10 Terrifying Non-Horror Movies That Are Based On A True Story

✕ Remove Ads By its very nature, horror is designed to disturb, provoke, and scare its audience. As such, it comes as little surprise that horror has traditionally been the genre associated with the scariest movies of all time. However, cinema has played host to a number of offerings from outside the genre that are just as terrifying as the scariest horror film, if not more so.
Legendary film critic Roger Ebert described Charlize Theron’s work in Monster as”one of the greatest performances in the history of cinema.” Remarkably for a tale concerning aliens, UFOs, and probes, Fire in the Sky is actually inspired by a “true” story. The film is based on the real-life Travis Walton’s The Walton Experience, a book based on the author’s alleged experiences. Walton claims that he was abducted by aliens and experimented on before being returned safely, recounting his experiences in a tell-all book.
✕ Remove Ads 7 Backcountry Directed By Adam MacDonald Your Rating10 stars9 stars8 stars7 stars6 star5 stars4 stars3 stars2 stars1 star Rate Now 0/10 Leave a ReviewBackcountry R Backcountry is a 2015 survival thriller directed by Adam MacDonald. The film follows a young couple who embark on a camping trip in the Canadian wilderness. Their adventure turns perilous when they realize they are unprepared for the dangers posed by the wild, leading to a harrowing struggle against nature.
✕ Remove Ads Alive is all the more terrifying given that the film’s harrowing premise is based in reality. While 2023’s Society of the Snow is a more accurate depiction of the disaster, Frank Marshall’s movie draws from the same true story of a Uruguayan rugby team who crashed in the Andes in 1972, changing the character names of those who died in the disaster out of respect for the deceased.
Director David Nerlich , Andrew Traucki Release Date August 23, 2007 Cast Maeve Dermody , Diana Glenn , Andy Rodoreda , Ben Oxenbould , Fiona Press Runtime 90 minutes A hair-raising survival thriller offering, 2007’s Black Water follows a trio of young tourists on holiday in Australia. The group soon find themselves thrust into a nightmarish situation, after their boat tour of a nearby mangrove swamp is gatecrashed by a gargantuan, man-eating crocodile.
✕ Remove Ads Horror icon Stephen King has described The Girl Next Door as “…the dark-side-of-the-moon version of Stand by Me.”