10 Horrific Wilderness Horror Movies Based On True Events

From the likes of Kill List, Midsommar, and The Endless, there’s no shortage of horror movies about nefarious cults. However, one such film that draws straight from real-world terror is Ti West’s 2013 chiller The Sacrament.

This underrated found footage flick follows a small group of journalists who travel to the isolated rural compound of Eden Parish after learning that one of the team member’s sisters has joined the cult. They intend to make a documentary about the organisation and its charismatic religious leader known only as Father. Despite the cultists being warm and welcoming to the journalists, events take a sinister turn when a group of dissidents begin to rebel against the cult, and the journalists are stopped from leaving.

With tensions running high, the film culminates in a shocking sequence in which the cult leader encourages his devout members to commit suicide by ingesting poison.

While the film doesn’t explicitly claim to be based on a true story, the climactic events bear a striking resemblance to the infamous 1978 Jonestown Massacre in which over 900 people were killed after drinking poison.

West has been open in interviews about Jonestown acting as the inspiration behind his own creepy cult horror.