There is something about films based on a true story that makes it all the more
shocking than a fictionalized movie. Here is a list of just a few of the most disturbing.
1. Adulterers
One of the best adult movies on Netflix is 2015’s Adulterers, which is based on a true
crime of passion story set in New Orleans, Louisiana.
On their one-year anniversary, Samuel plans to surprise his wife and comes home
unexpectedly. But upon arrival, he is sickened to find his wife in bed with another man,
Damien.
Grief-stricken and adrenaline pumping, Samuel brandishes two guns and
holds them captive while interrogating and tormenting the lovers. He coerces them into
revealing their deepest, darkest secrets regarding both their personal and sexual pasts.
He makes Damien call his wife and let her hear what Samuel has discovered. Samuel
then tells her that she must make the call about what will be done to Sam for his
indiscretion.
However, the movie ends shockingly, showing that Samuel was really only reflecting on
how things could have gone, as he has just buried the couple in the backyard after
shooting them.
2. Bully
This 2001 film was adapted from Jim Schutze’s “Bully: A True Story of High
School Revenge,” which details the plan and execution of the 1993 South Florida
murder of Bobby Kent.
After being fed up with the verbal, mental, and sexual abuse from Bobby, friends Marty,
Lisa and Ali decide to take Bobby out to escape from him. As the ringleader, Ali recruits
three more people, her boyfriend Donny, her friend Heather, and her cousin, Derek.
However, they realize quickly that they need a professional and hire another teen,
Derek Kaufman.
They lure Bobby out to a deserted swamp where Donny stabs him,
Mary slits his throat, and Derek Kaufman clubs him repeatedly with a baseball ball, all
while Lisa watches. Ali, Heather, and Derek are too scared and do not participate.
The body is dumped in the swamp. Later, due to the assailants all being so young,
tensions run high and eventually, each is arrested and charged according to their part
in the murder.
3. The Strangers
This 2008 horror film is based on two different real-life events: the
Manson murders at Roman Polanski’s California home, and a rash of forced entry
occurrences that happened in the writer’s hometown, where intruders knocked on
doors. If no one answered the door, they robbed the house. If someone did answer,
they asked for a person who did not live there.
James and Kristen arrive at James’ isolated childhood home very late with tensions high
as James proposed to Kristen earlier in the evening, she declined him. Around 4 a.m.,
there is knock at the front door; a woman whose face is concealed in the lighting asks
for “Tamara.” She is turned away.
James runs out to the store shortly after. Due to a malfunction with the chimney, the
smoke alarm is set off. While Kristen attempts to disengage it, she is interrupted by
another knock at the door. Instead of answering, she leaves the room to call James.
When she returns, she finds the smoke alarm in a different spot; someone is in the
house.
This begins the terrifying home invasion. The three individuals clad in scarecrow and
doll masks toy with Kristen from both inside and outside the house. When James
returns home, they try to escape in his car, but are hit by a third assailant, and must
retreat back into the house again.
James attempts to reach the shed in the backyard to find a radio transmitter to call for
help but is knocked unconscious. Kristen is also knocked unconscious inside the
house.
The couple is tied up, tortured, and stabbed repeatedly by the assailants the next
morning. They finally remove their masks, but to the victims only, not the audience. Keeping their identities anonymous.
4. Snowtown
This 2011 Australian biographical crime drama/horror film is based
on the true story of the Snowtown murders which took place from 1992-1999. They
are also known as the bodies-in-barrels murders; eight of the eleven victims’ remains
were found inside barrels in an unused bank vault.
The movie takes places in the low-income neighborhood of Salisbury North, where a
teenaged boy named Jamie and his two brothers are indecently photographed by their
mother’s boyfriend. When the authorities are of no help to Elizabeth, she is introduced
to a man named John, who uses intimidation and harassment to rid the neighborhood of
the boyfriend.
John, who harbors a deep hatred for all pedophiles and homosexuals, begins collecting
information on all known offenders in the area and as he gets closer to Elizabeth.
Jamie, who is repeatedly raped by one of his brothers, is vulnerable and easily
manipulated by John, whose charisma convinces just about everyone that he is out to
do good.
Once Jamie learns that John and his accomplice Robert are actually killing people, he is
distraught yet confused and still remains loyal to John. It is only after John and Robert
torture Jamie’s brother for raping him and Jamie is forced to kill Troy to put him out of
his misery, that Jamie becomes another full-fledged accomplice and begins helping to
carry out the continued murders.
Movies based on true stories always seem to haunt viewers; somehow knowing that
whatever you are seeing on the screen not only can happen but HAS happened, gives
us a certain type of reality check.