8 Horror Movies That Happened In Real Life
Art imitates life, life imitates art, and dangerous weirdos imitate horror films.
Movies can truly be inspirational pieces of art. From finding the best in everyone in Forrest Gump, being appreciative of what you've got in It's A Wonderful Life, to calculating your most intricate murderous machinations in Saw, film really is influential in bringing out all those feelings you take for granted that get buried in everyday life. Or at least, bringing out all those feelings you really should KEEP buried. Who wants to see the good in humanity after all, right?
In all seriousness, horror films have a special layer of fear when it comes to predicting audience reactions. Rather than simply enjoy a nice afternoon of fake blood and rubber guts, there are people out there that take the latest Scream instalment like a motivational fridge magnet and apply it to their actual lives, donning the Ghostface mask and wreaking havoc on communities in a way that should only be reserved for the fakery of film.
Real life is often far scarier than movies - whether its unhinged viewers inspired by grisly film details or crimes so terrifying they warranted their own adaptation - as these eight cases soon prove.... just don't get any ideas.
8. Halloween Inspires The Drug Trip From Hell
Whilst the infamous slasher movie Halloween was a work of fiction brought together by Carpenter's vivid imagination, the events that followed sure as heck weren't. The first two Halloween movies in the franchise spawned copy-cat crimes across the country, with more than one impressionable watcher succumbing to Michael Myers's stabby example.
In 1984, Richard Boyer claimed that whilst under the influence of PCP, marijuana, and alcohol, he thought he was under attack by Michael Myers - killing two victims in their late 60s in a botched robbery attempt. That he managed to both stab them 43 times as well as steal $50 dollars out of their pockets didn't do much to convince courts of his hallucination, however.
Even more horrifying, a Texan 17-year-old, Jake Evans, shot and killed his mother and sister with a .22 pistol in their home, claiming: “While watching it I was amazed at how at ease the boy was during the murders,” Evans wrote, referencing Rob Zombie's 2007 remake, “and how little remorse he had afterwards. I was thinking to myself it would be the same for me when I kill someone.” It wasn't, and he turned himself in after realising his awful mistake.