5 Horror Movies that Inspired Real-Life Copycats
Cassie Phillips
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I’ve been binge-watching the television show “Hannibal,” starring Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy, of late, and it has completely enthralled me. The cinematography is beautiful and the murders are inventive. While the crimes are incredibly grotesque, they are also fascinating. One can’t help but wonder how this show, or shows like it, would affect those already inclined towards violence.
There are, in fact, several instances of people pulling inspiration from violent films. Unfortunately, some people can’t differentiate between fantasy and reality, and we wind up with tragedy. It’s more common than one would want to think, and it makes us wonder about the cultural impact of our media.
Don’t believe me? Check out this list of five horrifying or violent films that inspired killers to perform crimes in the real world:
A Clockwork Orange
Stanley Kubrick’s off-putting classic is as creepy as it wondrous. It is a major element of pop culture, but its spookier and violent elements are what made it the perfect encouragement for more than a few grisly crimes.
After the bizarre case of John Ricketts, a British office worker who dressed up as a Droog from the film and then assaulted a coworker at an office party, the UK finally put a ban on the movie throughout the country. This was due to the uptick in violent crimes inspired by what was being shown onscreen.
Queen of the Damned
A continuation of Lestat’s story that began with Interview with the Vampire, Queen of the Damned is set a little later than its predecessor and intertwines the ever-fashionable rock music scene into the tale of the undead that walk among us. Between Aaliyah’s portrayal of Akasha, the vampire queen, and the underground music scene, Allan Menzies found plenty of inspiration for his crimes.
Committed the same year the movie was released, Menzies murdered his best friend under the claim that the characters from the movie had ordered him to. After being “visited by Akasha in the night” and supposedly being promised to be made a vampire in the afterlife, Menzies went on to kill his best friend, Thomas McKendrick. Once the deed was committed, Menzies drank the victim’s blood and ate parts of his head.
American Psycho
American Psycho’s particular brand of neurosis is one that draws in a calculating mind, and when Michael Hernandez (only 14) committed murder in Florida, he had Patrick Bateman (and Silence of the Lambs’ Hannibal Lecter) in mind.
Saying he identified with the minds of both killers, Hernandez stabbed his middle school classmate to death, believing he was given permission by God (along with superhuman powers, of course). It was Hernandez’s plan to become a full-time serial killer, but he was convicted in 2008 of the murder of his classmate and is still behind bars today.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger is more than an onscreen serial killer. He’s a horror icon, slipped into pop culture conversations costume parties all over the world. In true Krueger fashion, David Gonzalez, a paranoid schizophrenic, went on a drug-fueled killing spree in the UK in 2004. He was armed with a variety of knives and a desire to kill.
Sentenced to serve six life sentences for his crimes, Gonzalez’s murder of four people, including a doctor and his wife, was one of the worst crimes associated with A Nightmare on Elm Street. Cited with never receiving the mental health attention that he desperately needed, Gonzalez committed suicide in his cell in 2007.
Natural Born Killers
Maybe it’s something about how incredibly cool Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis look in Natural Born Killers that brings out the worst in some people. Perhaps it is how powerful the leads seem to be as Robert Downey, Jr., turns them into tabloid charmers because this movie has made them into the kind of inspiration that keeps on horrifically giving.
While the movie has been tied to lots of different murders, it was the drug-fueled robbery and murder spree by Benjamin Darras and Sarah Edmondson that made the most headlines. After shooting a convenience store clerk (and leaving her a quadriplegic), Darras and Edmondson went on to kill a Mississippi businessman. These actions got Darras a lifetime sentence and Edmonson 35 years.
Should any of this information should stop you from watching crime and horror content? Absolutely not, even if it does give one chills to watch gruesome cannibalism. It’s never been more available due to streaming websites, the proliferation of content in general, and the use of Virtual Private Networks all around the world.
Just make sure to know where reality ends and the screen begins.
