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Sep 13, 2023 · From true crime to the paranormal to the just plain eerie, the real-life creepy stories are the ones that provide a lasting fright that fictional ones cannot. Perhaps Mark Twain put it best when he said, “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”.
- 1 Cropsey
- 2 The Act of Killing
- 3 Blackfish
- 4 Killer Legends
- 5 The Nightmare
- 6 Mommy Dead and Dearest
- 7 Method of A Serial Killer
- 8 Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story
- 9 Meltdown: Three Mile Island
- 10 Monster Inside: America's Most Extreme Haunted House
Directed by Barbara Brancaccio and Joshua Zeman
Joshua Zeman returns to this list as the writer and director of Cropsey, a documentary focusing on a New York City legend of the same name. Along with Barbara Brancaccio, Zeman sets out to discover the roots of the legend and make a point about oral traditions that keep these legends alive, while also tying the legend into the story of Andre Rand, a convicted kidnapper. The film makes a lot of interesting connections between legend and reality and the way we create and use legends as tools, a...
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn, and others
The Act of Killing provides a look into the minds of the perpetrators of the Indonesian Communist Purge of 1965 and 1966, particularly Anwar Congo, a death squad leader. Director Joshua Oppenheimerasks Anwar to tell him of his experiences during the time, and Anwar and his friends recreate their memories through film scenes. As the film progresses, Anwar must eventually play a victim in a recreation and can no longer stomach his actions, and Oppenheimer takes the opportunity to remind him tha...
Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Admittedly, Blackfish is a bit of a controversial documentary. It centers around Tilikum, an orca at SeaWorld San Diego that has been involved in numerous injuries and deaths and takes a very firm stance against the captivity of orcas. The film discusses the mistreatment of marine mammals, particularly orcas at SeaWorld parks, and how it contributes to aggressive behavior toward humans and other animals. Relying on comparisons of wild and captive orcas, testimonials from former trainers (incl...
Directed by Joshua Zeman
We’ll start it off with a documentary that tries to find fact out of fiction. Killer Legends is a documentary written and directed by Joshua Zeman (Cropsey, The Killing Season). He and researcher Rachel Millsinvestigate a series of urban legends, including killer clowns and Candyman. Their research takes them all over the United States to find the origin of the legends and the historical basis for them. Zeman and Mills do an excellent job of connecting true crime and myth in a way that is fas...
Directed by Rodney Ascher
A documentary with all of the feelings of a horror movie, The Nightmare takes a look at the phenomenon of sleep paralysis. It interviews people who suffer with sleep paralysis and re-creates their experiences with actors, particularly focusing on visions of shadow men and other hallucinations that are common in sleep paralysis. While the documentary can get a bit repetitive at times, it doesn’t take away from the unease it leaves you with as you imagine what it would feel like to be unable to...
Directed by Erin Lee Carr
A case that captivated the nation when it broke in 2015, Gypsy Rose Blanchard's story has been the subject of several documentaries and a Hulu series, The Act. However, most find that HBO's 2017 film Mommy Dead and Dearest is the documentary that best tells the story and shows the most empathy for Gypsy Rose, who was just recently released from prison on December 28, 2023, on parole after pleading guilty to the murder of her mother, Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard, in 2016. The documentary feat...
Directed by Matthew Watts
True-crime fans will find Method of a Serial Killer particularly compelling. The documentary outlines the life and crimes of Israel Keyes, a serial killer known for at least three murders throughout 2011 and 2012, as well as numerous other crimes from 1996 onward. Through a number of interviews with police and professionals and recreations of interrogations and other scenes, the film explains how Keyes went so long without being caught and how he was eventually arrested. Full of facts and det...
Directed by Sara Mast
Going under the knife for a surgery is always a little scary, but Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story shows you just how scary it can be when a surgeon isn’t bound to the Hippocratic Oath. The four episode series outlines the horrific malpractice of Christopher Duntsch, a former neurosurgeon that killed two patients and maimed many more. The series uses interviews from staff, patients, and family to walk through Duntsch’s time as a surgeon and the negative impact he had on the lives of the people...
Directed by Kief Davidson
Meltdown: Three Miles Island is a four part miniseries that recounts the partial meltdown of Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear reactor on March 28, 1979. Nuclear power professionals, plant employees, and locals recount and explain the event and the impact it had - and continues to have - on the region, from environmental to epidemiological. The Three Miles Island incident is the worst nuclear incident in United States history, and this documentary does a pretty good job at explaining t...
Directed by Andrew Renzi
Some horror fans may remember the name Russ McKamey from 2017's Haunters: The Art of the Scare or 2018's Dark Tourist, where he was introduced as a man who loves extreme scares and is pretty cozy with the local authorities. However, Monster Inside: America's Most Extreme Haunted House sheds new light on him and his extreme haunt, McKamey Manor. This isn't your typical haunt; it's a torture chamber preceded by a 40-page waiver saying participants might have theirfingernails or teeth removed, h...
- Author
- Help Me! "A few years ago my boss went on holiday for a couple of weeks to Spain. Mid-way through the holiday he got a phone call from the police informing him that his sister had [passed away] in a fire in her flat.
- The Voice. “My grandfather told me this story about how one time he was sitting in a chair in front of the house when he heard his wife repeatedly calling him from inside the house.
- Car At The Red Light. “Driving home with a buddy from the high school summer job at the local amusement park. It’s about 3 in the morning, and there is no traffic at all.
- “I Just Need A Haircut” “I was an RA in a dorm for two years in college. A girl who had been having stress issues finally snapped. She was found by someone in a dark stairwell (I was in an older dorm, circa 1887, so there were plenty of nooks and crannies).
May 28, 2024 · People share their eyewitness and firsthand accounts of true creepy and wild stories that really happened to them. The truth is often scarier than fiction. When you watch a horror movie, you at least know the unexplained phenomena present comes from CGI and makeup skills ...
Sep 17, 2023 · From Alexander the Great being buried alive to a Jameson heir paying to watch a girl be cannibalized, these true horror stories go way beyond Rated R. The horror stories that fuel cinema’s most terrifying plots may leave audiences unsettled, disturbed, and downright nauseated.
Apr 29, 2023 · Although the novel was written before the RMS Titanic was even conceptualized, there are some uncanny similarities between the fictional and real-life versions.
Jan 15, 2024 · Unearth the facts, discover the legends, and understand the true terror that inspired your favorite horror movies. These are not just stories; they are glimpses into the abyss of the human condition—proof that sometimes, reality can be far more frightening than fiction.
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