10 True Stories Behind Famous Horror Movies

The Quiet Ones is a good example of a movie claiming to be based on a true story when really it’s more of an inspiration than an actual adaptation. As actor Jared Harris described it, “The original circumstances inspired the writer’s imagination”.

The Philip Experiment was conducted in 1972 in Toronto, Canada. Dr Alan Robert George Owen designed the experiment to see if a fictional spirit could be conjured directly from the imagination of a group of participants. It is an interesting concept, although the experiment has been criticised often for lacking proper control measures.

The group created a character named Philip Ayelsford and drew up a fictional biography for him. “Philip” was born in 1624 in England. He had a military career whilst young and was made a knight at age 16. He had been involved in the English Civil War and had been a personal friend and spy for Charles II. Philip was unhappily married and later fell for a Romani girl only for her to be burned as a witch. They ended the biography stating that, broken-hearted, Philip had killed himself in 1654.

Initially, their attempts yielded nothing. However, when their environment was redesigned to mimic a more traditional séance, for example darkening the lights, the participants began to report feeling a “presence.” Over the next few sessions they reported vibrations in the table, unexplainable echoes and knocks on the table that matched up to the questions they were asking the “spirit.” At one point, the table reportedly lifted up onto just one leg and moved across the room without anybody touching it.