8 Horror Movies That Happened In Real Life

6. Friday The 13th Inspires Copycat Murder, Complete With Hockey Mask

Orphan Movie
Paramount Pictures

If anyone can make a benign name scary, it's Jason Voorhees. Just imagine if he'd been called Keith!

8 years after his on-screen debut, a 19-year-old channeled the hockey-masked villain in a sadistic act of murder. Apparently obsessed with the series to the point he dressed up as Voorhees and stabbed another college student to death, Mark Branch remained missing for a week after his victim, Sharon Gregory, was found brutally murdered in her own home.

It isn't clear what happened on the evening of her death, but Gregory was known to be conducting a psychological study of Branch - who was utterly infatuated with the Friday the 13th movie series. Found at the crime scene was a hockey past and black boots, creating mass panic throughout the local town for a missing murderer prowling the streets.

A week later, a deer hunter who found Branch three days before halloween, having hung himself in the woods.

In this post: 
orphan
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Horror film junkie, burrito connoisseur, and serial cat stroker. WhatCulture's least favourite ginger.