The horrors of our reality have given rise to a number of films based on those events. The Amityville Horror, open water, ZodiacAnd fire in the sky only a few who strive to be close to accurate representations of true and supposedly true stories. While these are a few good examples, the number of great horror films that are more based on source material is limited. It’s not easy for a director to make a film based entirely on a true story because it requires him to be stuck within those limitations. They need to keep the story focused on what really happened without getting into their own dramatic direction.
Some horror movies start out as real and then turn into fiction.
Horror films are much more common. inspired a real story where the writer or director is influenced by what they have read or heard but then uses that information to go in their own direction. For example, serial killer Ed Gein committed crimes in the 1950s where he not only killed his victims, but also wore their skin and made household items from their bones. This real life nightmare has inspired everything from PsychoTo The Texas Chainsaw MassacreTo Silence of the Lambs, but none of those films were actually about Ed Gein. Instead, the filmmakers took this terrifying feeling and tried to recreate it in the film with their own imagination, instead of being burdened with hard facts. Ed Gein may be scary in real life, but in the movies, he couldn’t compete with Norman Bates, Leatherface, or Hannibal Lecter. These villains work not only because of their crimes, but also because of the harmless charm of Norman Bates, the very menacing brutality of Leatherface, and the cold-blooded charisma of Hannibal Lecter.
Ed Gein is not the only example. Kevin Williamson inspired to write scream after watching a news story about serial killer Daniel Rolling. While what Rolling did in Florida in 1990 was almost unspeakable, he didn’t do it in a Halloween mask or prank calling his victims movie trivia. Williamson simply took a grain of fear found in reality and allowed it to develop into its own new story. Similarly, since we mention screamits director Wes Craveninspired to create A Nightmare on Elm Street after reading Los Angeles Times an article about men who refused to sleep because of nightmares about their own death. When they finally fell asleep, 26 people died in their sleep. It’s an absolutely horrifying story, but that’s just the way it is. It has no drama, no suspense, no flowing plot that affects our emotions, and certainly no Freddy Krueger. A movie about people dying in their sleep would be creepy, but a movie about a man with a burnt face with knives for fingers who caused it is the next level of horror.
This is because while there is a huge amount of fear to be found in reality, and while these real life scary stories may grab our attention, it’s not enough to keep it and make a great movie. The film adds drama and suspense, working on our emotions in a way that only fiction can. It’s a rollercoaster of ups and downs, with familiar beats playing out as well as trying to increase the tension and surprise us. You can watch a TV series or movie based on Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer, but most of us know how these stories develop and how they end. It’s like making a movie based on a book you’ve already read. You may admire a play and feel uncomfortable portraying it, but a movie or TV series deeply based on true events cannot scare you the way specially crafted fiction can.
Turning our common primal fears against us is always scarier than real life.
Most of the best horror movies are not based on real events at all. Instead, they are based on a primal fear that we all share. Although they tried very hard to make us believe it was true, The Blair Witch Project was a complete work of art. His premise works because we have a collective fear of going into the woods, getting lost, spending the night in the dark, where anything could be hiding, and then never finding our way out. However, this idea is not enough. It needs to be supplemented with intriguing backstories that explore the world of the Blair Witch. We need to meet the characters, see how they interact and build the drama. In real life, this is not always the case. Most of our conversations aren’t really all that interesting, and there’s no drama at every turn. The film gives us that. A horror movie also knows how to tell a story in three acts, getting us to the top of the roller coaster and dropping us off. What if in The Blair Witch Project, the house discovered at the end, which is the perfect choice for the ending, was instead found thirty minutes later because the events were based on a true story that had to be followed? It wouldn’t be nearly as efficient.
Another great example of this is John CarpenterX halloween. It works so well because of how real it feels. Our greatest fear is to be in our home, where we feel most safe, and see a faceless madman watching us and breaking in to kill us. These are things from nightmares. But for this person to be someone in a white mask who never speaks, for this person to have just escaped from a psychiatric hospital on Halloween of all nights, and for this person to be an almost supernatural unkillable boogeyman, this is something beyond even tragedy. reality. The camera shots, the music, the lights were all used to lighten the mood.
Fictional horror unrestrained by reality
There are countless examples of films born from our realistic collective fears. Also, while the horrors of reality are thankfully limited in how far they can go, this is not the case for fiction. Anything we can understand can happen. Hollywood is fear without limits. stranger, Ring, gremlins, Child Game, Godzilla, Cloverfield, Night of the Living Deadnone of these stories could ever be true. That’s why these films work. This horror is beyond comprehension, the suspense turned out to be even higher, because these worlds are so different from ours. You never want to run into Ed Gein, Ted Bundy, or Jeffrey Dahmer, but imagine being chased by an alien, a giant monster, a living doll, or a living dead.
Real horror stories will always reach us. Netflix news and documentaries thrive on it. But that’s why we turn to cinema. We want to be afraid without being sad or depressed. Horror should be both fun and scary at the same time. Nothing achieves this better than the limitless scope of the imagination in capable hands.
Source: Collider
I have worked as a journalist for over 7 years and have written for many different publications. I currently work as an author at Daily News Hack, where I mostly cover entertainment news. I have a great deal of experience in the industry and am always looking to learn more. I am a highly motivated individual who is always looking to improve my skills. I am also a very friendly and personable person, which makes me easy to work with.
