10 Horror Movies You Didn't Know Were Based On True Stories
2. Dead Ringers
David Cronenberg's 1988 psychological horror flick stars Jeremy Irons as identical twins Beverly Mantle and Elliot Mantle, both successful gynecologists who specialise in the treatment of female fertility issues. This story is loosely based on the lives of Stewart and Cyril Marcus, real-life twin gynecologists who both died together in July 1975.
For many months before their deaths, the behaviour of the Marcus twins became increasingly erratic and strange. They would skip shifts at the hospital where they worked and even cancel appointments at their private practice, and eventually, they were let go by the hospital because they could no longer be trusted. Weeks later, they were dead, and it is assumed that depression played a part in their downfall.
This is the part of the twins' lives that Dead Ringers draws from; their decline, and eventual death. In the film, the Mantle twins are suspended from their practice on account of their unpredictable behaviour, similarly to how the Marcus twins were let go in real life. The only major difference is that the film ends with one of the twins dying, and not both of them.