Top 10 Disturbing Origins of Movie Characters
Everybody's got some skeletons in the closet... sometimes literally! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the creepiest and most unsettling real-life inspirations behind some iconic movie characters. Fair warning, this list does contain spoilers.
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00:00 "Why don't you ask me about Buffalo Bill?"
00:03 "Do you know something about him?"
00:05 "I might if I saw the case file."
00:07 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the creepiest and most
00:11 unsettling real-life inspirations behind some iconic movie characters.
00:15 Fair warning, this list does contain spoilers.
00:17 #10. Kaiser Soze - The Usual Suspects
00:27 The mild-mannered mastermind behind the twisting sequence of events that led to a deadly shootout
00:32 and fire was hiding in plain sight.
00:33 "That's him.
00:34 Shout out."
00:35 "That's him, you hear me?"
00:36 "I'm telling you it's Kaiser Soze!"
00:40 Then in a flash, he was gone.
00:41 The real murderer who inspired the fictional Kaiser Soze was just as elusive.
00:45 Screenwriter Christopher Macquarie based Soze on John List.
00:48 In 1971, List murdered his wife, mother, and three children in cold blood, then disappeared
00:53 without a trace.
00:54 "The manhunt for a mass murderer had begun.
00:58 Police issued a nationwide murder warrant for the arrest of John Emil List."
01:03 For two decades, List evaded capture.
01:05 It wasn't until 1989, when America's Most Wanted aired a clay bust of his likeness,
01:10 that he was caught.
01:11 He had remarried, and even after his arrest, contended that he was not John List.
01:15 Unlike his fictional counterpart, List was caught and convicted of his crimes.
01:19 "A jury found John List guilty of five counts of first-degree murder, and sentenced him
01:27 to life in prison."
01:28 Number 9.
01:29 Mickey and Mallory Knox, Natural Born Killers
01:32 Murderous lovers on the run wasn't new when Oliver Stone's trippy and grotesque road
01:36 trip thriller hit theater screens in 1994.
01:38 "When them people come here and they ask you who done this, you tell them Mickey and
01:42 Mallory Knox did it, alright?
01:44 Say it!"
01:45 "Mickey and Mallory Knox did it."
01:48 Mickey and Mallory Knox drew comparisons to both the real and fictional Bonnie and
01:51 Clyde, but these two were in a deranged class of their own.
01:55 Their cross-country killing spree was inspired by Charles Starkweather and his accomplice,
01:59 Carol Ann Fugate.
02:00 "After ten slayings in eight days, Charles Starkweather was at last in jail."
02:05 This true story of a young man and his young accomplice and girlfriend became a national
02:09 media sensation in the late 1950s.
02:12 The pair also inspired Terrence Malick's 1973 indie epic, Badlands.
02:15 "Why'd you do it?"
02:18 "I don't know.
02:20 I always wanted to be a criminal, I guess.
02:23 Just not this big of one."
02:25 Number 8.
02:26 Michael Myers, Halloween What this escaped killer lacks in humanity,
02:29 he more than makes up for in sheer evil.
02:38 But when the movie first introduces him, he's only a boy.
02:41 Carpenter's inspiration for the character and the shocking revelation of his age when
02:44 he commits his first murder was based on a very real experience Carpenter had.
02:48 "It was unsettling to me.
02:51 It was like the creepiest thing I'd ever seen, just because, as a stranger, it was
02:57 completely insane."
02:58 During a class trip to a psychiatric institution, he saw a young boy with a vacant and unsettling
03:03 look that haunted him for years afterward.
03:05 Actor Donald Pleasence's dialogue about the look of evil in Michael Myers' eyes
03:09 recalls that same patient.
03:10 "The blackest eyes.
03:11 The devil's eyes.
03:12 I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked
03:21 up, because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply
03:25 evil."
03:26 Number 7.
03:28 Ghostface, Scream While the villain's identity changes with
03:31 each sequel, their crimes were inspired by a very real serial killer.
03:34 "You've had your fun now, so I think you better just leave or else."
03:38 "Or else what?"
03:39 Although by no means an adaptation of the true story, screenwriter Kevin Williamson
03:43 was inspired to write Scream after seeing news reports on the Gainesville Ripper.
03:47 Daniel Rowling, a Florida man who slaughtered eight people, was even scarier and more depraved
03:52 than his on-screen counterpart.
03:53 "He is the most heartless, deviant individual that I have ever dealt with."
03:59 He was tried and convicted in 1994, two years before Scream came out.
04:03 The origins of Ghostface's masks are a bit less sinister.
04:11 The costume designers took its twisted expression from The Scream, a work by Norwegian artist
04:16 Edward Munch.
04:17 Number 6.
04:18 Freddy Krueger, A Nightmare on Elm Street Horror master Wes Craven cited three major
04:22 inspirations for the sweater-clad, fedora-wearing, razor-gloved demon of suburban teenagers'
04:27 nightmares.
04:28 "Please, God."
04:29 "This is God."
04:30 The first was a childhood rival by the name of Fred Krueger.
04:35 The second was a run-in with a creepy old man who startled him when he was home alone
04:39 as a child.
04:40 But the third inspiration was the real-life story of Hmong refugees who had been placed
04:43 in internment camps who had begun dying in their sleep.
04:46 "Nightmare on Elm Street as a story seems to have its roots in these articles in the
04:49 Los Angeles Times.
04:51 The first article was about a young man, Asian descent, dying in the middle of a nightmare."
04:57 One story in particular about a boy who refused to fall asleep because he believed he was
05:01 being pursued by a monster in his dreams haunted Craven.
05:03 "He was telling his family that there's something after me and I'm afraid if I don't
05:10 stay awake it'll kill me."
05:11 The boy ended up dying in the middle of one of those nightmares.
05:14 Number 5.
05:15 Annie Wilkes, Misery It's terrifying to think that someone tasked
05:18 with treating patients could be a cold-blooded killer.
05:21 "Sometimes I get so worked up.
05:23 Can you ever forgive me?"
05:25 On Misery's commentary track, director Rob Reiner said the sadistic nurse played by
05:29 Kathy Bates was based somewhat loosely on a nurse named Janine Jones.
05:32 During her tenure as a nurse in San Antonio, Texas, Jones lethally injected more than 40
05:37 youths in her care.
05:38 Annie Wilkes was accused of a similar crime in Misery.
05:41 However, author Stephen King's actual inspiration is disturbing in a different, more personal
05:45 way.
05:46 Misery was the novel he wrote in response to his attempts to go sober.
05:48 Annie Wilkes was a stand-in for his own dependency and all its oppressive and destructive power.
05:53 "I know I left my scrapbook out.
05:55 I can imagine what you might be thinking of me.
05:58 But you see, Paul, it's all okay.
06:01 Last night it came so clear.
06:04 I realize you just need more time."
06:06 Number 4.
06:07 Count Dracula, Dracula Irish novelist Bram Stoker didn't invent
06:10 the vampire, but his undead Transylvanian Count invented and popularized many of the
06:15 tropes that would forever be associated with the creature.
06:17 The 1931 universal horror classic would do the same for movie vampires.
06:21 "I am Dracula."
06:24 Mostly inspired by Eastern European folklore, scholars and fans have drawn numerous comparisons
06:28 between Dracula and Vlad the Impaler.
06:30 Vlad, whose family name was Dracul, was a Wallachian prince and warlord who became famous
06:35 for his habit of impaling his enemies.
06:37 "Stoker was the first to take the legend of Vlad the Impaler, or Vlad Dracula, and
06:42 attach it to the vampire.
06:45 And they haven't really come apart since."
06:47 Vlad the Impaler's cruelty made him a feared ruler and a legendary example of medieval
06:51 barbarism.
06:52 Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 adaptation of the novel brings the Count's historical
06:56 origins to light.
06:57 "From Transylvania arose a Romanian knight of the sacred order of the dragon, known as
07:02 Draculia."
07:04 Number 3.
07:05 Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs Although the cannibal psychiatrist has been
07:08 terrorizing movie audiences since Manhunter, his most famous appearance is in The Silence
07:12 of the Lambs.
07:13 "Jack Crawford must be very busy indeed, if he is recruiting help from the student
07:17 body.
07:18 Busy hunting that new one, Buffalo Bill.
07:21 What a naughty boy he is."
07:23 Like the film's other villain, Buffalo Bill, who was inspired by three different serial
07:27 killers, Lecter also had multiple inspirations.
07:30 Original novelist Thomas Harris based the psychiatrist on a prison doctor he met in
07:34 Mexico.
07:35 "I won't say he was the model for Hannibal Lecter, but when Hannibal Lecter came along,
07:39 I could recognize him because of the doctor."
07:43 The doctor, whom the author found to be incredibly elegant and poised, was also a notorious murderer.
07:47 Harris later identified him as the "Wolfman of Nuevo León," the moniker given to Alfredo
07:51 Balit Trevino.
07:53 This dichotomy of kindness and deviance inspired him in writing Hannibal Lecter.
07:56 "I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an old friend for dinner."
08:02 Number 2.
08:03 Travis Bickle, Taxi Driver Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, and screenwriter
08:07 Paul Schrader created the ultimate figure of post-Vietnam paranoia in The New York Cab
08:11 Driver, Travis Bickle.
08:12 "Can I help you?"
08:13 "Yeah, what's your name?"
08:14 "My name is Travis."
08:15 "That's nice.
08:17 What can I do for you?"
08:20 "I'd like to know what your name is.
08:23 What's your name?"
08:25 "Give me a break."
08:27 We watch as Travis devolves into a mohawk-wearing, gun-strapped, self-styled vigilante whose
08:31 sanity is holding on by a threat, and plotting to shoot a presidential candidate.
08:35 "Be careful today."
08:36 "Right, will do."
08:37 "You have to be careful in and around a place like this."
08:40 Bickle's rambling diaries, fixation on political assassination, and desire to become mythologized
08:45 in history for his crimes were inspired by Arthur Bremer.
08:48 Bremer was convicted and sentenced for the 1972 attempted assassination of Governor George
08:52 Wallace, a Democratic challenger to President Richard Nixon in the upcoming election.
08:56 The 21-year-old loner from Milwaukee was convicted and sentenced to prison.
09:01 Now with a long, scraggly beard and a receding hairline, Bremer appears to have aged a lot
09:06 in the last 10 years.
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09:23 1.
09:25 NORMAN BATES - PSYCHO
09:26 In 1957, the citizens of Plainfield, Wisconsin were rocked by a gruesome discovery.
09:31 Mild-mannered farmer Ed Gaines's property was the site of a series of grisly and violent
09:35 crimes.
09:36 Gaines's obsession with his mother became the dominant motivation behind Norman Bates's
09:40 homicidal tendencies.
09:49 The sensitive motel proprietor's fugue state and fondness for donning his mother's clothes
09:53 after her death were also lifted from the case.
09:56 Although relatively tame compared to the real thing, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was almost
10:00 too much for audiences to take in 1960.
10:08 The more salacious components of Gaines's crimes wouldn't be depicted until the Texas
10:11 Chainsaw Massacre and the Silence of the Lambs, but Norman Bates was the first major character
10:16 he inspired.
10:19 Which of these backstories had you never heard before?
10:21 Tell us in the comments.
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