As terrifying as a supernatural horror movie like The Exorcist or A Nightmare on Elm Street might be, there’s a comfort in knowing that the spooky plot elements at play don’t really exist. The scariest horror movies are the ones whose storylines could actually happen in real life.
While nobody is getting killed by a boogeyman in their dreams any time soon, home invasions and cult rituals and motel murders and stalkers are all haunting realities that could beset anybody in the audience. From The Strangers to Don’t Breathe, there are plenty of shockingly realistic horror movie plots guaranteed to induce nightmares.
10 The Strangers - Home Invasion
Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers follows a couple staying at a vacation home in the middle of nowhere when three masked criminals show up to terrorize them for fun. In one particularly horrifying scene, they ask, “Why are you doing this to us?” to which the villains simply respond, “Because you were home.”
There’s something uniquely haunting about the notion that just being at home could be enough to get somebody killed. Home invasions like the one depicted in The Strangers happen alarmingly often in the real world – the Tate-LaBianca murders being one of the most famous examples.
9 The Invitation - Cult Ritual
In Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation, a man is invited to a mysterious dinner party at his ex-wife’s house, where it becomes apparent that she and her new husband are members of a murderous cult. The spooky final scene implies that similar parties are happening all over Los Angeles.
While this is clearly a speculative story, the cult ritual aspect is shockingly grounded in reality. History has shown that plenty of cult leaders have attracted legions of followers and inspired them to commit gruesome rituals.
8 Friday The 13th - Serial Killer
All the sequels to Friday the 13th fall into the same semi-supernatural category as fellow iconic slasher franchises Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street. But the 1980 original is surprisingly grounded in reality.
The killer isn’t a zombified, superpowered, invincible Jason; it’s just his vengeful mother Pamela going around Camp Crystal Lake, killing all the sexually active teenagers in sight.
7 Don’t Breathe - Burgling The Wrong Guy
Fede Álvarez’s Don’t Breathe puts a subversive spin on the familiar home invasion premise. Usually, home invasion movies present the homeowners as the protagonists and the sinister people breaking in as the villains. In Don’t Breathe, the home invaders are the protagonists.
They hear about a blind war veteran with a big stash of cash hidden in his house and break in to steal it in the middle of the night. However, the tables are quickly turned on them when the veteran is ready, willing, and able to kill them and they stumble upon a stomach-churning secret in his basement.
6 Audition - Dangerously Clingy Lover
Takashi Miike’s Audition is a straightforward melodrama with no hint of horror for the first half. Widower Aoyama asks his producer friend to hold auditions under the guise of casting a new project so he can search for the ideal second wife. He becomes enraptured with Asami, who turns out to be so clingy that she drugs and tortures him just because she has to share him with his own son.
There’s a dark irony in Aoyama being manipulated by Asami after he manipulated her and countless other women during the fake audition process. Obviously, some elements are exaggerated, but this toxic relationship is harrowingly realistic.
5 Cape Fear - Stalker
In both J. Lee Thompson’s 1962 original version of Cape Fear and Martin Scorsese’s 1991 remake, convict Max Cady is released from prison and spends his time stalking the family of Sam Bowden, the lawyer who helped to put him behind bars.
Unlike zombies or vampires, stalkers are a very prominent threat in the real world. Scorsese’s Cape Fear is one of the most renowned remakes ever made, and it’s partly because the story is so timeless. The threat of stalkers was just as terrifyingly real in the ‘90s as it was in the ‘60s (and is today).
4 Midsommar - Drugged By A Cult
Ari Aster’s debut feature Hereditary deals with very real horrors like losing a child, but its paranormal plotting provides a comfortable disconnect from reality. His sophomore effort, Midsommar, sees a couple on the brink of breaking up staying with a mysterious cult.
As soon as they get there, they’re drugged, so every subsequent sequence needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Being drugged by a cult and losing touch with reality could, in theory, really happen.
3 Green Room - Neo-Nazi Rage
Jeremy Saulnier’s jaw-dropping thriller Green Room opens with a punk band on the road in the Pacific Northwest. After their gig is canceled, they pick up a different show at a rural bar in Portland. When they get to the bar, they realize it’s run by neo-Nazis.
After the show, they unwittingly witness a murder and get trapped in the bar’s green room, where the white supremacists intend to kill them. This is a shockingly plausible scenario, especially with white supremacy on the rise.
2 Misery - Toxic Fandom
Stephen King’s Misery is likely based on the author’s own worst nightmare. It follows a popular writer who’s saved from a car wreck by his biggest fan, who turns out to have sinister intentions as she first nurses him to health, then keeps him trapped in her house against his will.
Rob Reiner’s movie adaptation is one of the most iconic horror films ever made. Reiner frames it as an intense two-hander anchored by the impeccable chemistry that James Caan and an Oscar-winning Kathy Bates share in the lead roles.
1 Psycho - Motel Murder
Alfred Hitchcock approaches the early scenes of his thriller masterpiece Psycho as a straightforward film noir, as Marion Crane embezzles money from her boss and goes on the run. It becomes the first ever slasher when Marion stops off at the Bates Motel, takes a shower, and is promptly stabbed to death.
Being murdered in the shower by the unhinged proprietor of a motel in the middle of nowhere is something that could easily happen in real life.
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