What can make a scary show even scarier is when the viewers realize that what they are watching is either a real story or inspired by true events. There is always something very unsettling in understanding that sometimes life is even crazier than fiction and that situations one would never think possible to happen have already taken place somewhere in the world.
With the rise of the need for true-crime documentaries and cozy horror movies, the gaming industry has been keeping up the trend, putting real-world locations and events in a lot of games. Whether it is movies, games, or TV shows, fans of the macabre can’t help but binge on them.
5 Hannibal
The movie The Silence Of The Lambs was released in 1991 and since then has given people nightmares since then, standing the test of time without any problems. It is only normal that whatever had the murderous psychopath Dr. Lecter in it, would become a success – even if just for a bit. Hannibal, the series, was aired on NBC in April 2013 and went on until August 2015.
A lot of fans of the infamous Dr. Lecter though, don’t know that Thomas Harris who authored the book the movie and the series is based on, took inspiration for Hannibal from a real person. When Harris was working as a journalist, he interviewed someone who was asking very weird questions and introduced themselves as Dr. Salazar, a prison staff member. It turns out that the man was called Alfredo Trevino and was actually a killer who had murdered his lover and sliced him into pieces.
4 The Haunting of Hill House
Shirley Jackson wrote The Haunting Of Hill House in 1959, and it is considered one of the best gothic horror novels. Mike Flanagan took that story and made it into a wonderful 10-episode TV series that aired in 2018 and graciously gave all the chills to its viewers. Although it doesn’t follow exactly the plot of the novel, it manages to create the same feelings and keep the atmosphere unnerving.
The even creepier thing in all this is that Shirley Jackson’s inspiration for the novel was some very disturbing true events. Jackson took the story of a woman named Sarah Winchester, who inherited a family house that was built with money her family made by selling firearms. It is said that Sarah believed that the house was haunted by the ghosts of the people who were killed with those firearms.
Sarah kept building the house until she died, trying to make it as perfect as she could for those ghosts. But that wasn’t enough for her inspiration, and Jackson found even more when she visited an apartment in Harlem that was destroyed by fire and three people had died in it. It goes to show that true inspiration can come from unlikely places.
3 The Watcher
When this thriller series premiered on Netflix, fans were immediately intrigued by the superb cast, which includes Naomi Watts, Bobby Cannavale, Jennifer Coolidge, and Mia Farrow, among others. It is the story of a lovely typical American family who moves into their dream house in the suburbs and soon finds out that their dream home is actually a nightmare home, and even more importantly – they can trust no one.
The story was inspired by some very unsettling real-life events that happened in 2014 and was published in 2018 in an article in New York Magazine by Reeves Wiedeman and was called “The Haunting of a Dream House”. The story is of a family who after purchasing their house, started receiving letters from someone called the Watcher. The real-life owners finally sold the house in 2019, after many years of trying, and at half the price. The police still haven’t found out who the Watcher was.
2 Under The Banner Of Heaven
This true crime drama premiered on Hulu in April 2022, and it is based on the non-fiction book Under The Banner Of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. In the series, two detectives try to solve a very gruesome murder that is somehow connected to Mormons and their faith. Because of that, it has received quite a lot of controversial views, but most people couldn’t help but be hooked because of the amazing performances and the real-life crime that inspired the show.
The author, Krakauer, was raised among Mormons and wanted to challenge their religious fundamentalism. When he heard about the murder of Brenda Lafferty and her baby, a particularly brutal murder that happened in the 1980s, he knew he wanted to write a book about it.
1 Fargo
Fargo, before it became the amazing TV series that is ready to run its 5th season, was a movie created by the Coen Brothers. And unlike the other series in this list, this one is not exactly inspired by true events, although a lot of viewers think that it is. The reason for that belief is simple, and in classic Coen style, funny. The movie opens with a disclaimer that says: “This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest have been told exactly as it occurred.”
The series also took that joke and put the disclaimer before each episode. When they were asked why they did that, their reply was: “We wanted to make a movie just in the genre of a true story movie. You don't have to have a true story to make a true story movie.” On an even more interesting side note, the brothers later said that it does have some real-life inspiration, based on two events. Confusing, to say the least, but also quite funny, especially given how terrifying both the movie and the series are.