Sometimes the events that take place in real life are much cooler than any Hollywood blockbusters. It's the same story with action films: screenwriters are inspired by incidents that actually happened. Who would have thought that Bubba Sawyer from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a historical character. And the ghost hunters live among us, however, these are not brave guys, but a prim married couple.
1. Exorcism Tanaku - "Curse of the nun"
Real events: In 2005, Daniel Petru Corogeanu, the abbot of the Tanacu Orthodox monastery in Romania, killed his young parishioner. It seemed to the priest that the girl was possessed by the devil, since at times she behaved strangely: she laughed and screamed out of place. Therefore, together with other novices of the Korogeanu monastery, he decided to conduct an exorcism ritual, which the girl was not destined to survive. Marika Irina Kornich - that was the name of the "obsessed" - actually suffered from schizophrenia. The priest and his assistants were convicted and sentenced to long prison terms, but they did not admit their guilt.
Film: 1952, Romania. In the lost abbey, there is the mysterious disappearance of one nun and the suicide of another. The Vatican sends a priest and a young novice to investigate the incident. But within the walls of the old monastery, an awakened demon awaits the arrivals, with whom they have to fight.
2. Gainesville Ripper - "Scream 2"
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Real Events: In 1990, US residents were shocked by a series of brutal murders. At the hands of a maniac, 5 students were killed in a hostel in the city of Gainesville (Florida). For a long time the criminal remained elusive - he was cunning and very cruel. However, a year later, the police attacked him: the bloodthirsty killer, as usual, turned out to be an unremarkable person - the waiter Danny Rolling. He was sentenced to death despite having a mental disorder.
Film: A young girl and her college mates fall prey to a mysterious masked maniac. The killer deftly avoids the policemen pursuit and arranges real terror for his victims, driving them to chthonic horror.
3. Charismatic Killer - "Silence of the Lambs"
The Real Events: Ted Bundy was nicknamed the Charismatic Assassin for charming his victims. One of the most "famous" maniacs in the history of the United States met girls in public, feigning injury or posing as a government official.
Bundy was incredibly dodgy - the police arrested him several times, but the killer managed to escape justice and commit new crimes. During the break between the trials, Bundy even managed to get married, he had a daughter. The maniac loved to give interviews and enjoyed the "glory" that fell on him. However, despite all the tricks, the court sentenced Ted Bundy to death. The killer killed about 30 people.
Movie: Crazy Maniac kidnaps and kills girls throughout the Midwest. The investigation is being carried out by a young FBI agent, Clarissa Starling. When the servants of the law realize that the crimes are committed by the same person, they resort to the help of a prisoner - the serial killer Hannibal Lecter.
The film's writers have created a collective portrait of a supermaniac - elusive and extremely cruel. The first scene of the film was influenced by the crimes of Ted Bundy.
4. Ed Gein - "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Psycho"
The True Story: Ed Gein is an infamous criminal whose image has permeated popular culture. His father is a sadist and alcoholic, an overbearing mother, an unhealthy relationship with his brother - that was Ed's childhood. The house of the Hein family became a place of committing heinous crimes. After the arrest of the maniac, the terrible house burned to the ground: probably the locals set it on fire because of notoriety. Ed Gein did not go to jail because he was declared insane. He lived a long life, albeit in a psychiatric hospital, where he died of cancer.
Film: The crimes of Ed Gein have been the source of a ton of horror books and films. In Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Psycho, a young girl encounters a mysterious maniac. By the way, the killer, like Gein, has a difficult relationship with his mother: he destroys the girls, because this is how her voice in his head orders him. And in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," the hermit maniac lives on a remote farm and terrifies the entire neighborhood.
5. Billy Milligan's Dissociative Disorder - "Split"
True Story: Billy Milligan is perhaps the most famous person with dissociative disorder. In his head, 24 individuals coexisted, and they did not exist peacefully. The people who lived in Billy's head pushed him to various crimes - violence, robbery and drug abuse.
Milligan's childhood was really difficult: his stepfather abused the child, as a result of which the boy's personality fell apart. The offender was tried twice, but in the end was found insane and imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital, where he spent 10 years. Despite the treatment, Billy was never able to take control of all his alter egos, and until his death he was unable to become a single person.
Film: Three schoolgirls were kidnapped in broad daylight in the parking lot at the cafe. After a while, the girls come to their senses in a closed room, where they take turns getting to know different personalities of one person. The offender, as if nothing had happened, goes to work, visits a psychiatrist and prepares the girls for a meeting with his most terrible hypostasis - the Beast.
6. Tami Ashcraft's Story - "In the Power of the Elements"
True story: 23-year-old yachtswoman Tami Ashcraft takes her fiancé Richard Sharp on a cruise to paradise islands in the Pacific Ocean. The couple's journey turned out to be a real disaster: they faced a tropical hurricane and tried desperately to keep the yacht on the 12-meter waves. A beautiful love story ended tragically: Tami's fiancé was washed overboard. However, Tami, despite a severe head injury and having only a sextant and a watch to navigate, managed to get to the people. The struggle for life lasted 41 days.
Film: Meeting in Tahiti was the beginning of a romantic story for Tami and Richard. Indeed, a trip on a luxury yacht on warm waters promised a lot of pleasant impressions. But the couple had to face the raging elements, and also show all the strength of mind and stamina in order to survive.
7. Oliver Sachs - "Awakening"
True story: Oliver Sachs is an eminent neurologist, talented writer and popularizer of medicine. Awakenings is an autobiographical novel in which the doctor describes interesting cases from his practice. The young doctor was treating hopeless patients for the effects of lethargic encephalitis. People who had an infection lost the ability to move and speak, fell into a catatonic stupor. Sachs, at his own risk, injected patients with the experimental drug L-DOPA, after which their condition improved almost instantly.
Film: A young and shy doctor Malcolm Sayer starts work in the hospital, where the victims of the terrible epidemic of lethargic encephalitis lie. Some patients have been immobilized for many decades and cannot communicate with the outside world. Sayer tries to understand the causes of the disease and chooses Leonardo (actor Robert De Niro) for treatment, who was in a daze for 30 years. The awakening of the first patient inspires the doctor, and he gives the experimental medicine to the rest of the victims.
8. "Bury me behind the baseboard"
The real story: Pavel Sanaev described his childhood in his autobiographical book "Bury Me Behind the Skirting Board." From 2 to 11 years old, the boy lived in the family of his grandfather (actor Vsevolod Sanaev). Pavel's grandmother did not trust her daughter's upbringing of a child, because she condemned her because of her remarriage. In the book, the grandmother is presented as an emotional vampire who manipulates others, however, as the author himself admitted, many of the details are fictional. In life, the parties nevertheless reconciled and the mother was able to raise her son.
Film: 8-year-old Sasha lives with his grandparents because of family disagreements. The grandmother does not have a good character, her overprotection gradually develops into a real tyranny.
9. Bernie Tiede - Bernie
The real story: Bernie Theede is a native of Carthage (Texas) and just a very nice man who was popular with the locals. Especially with older ladies. Still, he worked as a funeral agent and was always ready to help people in grief. Our hero met the rich (and very elderly) widow Marjorie Nugent right at her husband's funeral. The woman had a bad reputation in the city, primarily because of her bad character. The relationship between the widow and the funeral agent developed rapidly, Marjorie even made a will in favor of Bernie.
Soon, Marjorie Nugent disappeared. It turned out that Bernie Tiede shot his patroness. At the trial, the killer claimed that the widow treated him very badly: she made scandals and obsessively followed all movements. However, the jury did not take into account these circumstances and sentenced Bernie to life in prison.
Film: A friendly Texas undertaker strikes up a close friendship with an elderly widow. But soon, due to the bad nature of the old woman, the man starts to get into trouble and he is forced to take extreme measures …
10. The maniac who wrote letters - "Zodiac"
True Story: The Zodiac Killer is perhaps the most notorious criminal in the United States. First of all, because it has not yet been caught. The maniac committed murders in the late 1960s, 12 people were his victims.
But the Zodiac is notable for a completely different thing: he sent mocking letters to local newspapers. In his messages, the criminal confessed to the murders, revealed the details of the crimes and made fun of the hapless policemen. In addition, the Zodiac drew up cryptograms in which he allegedly encrypted personal data about himself. Most of the encryptions have not yet been decoded. The authorities suspected that the Zodiac could be a military or a policeman: he knew very well the techniques of conducting an investigation and easily bypassed the traps set by detectives.
Film: A bloody maniac keeps San Francisco and the surrounding area at bay for 25 years. He then disappears, then appears again. The police even begin to doubt that the same person is behind the crimes. But the killer, who calls himself the Zodiac, sends letters to make sure that the villain has not retired.
11. Satanic Cults - "Eclipse"
True Story: The topic of ritual violence was hotly debated in the late 1980s. And this is not surprising: Satanic rituals with a bunch of mysterious paraphernalia attracted public attention. Adepts of sects performed bloody rituals, in which even children often took part.
Film: The case of young Angela Gray attracted detective Bruce Kinnear. As a result of working with a psychologist, it turns out that the girl's father performed satanic rituals on her when she was just a baby. The detective is drawn into an occult story that is beyond good and evil.
12. Paranormal Researchers Ed and Lorraine Warren - "The Conjuring"
True story: In January 1971, the Perron family moves to a new home, where unexplained events begin to take place. There are creaks in the kitchen, someone throws up dirt immediately after cleaning, and it is simply impossible to sleep at night: the house seems to be sighing. The couple decided that a ghost had settled in their home.
The family reached out to renowned ghostbusters Ed and Lorraine Warren. The couple were known as researchers of the paranormal. It was they who established that an evil spirit dwells in the house, and tried to drive him out, but to no avail. And the Perron family lived in an unhappy house for another 10 years, until they could afford to move to another home.
Film: Researchers of the paranormal are faced with the most difficult challenge in their entire practice. The house, in which a family with five children lives, is engulfed in demonic forces, and the heroes have to fight them.
13. The story of Pauline Parker and Juliet Hume - "Heavenly Creatures"
True Story: Teens Pauline Parker and Juliet Hume became friends at a girls' school in Christchurch, New Zealand. Very soon their relationship became very close: both girls were fond of fantasy, tried to write books and understood each other perfectly. The story took place in 1954, and the close friendship of the girls caused a negative reaction from neighbors, and even more so from their parents: they were sure that the relationship between classmates had grown into something more.
Juliet's parents decided to take the teenager to South Africa in order to break the unhealthy bond. The devoted Pauline was ready to follow her friend to the other end of the world, but her mother, of course, was categorically against it. Then the girls had an insidious plan: mom needs to be killed.
The monstrous idea was carried out, but the criminals were found very quickly. Since the girls at that time had not yet reached the age of majority, they were sentenced to 5 years in prison. After prison, the friends did not communicate and left the country. Juliet nevertheless became a famous writer, she is a respected author of historical detective novels under the pseudonym Anne Perry.
Film: The beautiful Juliet comes to a small town in New Zealand. Here she meets Pauline, and a friendship is struck between the girls, which then develops into love. The girls' parents do their best to separate them, but the friends decide to take revenge.