For most of us, the best thing about horror movies is the part where they aren't real
— but for a handful of disturbed fans, these stories about slashers, stalkers, and bloodthirsty
vampires have inspired dangerous and deadly copycat slaying.
Here's the terrifying truth of seven horror movies that became true-life crime scenes.
[Scream]
Nightmare on Elm Street
It was September 2004, in London, when 26-year-old Daniel Gonzalez stabbed four people
— a gruesome series of slayings just like something out of a nightmare… on Elm Street.
Gonzalez reportedly fantasized about becoming a serial slasher, with horror-film villain
Freddy Krueger serving as his inspiration; a diary entry written after his first slaying
read,
"I will be a serial slasher.
I mean it.
I promise."
Gonzalez was sentenced to six life sentences at a maximum-security sanatorium in Berkshire,
England, but in the end, he only spent a year behind bars before taking another life: his
own.
Gonzalez was found dead in his room at Broadmoor Hospital in August of 2007.
The Purge
In this dystopian thriller, America has come up with a chilling annual tradition to ensure
a peaceful, thriving society:
"Commencing at the siren, any and all crime, including slaying, will be legal for twelve
continuous hours."
Not only did the film spawn a franchise, it also inspired a copycat: Jonathan Cruz, who
butchered three people during a violent four-day spree in 2016.
Police couldn't explain Cruz's motives for the seemingly indiscriminate slayings, until
they interviewed his acquaintances — who revealed that before committing his crimes,
the slasher had talked often about his desire to do a so-called "purge."
A jury of Cruz's peers responded by purging him from society; he's serving three consecutive
life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Saw
"Want to play a game?"
With its graphic gore and gross-out torture slayings, Saw is a franchise that's hard to
stomach — but one man found it horribly inspiring.
In a clear copycat reenactment of a scene from the film, 25 year-old Matthew Tinling
offed his neighbor, 45-year-old Richard Hamilton, stabbing the older man repeatedly
and then slicing through his spinal cord.
Unlike the sadistic Jigsaw, Tinling was motivated by ordinary greed; he wanted Hamilton to hand
over the PIN for his bank account.
And unlike Jigsaw, Tinling won't be headlining a franchise — he's spending the next thirty
years in prison for his crime.
Halloween
After watching Rob Zombie's 2007 remake of the classic 1978 classic slasher flick Halloween,
17-year-old Jake Evans wanted to be like Michael Myers — the masked lunatic who slays his
family on the spookiest night of the year.
Evans shot and merked his 15-year-old sister Mallory and his 48-year-old mother Jami on
October 3, 2012, then penned a confession explaining that he was inspired by Myers'
remorselessness, writing,
"I was thinking to myself it would be the same for me when I slay someone."
Unlike Michael Myers, Evans won't be back for a sequel; in January 2013, he was sentenced
to 45 years in prison.
Scream
Wes Craven's horror classic Scream inspired a slew of sequels—and at least one real-life
crime.
In 2001, Thierry Jaradin lured 15-year-old schoolgirl Alisson Cambier into his home in
Belgium under the pretense of giving her some VHS tapes.
But when Jaradin made romantic advances toward Cambier, she rejected him — at which point
he put on a Ghostface mask and stabbed the girl more than 30 times.
Jaradin allegedly placed her body on his bed, put a rose in her mouth, and called his father
to confess to the slaying, which he claimed was both premeditated and motivated by the
events seen in Scream… which just goes to show that he totally missed the point of the
movie.
"Now Sid, don't you blame the movies!
Movies don't create psychos!"
Interview with the Vampire
In 1994, 25-year-old Daniel Sterling and 23-year-old Lisa Stellwagen headed to the theater to see
this buzzed-about vampire film, which starred Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise as its main bloodsuckers.
Later, Stellwagen woke up to find Sterling staring at her; when she asked what was wrong,
he said he was going to slaying her and drink her blood.
Sterling must not have sounded too convincing, because his girlfriend fell back asleep instead
of running screaming from the room.
But she should have!
Later that day, Sterling stabbed Stellwagen seven times and did indeed drink her blood,
though luckily, the woman survived.
"I've drained you to the end."
Sterling's attorney tried to argue that the film was to blame for Sterling's crime, but
the jury didn't buy the "vampires made me do it" defense; they convicted him of attempted
first-degree manslaughter.
Child's Play
A film that awakened an entire generation's fear of dolls, this 1988 supernatural slasher
centers on Chucky, a demonic plaything possessed by the soul of a deceased serial slasher.
But it also played a role in one of Britain's most sadistic butchers.
In December 1992, Bernadette McNeilly kidnapped a 16 year-old girl named Suzanne Capper, who
was stripped naked, forced into a bathtub filled with disinfecting liquid, and made
to listen to recordings of McNeilly imitating Chucky.
Those tapes kept playing while McNeilly and her accomplices beat their victim and ripped
out her front teeth.
Suzanne Capper died after being dumped into a wooded area and set on fire.
McNeilly and three of her five associates were sentenced to lengthy prison terms, but
the story didn't end there: In 2014, McNeilly was paroled.
She's currently living under a new name in an undisclosed location in northwest England
— and hopefully not plotting a sequel.
[Scary music]
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