Movies You Didn't Know Were Inspired By Dark True Stories

Everyone knows that Psycho was loosely based on infamous American tailor Ed Gein, but the 1960 slasher wasn't the only Alfred Hitchcock movie inspired by true events. In an interview with director Francois Truffaut, the Master of Suspense explained that his voyeuristic masterpiece, Rear Window, was influenced by two murders that sent shockwaves across Great Britain.

The first murder occurred in 1910, when Dr. Hawley Crippen claimed his wife had left England for the US. Naturally, Crippen's neighbors were suspicious when the doctor's girlfriend suddenly moved in, and they grew even more concerned when she started wearing his wife's jewelry. 

This little twist inspired a moment in Rear Window when Jimmy Stewart's character realizes his neighbor probably wouldn't have gone on vacation without taking her wedding ring along, a fact that makes him suspect her husband (Raymond Burr) of foul play. But as for Dr. Crippen, he tried to flee the country, but thanks to the brand new invention of radio, he didn't get very far as the ship's captain recognized him and alerted the authorities. But why did he try to run? Probably because the police found a bunch of body parts in his basement.

The second crime that influenced Rear Window occurred in 1924 courtesy of Patrick Mahon, who was cheating on his wife with a co-worker named Emily Kaye. However, Kaye was pregnant and wanted more out of their relationship, so Mahon did the reasonable thing by murdering her in a beachside bungalow, dismembering her corpse, and boiling the body away in a big pot.

Of course, everything fell apart when a family friend discovered women's clothing and a bloody knife in Mahon's luggage, and when the cops showed up at his seaside cabin, they found a few bags full of human flesh. Evidently, Mahon hadn't finished tidying up just yet, and thanks to his laziness, the man was soon swinging from the gallows. Sure, it's a pretty grisly story, but on the plus side, the case inspired cops to start wearing rubber gloves when cleaning crime scenes, and it gave Hitchcock the idea of a killer disposing of a body piece by piece.

With his red-and-green sweater and iconic claw glove, Freddy Krueger slashed his way into the hearts of horror fans everywhere with A Nightmare on Elm Street. Over the course of the ever-growing franchise, Krueger has invaded the dreams of countless teens, dropping clever quips and bloody bodies with equal abandon. But while this supernatural serial killer was a product of Wes Craven's twisted imagination, the writer-director was actually inspired by several real-life incidents.

In a 2008 interview with Cinefantastique Online, Craven said that as a young boy, he woke up one day to find a drunken man outside his window. The bum was just staring at Craven, and understandably, the kid was totally freaked out. Things only got worse when the man "started walking almost half-backwards" toward the entrance of Craven's apartment, all the while watching the terrified boy. Fortunately, when Craven's brother went to investigate (with baseball bat in hand), the man had disappeared. "He was drunk," Craven said of the guy outside his window, "having a good time. But the idea of an adult who was frightening and enjoyed terrifying a child was the origin of Freddy."

But what really kicked Elm Street into high gear was a series of mysterious deaths during the '70s and '80s. Cambodian refugees were inexplicably dying in their sleep, and this was happening so often that the Center for Disease Control began digging into the cause of "Asian Death Syndrome." Craven was particularly affected by the story of a 21-year-old man who refused to sleep for a whole week, afraid of what might happen if he slipped into dreamland. The poor guy was constantly drinking coffee, and when his family gave him sleeping pills, he faked taking them and then stashed them in a hiding spot.

Sadly, when the man finally fell asleep, he inexplicably passed away. Today, this phenomenon is known as SUNDS (sudden unexpected nocturnal death syndrome), and according to LiveScience, it's a genetic disease where "the body fails to properly coordinate the electrical signals that cause the heart to beat," and it often affects young Asian men when they're sleeping. Dying suddenly in your bed is an especially creepy way to die, and with the image of that drunken old man lurking in his memory, Craven combined the two events, created a monster, and named the killer after his childhood bully...Fred Krueger.

Think you can handle the truth about A Few Good Men? Directed by Rob Reiner, this legal thriller was inspired by Aaron Sorkin's Broadway play, and the story follows a Navy lawyer (Tom Cruise) who defends two Marines accused of killing a comrade during a "Code Red." Cruise argues the murder was accidental and that the defendants were following orders from the higher-ups. As a result, the Marines are dishonorably discharged but manage to beat the murder rap.

In real life, the story that inspired Sorkin centered on a Marine named William Alvarado (William Santiago in the film). Alvarado served at the Navy installation on Guantanamo Bay, and his job was to stand guard at the edge of the base, keeping an eye on Cuban soldiers on the other side of the perimeter. Unfortunately for Alvarado, he wasn't very popular in his platoon, as his fellow Marines believed he'd ratted on a guard who'd fired his weapon into Cuban territory.

As a result, ten guys blindfolded, gagged, and beat Alvarado, and during the assault, he lost consciousness after his lungs started filling up with liquid. Unlike the character in the movie, Alvarado survived the assault, and seven of the men involved accepted dishonorable discharges. However, the three remaining Marines took their chances in court, where they claimed they were just obeying their commanding officers. The trio actually got off pretty light, avoiding serious penalties, and at least one of the defendants—David Cox—was honorably discharged after finishing his time in the Corps.

Naturally, Cox didn't care for A Few Good Men, and he planned on joining a lawsuit against production company Castle Rock Entertainment. However, before anything could come of the case, Cox was mysteriously murdered. To this day, nobody knows who did the killing, so there's a perfect plot ready to go if Aaron Sorkin wants to write A Few Better Men.

After wowing critics with her performance in Short Term 12, Brie Larson won an Oscar for Lenny Abrahamson's Room, a heartbreaking film about the love between a mother and her kid. In the film, Larson plays a young woman named Joy who's been abducted, imprisoned, and serially raped by a man known only as "Old Nick." As a result, she's given birth to a son named Jack (the amazing Jacob Tremblay), and together, the two live in a one-room shed, cut off from the rest of the world until Jack finally escapes and brings the police.

Room was based on a novel by author Emma Donoghue, but as it turns out, the concept for her book was "triggered" by the real-life case of Elisabeth Fritzl, an Austrian woman who was locked in a cellar at age 18. Even worse, her captor was her own dad, Josef Fritzl. This monster kept Elisabeth imprisoned for 24 years, and during that time, she gave birth to seven children. One died shortly after birth, three lived in the basement with their mother, and three were raised by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie.

Shockingly, Elisabeth's mom had no idea what was going on. Fritzl had convinced her that their daughter had run away. As for the kids, Fritzl admitted they were Elisabeth's, but he claimed he'd found them on the lawn, abandoned by their mom. However, the horror show ended when Elisabeth's oldest child—19-year-old Kerstin, who'd spent her entire life in the dungeon—became gravely ill. Fritzl was forced to take her to the hospital, and soon after that, the police put the puzzle pieces together. The 42-year-old Elisabeth was finally freed and reunited with her children, and as for Fritzl, he was—appropriately enough—put away for life.

Based on the novel by Shusaku Endo, Martin Scorsese's Silence is one of the most devastating movies in recent memory. This 17th-century period piece follows two Jesuits, Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Father Garupe (Adam Driver), who travel to Japan in hopes of rescuing their mentor, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson). Rodrigues has learned that Ferreira was tortured into renouncing his faith, and during their quest, the priests find themselves in the same exact scenario when they're arrested by an official (Issey Ogata) tasked with wiping out Christianity in Japan.

Even though Silence is a work of fiction, it draws a lot of inspiration from an actual case from 1633, when a Portuguese priest named Cristovao Ferreira was arrested for his missionary work. Similar to what happens in the film, Ferreira was hung upside down and partially buried in a ditch. Eventually, the priest apostatized, exchanged his Christianity for Shinto, and then went to work for the Japanese government, writing pamphlets against the Church and interrogating Catholic missionaries.

Shortly after Ferreira's conversion, a group of priests arrived in Japan hoping to save his soul. One of these Jesuits—an Italian named Giuseppe Chiara—served as the basis for Andrew Garfield's character. Unfortunately for Chiara, he wound up in the same situation as Ferreira, and after recanting his faith, Chiara adopted a Japanese name, got married, and dedicated himself to translating scientific tomes before passing away in 1685.