feeling like a hero of a classic cinema.
Destination (2000)
Fresh ideas in horror do not come up often, so James Wong's film, filmed in 2000, did not go unnoticed. His heroes, it would seem, were lucky: at the last moment they got off the plane, which was destined to crash. But Death does not like it when her plans are violated. The surviving passengers of the ill-fated flight begin to die mysteriously in very unusual accidents.
In reality, too, not everyone succeeds in cheating death. On September 11, 2001, Hilda Maillol got out of the World Trade Center alive, and two months later she was killed in a plane crash. And in 2007, Bud Warren and his daughter Phyllis made an emergency landing in a field on a faulty plane and miraculously survived. Four years later, death took its toll: Bud and Phyllis's plane crashed near the airport.
These are just a few of the aircraft-related cases. In general, there are much more stories where some dark force seems to be catching up with the survivors.
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Sometimes horror films predict creepy events, and sometimes they give ideas to real killers. But do not blame directors and screenwriters for this. People whose souls have long been ripening black can take the path of evil at the behest of Freddy Krueger or just a hole in the wall. There will be no one reason, another will appear. It's just a matter of chance. Some even hide behind fictional villains to avoid punishment.
Therefore, the root cause of evil is still worth looking for in people themselves. After all, reality, as you know, is worse than any movie.