I’ve got my pumpkin carved, my costume ready, and a ginormous bucket of candy just waiting for trick-or-treaters. That means it must be Halloween, one of my very favorite days of the year.
In honor of this spooky day, I present my Top 10 Creepy Stories “Based on a True Story.”
The Amityville Horror: I put this at the top of list because it’s the truest of the true stories. The movie The Amityville Horror is based on the non-fiction (read: super true) book of the same name. Actually, the book is titled The Amityville Horror: A True Story. I told you it was the truest of the true! Written by Jay Anson, the book recounts all the frightening things that happened to the Lutz family when they moved into a house that was -- oops! -- the site of a mass murder. (And you thought being underwater on your mortgage was scary.) Alas, the story by now has been completely discredited.
The Exorcist: Another movie based on a book. This one, though, was based on the novel (read: made up stuff) by William Peter Blatty. He based his story on the real-life exorcism of a young boy in Maryland in 1949. The movie is one of the scariest I’ve ever seen. And the book -- well, it was so scary I couldn’t finish it. There’s a 40th anniversary edition released this month, so you can scare yourself all over again.
The Mothman Prophecies: This one is a creepy movie starring Richard Gere. (No, not that one. You're thinking Pretty Woman.) First, there were local sightings of a big freaky thing with wings, dubbed The Mothman. Then a bridge collapsed. All of this is true. But saying the Mothman, whatever that was, caused the collapse strains the concept of cause and effect. Besides, we all have our local freaky things -- my hometown has the Chicken Lady. Don’t laugh. She was really scary.
Hostel: This movie is inspired by actual events. On the ladder of veracity, “inspired by actual events” sits a couple rungs lower than based on a true story. The movie’s director heard a friend say his hairdresser read a Craig’s List ad about some sort of murder holiday. So he made a movie about good-looking college kids getting chopped to pieces in Europe. Or something like that. I didn’t actually see it. Too scary.
The Blair Witch Project: By now you might be detecting a pattern. I get scared. Really scared. Really easily. But trust me, Blair Witch is super scary. It’s not really based on a true story, so I’ve put it at the bottom of the list. But the filmmakers made you think it was real. They shake the camera around, and I believe they starved their actors to make them seem really desperate. I saw it in the movie theater, and that ending made me drop my popcorn.
You may have noticed, I’ve only listed five stories. So what happened to the others? It must have been the Chicken Lady.
Creepy…
I hope you all have a terrific Halloween. Happy trick-or-treating!
I remember seeing Mothman and then hearing afterwards that it was based on a true story. That was so exciting! Then I looked up the true story and it really had very little to do with the movie! Still, there's a lure involved with saying something fictional is based on something that really happened. Dick Cheney's biography is a good example. Zing!
ReplyDeleteHi, bit late to the conversation... hoping this is still an active blog or at least an active writer. Im curious about the hometown legend you mentioned called the ChickenLady. I was terrorized from a very early age by the same story and was curious if you could relate some of what you recall about it. Ive been looking for information and can't seem to find a thing. What was the region you heard he story in? were there any unusual or memorable aspects tot he story? Any information would be wildly appreciated :) ty!
ReplyDelete