Look through the history of horror movies and it's plain to see the ones that sent us cowering behind the Ben & Jerry's contained an element of truth, were at least based on a creepy yarn that had been spun around town, or an ancient tale from folklore. Frights from fiction are a blast and all, but nothing sets the spine tingling quite like those immortal words: 'based on a true story'. Over the decades there have entries in the genre all based on truth; from those inspired by legendary killers (Silence Of The Lambs, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer), fabled monsters (The Mothman Prophecies, Jaws), cases of possession (The Exorcist), as well as ghosts (The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity). To this day Hollywood writers and studio heads continue to seek out something new and real to frighten us with. Only recently Sony optioned a script titled The Bringing, which is based on the mysterious case of Elisa Lam, whose naked body was found in a hotel water tank in 2013. What ensued was a social networking frenzy when her final freaky moments were posted online courtesy of an elevator's CCTV footage. This feature takes a look at the upcoming scarefests on numerous studios' rosters and gets to the bottom of the truth behind the fiction. Even if the films themselves end up being best forgotten, the tales behind them will continue to live on through the ages.
Shaun is a former contributor for a number of Future Publishing titles and more recently worked as a staffer at Imagine Publishing.
He can now be found banking in the daytime and writing a variety of articles for What Culture, namely around his favourite topics of film, retro gaming, music, TV and, when he's feeling clever, literature.
