Real-Life Horror
Horror has a long history of inventing new ways to terrify readers. But even with all the monsters and ghouls the genre has to offer, there’s something especially harrowing about a story that doesn’t look to the supernatural to deliver its scares, but instead examines the grisly realities of the everyday world, in particular the crimes so devastating we can’t ever quite forget them. So for all you true crime aficionados out there, here are five works of fiction inspired by real-life horror.
Robert Bloch:
PSYCHO (based on Ed Gein)
AMERICAN GOTHIC (based on H. H. Holmes)
Others based on Jack the Ripper:
See Otto Penzler’s THE BIG BOOK OF JACK THE RIPPER, which honestly might just be too much of JtheR
I’m glad to see Carter’s “The Fall River Axe Murders” mentioned. It’s been one of my favorites by her for years.