Ugly People Doing Ugly Things: Ten Incredibly Unsettling Movies Based on Completely True Stories

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Note the other actors cowering in genuine fear.

I wrote an incredibly in-depth piece about my relationship with this movie and story right here, but I also feel the need to point out to people how honestly it was handled by the film makers. This movie did not emphasize, one way or the other, what the real situation was. They simply showed us the exorcism side, and showed us the court room side of it, and told it to us EXACTLY how it happened. Like, exactly. Think about it, at NO point did you see Emily Rose float. At no point did you see her do ANYTHING she didn’t do in real life. From getting on and off her knees so many times for prayer that she blew out her knee caps, to eating handfuls of bugs, to screaming in different tongues. All of that happened. The producers even used the actual recordings from the exorcisms and the basis for the exorcism scenes.

Don’t believe me?

httpw://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowtown_murders

Yes, this shit REALLY happened. Belief in God or not, I find the tapes very unsettling.

But guess what? I have seen fifteen year old boys with special needs issues do the same things. I am not saying that with an ounce of irony or humor, I’m dead serious. Seen kids lift five staff, three times their size, all at once. Seen a kid twist his head almost all the way around, laughing while staff were trying to medicate him. I have SEEN this stuff, and all I can tell you is, even I don’t  know what happened to the real “Emily Rose”, but I do know that this film portrays all of that with stunning realism based on what actually happened (even her final words to her mother, which is EXACTLY how she died in real life).

In that sense, this film is as close to a documentary shining on the darker aspects of life than  you would ever expect to see. Also, Jennifer Carpenter used no special harnesses or voice distortion for any aspects of her performance. She just studied the tapes and pics, and nailed it (Jesus joke). Supposedly, the final scene in the barn scared everyone on set so badly, that no one would approach her after they yelled cut, and the set just sat in silence for ten minutes.

This is a visual representation of how I reacted to Ned Stark’s death.

Honorable Mentions:

Open Water: All we know is that the couple was left out in the water during an excursion on a vacation, and were never seen again. Do we know that they were eaten by sharks? No, we just know two people were abandoned and drown, and that is messed up enough.

Wolf Creek: I had to go with Snowtown Murders for an Aussie horror because of how spot on it is, but this movie’s “head on a stick scene” messes me up every time. Funny side note, the third kid (the boy, who survived) was blamed for the murders, and this film is based around the story he told cops, which a great deal of people think is pure billshit.  Sequel coming soon, too.

Never seen that shot in a horror movie before.

The Serpent and the Rainbow: My favorite Wes Craven movie, about real life zombies, is the real life story of Professor Wade Davis, who went looking for answers on the undead, and ended up finding more than he bargained for. Ah, fuck it, he gets turned into one. Only for a small time, but still, badass and scary, regardless. Also, it has Bill Pullman in it. That wins everything.

Ils (Them): Though little evidence backs it up, which is why it is not on the main list, this film is the supposed encounter that a vacationing couple had with some psychotic teens out in the Czech Republic, which cost them their lives. This film would sort of devolve into The Strangers, which was based on a true story, in the sense that someone rang on the author’s doorbell once and was creepy. No, really.

Only true in the mildest sense of the word, The Strangers was still an awesomely chilling ride.