10 Horror Movies You Didn't Know Were Based On True Stories

3. The Sacrament

Freddy Krueger
Magnolia Pictures

The poster for 2013's The Sacrament promises to show us the "untold story" of the tragedy at Eden Parish, a fictional settlement within the film that is inhabited by a seemingly peaceful community of people. As it turns out, this commune has a dark underbelly involving suicide and abuse, with the film culminating in dozens of people consuming cyanide-laced drinks.

This plot is based on the real-life Jonestown massacre of 1978, in which 918 people - members of an American cult, led by Reverend Jim Jones - were ordered to commit mass suicide by drinking fruit punch laced with cyanide.

The film is presented in the found-footage format, with a group of journalists visiting the remote Eden Parish to make a documentary. By the end, one of these journalists is dead, which mirrors the Jonestown massacre, where several journalists were also killed while on a mission to learn more about the cult. The film's cult leader also commits suicide, just like his real-life counterpart, Jim Jones.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.