10 Horror Films Based On True Events And Where To Watch Them

Horror films based on true events include The Conjuring (2013), The Exorcist (1973), Psycho (1960), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Winchester (2018). Hollywood exaggerates, but each of these starts from a real case, a real killer or a real house. Here is the true story behind ten of them.

A horror film is scarier when you know some of it actually happened. Several films on this list draw on paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, and three of them borrow from one real criminal, Ed Gein. We have kept details non-graphic and focused on the real cases.

Quick facts: horror films based on true events

Streaming availability was checked on JustWatch India in October 2026 and can change.

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10 horror films based on true events

1. Winchester (2018)

Helen Mirren plays Sarah Winchester, widow of a firearms maker, who believes she is haunted by the people killed by her husband’s company’s rifles. The Spierig brothers directed it.

The mansion in the film is the real Winchester Mystery House. Sarah Winchester spent 38 years building and remodelling it, and legend says she held seances at night and handed new plans to her foreman each morning.

2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974 and 2003)

A group of friends runs into the cannibal Leatherface and his family. The story is invented, but the films borrow from Ed Gein, the Wisconsin murderer and grave robber caught in the 1950s.

The original film’s room of furniture made from bones is a nod to what police found in Gein’s farmhouse.

3. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-winning film follows an FBI cadet who seeks help from a jailed cannibal serial killer to catch a killer called Buffalo Bill.

Buffalo Bill is a mix of real criminals. FBI profiler John Douglas, who advised on the film, said Ted Bundy’s trick of wearing a fake cast was one source. Ed Gein inspired another part, and Rolling Stone has linked the basement pit to 1980s killer Gary Heidnik.

4. The Sacrament (2013)

A man travels to an isolated religious commune to find his sister, who has joined it. The film is inspired by the 1978 Jonestown massacre, where cult leader Jim Jones led a mass murder-suicide in which 909 people died.

5. The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia (2013)

Despite the name, it has nothing to do with the first film’s family. A young girl in Georgia makes an imaginary friend who turns out to share the name of a man who lived in the house years earlier. It is based on a family’s claims of a haunting.

6. The Girl Next Door (2007)

This is the hardest film on the list to watch. It is based on the case of Sylvia Likens, a 16-year-old girl who was abused and killed by her caregiver and other local young people. The Indianapolis Star covered the case in detail.

7. The Exorcist (1973)

Two priests try to drive a demon out of a young girl. William Friedkin’s film was inspired by a 1949 Washington Post report about a boy from Mount Rainier who reportedly underwent an exorcism.

Friedkin later said the boy’s family was Lutheran, and turned to the Catholic Church only after doctors, psychiatrists and their own minister could not help. In India, the film is currently available only to rent.

8. The Conjuring (2013)

James Wan’s film stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren, real paranormal investigators who help the Perron family in their haunted 18th-century home. Lorraine Warren consulted on the film, and Andrea Perron, one of the daughters, has said many of the events shown really happened.

Update: The series ended its main run with The Conjuring: Last Rites, released on 5 September 2025 and directed by Michael Chaves. It is based on the 1986 Smurl haunting case in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, and earned about US$499 million worldwide, the most in the franchise. It streams on JioHotstar in India. A prequel, The Conjuring: First Communion, is scheduled for September 2027.

9. Psycho (1960)

In Alfred Hitchcock’s classic, a woman who has stolen money from her employer stops at a remote motel run by Norman Bates. Bates is based on Ed Gein, who was convicted of one murder and suspected in others. Police found grisly items made from human remains in his home.

10. Dead Ringers (1988)

Jeremy Irons plays twin gynaecologists who harm their patients in David Cronenberg’s film. It is adapted from the 1977 novel Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland, which drew on real twin doctors Stewart and Cyril Marcus. The New York Times reported that the Marcus brothers swapped places with each other and later fell into drug use and isolation.

Update: Dead Ringers was remade as a six-episode Prime Video series in April 2023, developed by Alice Birch, with Rachel Weisz playing twins Beverly and Elliot Mantle.

For more scary picks, browse our Hollywood section and other listicles.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: The Conjuring: Last Rites (Wikipedia), Dead Ringers series (Wikipedia), JustWatch India.