I Just Found Out These Horror Movies Inspired Real-Life Crimes, And Wow, It's So Eerie Now Watching Them

"Now Sid, don't you blame the movies. Movies don't create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative."

**CONTENT WARNING!** This post contains details about crimes and violence that may be triggering for some readers.

1. Scream (1996)

Dimension Films

Sadly, horror movies are among the most emulated when it comes to crime. The 1996 classic Scream is no exception, and has inspired many real-life murders. Among the most well-known crimes related to Scream is the murder of 15-year-old Alisson Cambier by 24-year-old Thierry Jardin, who repeatedly stabbed her while wearing a Ghostface costume. Similarly, a teenager from Idaho, Cassie Jo Stoddart, died at the hands of her classmates Brian Lee Draper and Torrey Michael Adamcik, attempting to recreate the movie's scenes in real life.

2. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

New Line Cinema

A Nightmare on Elm Street introduces Freddy Krueger, one of the most-recognized villains in the history of cinema. Unfortunately, this character was also the inspiration for dozens of crimes around the world. One of the most infamous cases occurred in 2004, when the copycat serial killer Daniel Gonzalez murdered four people and attacked two others using kitchen knives. Gonzalez went on the spree to experience what it would be like to be Freddy for a day. Eventually, Daniel was put on trial and sent to a maximum security psychiatric facility, where he eventually died in 2007.

3. Child's Play (1988)

MGM

The Child's Play franchise, led by killer doll Chucky, is up there with one of the most enduring horror movie franchises and is still going strong to this day with remakes and TV series adaptions. Among the more infamous cases worth mentioning is that of Suzanne Capper, a British teenager who was severely tortured and murdered by a group of young people lead by her former babysitter Jean Powell, Jean's ex-husband Glyn Powell, and friend Bernadette McNeilly. As they carried out their crime, the murderers chanted lines such as "Chucky's coming to play," as well as other quotes from the movie.

4. Saw (2004)

Lions Gate Films

The Saw franchise, like the others on this list, inspired incredibly young teenagers to commit the most malicious of crimes. Fortunately, sometimes things did not turn out exactly as they wanted, but one of these incidents did almost claim someone's life. The first event was in 2007, when two 13-year-old girls decided to prank call a woman to tell her that one of her friends was locked in her house, and that she had 10 minutes to find her before she would be murdered. The victim of the prank, Beverly Dickson, panicked so badly that she experienced a massive stroke with lifelong consequences. Two years later, two teenagers from Salt Lake City attempted to plot a scheme to torture three victims, but fortunately, the mother of one of them discovered the plan and reported them to the police before it was too late.

5. And Natural Born Killers (1994)

Warner Bros.

To conclude this list is the 1994 film Natural Born Killers, in which Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis play a young killer couple who become celebrities, idolized for their crimes. Unfortunately, the premise of the movie prompted a few copycat criminal couples. The most infamous being Sarah Edmonson and Benjamin Darrus, who went on a multi-state killing spree that resulted in several deaths and many wounded people. Among them was Patsy Byers, who was permanently paralyzed after being shot in the neck. Due to this, Byers not only sued her two attackers, but also Oliver Stone (the film's director) and the film's production company for encouraging violence. However, a few years later, the lawsuits against Stone and the company were dismissed.