15 Horror Movies That Inspired Real-Life Crimes
4. Warlock
Cheesy 80s horror Warlock starred Brit actors Julian Sands as an
evil warlock and Richard E. Grant as a witch-hunter who are satanically
transported from 17th century Boston to 20th century Los
Angeles where the warlock must find and assemble the pages of a satanic book
that will destroy the world and the witch-hunter must stop him.
In one particular scene, we learn that Sands’ evil warlock has killed a young boy – a virginal and unbaptised boy to be precise – and brewed up his flesh into a flying potion. It was this scene that 14-year-old Canadian Sandy Charles decided to copy when he and an unnamed eight-year-old accomplice killed seven-year-old Johnathan Thimpsen in 1995.
After committing the brutal murder, Charles attempted to make an unsuccessful Warlock-inspired flying potion of his own. When the case came to trial in 1996, Charles was found not guilty by reason of insanity and has been incarcerated in psychiatric facilities ever since.