Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones leading the crowd-pleasing courtroom drama “The Burial,” and the return of “Frasier” starring Kelsey Grammer are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.
Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are albums by Offset and Troye Sivan, a group of so-called baddies of reality and competition TV shows face-off in a new reality game show called “House of Villains,” and the video game Forza Motorsport offers you a chance to drive more than 500 cars that are all sexier than whatever’s cluttering your driveway.
NEW MOVIES TO STREAM
— Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones lead the crowd-pleasing courtroom drama “The Burial,” coming to Prime Video free for subscribers on Friday. Loosely based on a true story, Maggie Betts’ sophomore film starts out as a contract dispute between two funeral home owners, but morphs into a bigger examination of race, inequality and corruption lingering in the “death care” industry. Foxx plays a slick, successful personal injury lawyer recruited to take on Jones’ character’s case to appeal to a largely Black jury. Other standouts in the cast include Bill Camp, Alan Ruck and Jurnee Smollett as the opposing counsel.
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— Filmmaker Scott Derrickson re-teams with his “Sinister” star Ethan Hawke in the horror “The Black Phone,” which returns to Peacock on Thursday just in time for spooky-themed movie nights leading up to Halloween. Hawke plays a serial killer who has recently abducted a 13-year-old boy and locked him in a room with a seemingly defunct telephone — but the kid discovers that that phone lets him speak to the previous victims. The film was a modest box office hit, bringing in nearly $90 million in North America last summer. In his AP review, critic Mark Kennedy wrote that “The Black Phone,” “is a very satisfying balancing act of a movie that has elements of supernatural, psychological suspense and horror but never falls heavily into a single camp.”
— Also over on Prime Video, audiences can check out the Nicolas Cage Dracula movie “Renfield,” which starts streaming on Tuesday. “The Lego Batman Movie” director Chris McKay was behind the camera here, with Cage playing Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as his long tortured assistant, Renfield. The film was a flop in theaters, grossing just $26 million against a reported production budget of $65 million and drew generally mixed reviews from critics. But some found joy in its horror-comedy mix, including the talents of Ben Schwartz and Awkwafina. Clarisse Loughrey writing in The Independent, singled out Cage in her positive review. saying he “was born to play a vampire.”
— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr
NEW MUSIC TO STREAM
— He came in like a hurricane, or, at least, a football team: “Rush,” the lead single from Troye Sivan ‘s third full-length album “Something to Give Each Other,” is all falsetto, locker room chants, utopic homoeroticism: “I feel the rush/ Addicted to your touch,” a group of men sing, amplifying the house-adjacent production of a pop song on the verge of experimentalism. It has been five years since the Australian singer’s last release — surely “Something to Give Each Other,” and its sweaty sexuality, is something worth celebrating.
— “Set It Off,” Migos’ member Offset’s sophomore solo album and first full-length since the death of his bandmate and cousin Takeoff, releases Friday. It follows Migos’ Quavo’s second solo album, “Rocket Power,” a lively and powerful tribute to Takeoff. “Set It Off” is characteristic Offset — energetic, empathetic trap with a stacked list of collaborators, as evidenced on “Jealousy,” which features his wife Cardi B and samples a Three 6 Mafia track. “I’ve been working on this project for over two years now. This season is personal for me. It marks a new chapter in my life,” Offset shared in a statement. “This body of work is healing for me and a letter to my fans and supporters.”
— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman
NEW SERIES TO STREAM
— Frontline takes a deep dive into Elon Musk’s purchase of the social platform formerly known as Twitter, now called X. “Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover” is a two-hour special examining Musk’s relationship with Twitter as a user-turned-owner, and some of the controversial decisions he’s made since acquiring the service. The program also features interviews with former Twitter employees. “Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover” premieres Tuesday on PBS and Frontline’s YouTube channel. It will also stream on the PBS App, which also features other Fall programming that’s largely been unaffected by strike disruptions.
— It’s been nearly two decades since Kelsey Grammer has played Dr. Frasier Crane, the high-brow, refined psychiatrist on NBC’s “Frasier” (and prior to that on “Cheers.”) Grammer resumes the role in a new Paramount+ sitcom – also called “Frasier” — reintroducing the character on a new chapter. Frasier’s returned to Boston where his grown son Freddy lives and works as a firefighter. And his nephew David — the son of Niles and Daphne — is with him. The first two episodes of “Frasier” drop Thursday on Paramount+, with the remainder doled out weekly.
— With Halloween approaching, Netflix has a new eerie series from Mike Flanagan (“The Haunting of Hill House”, “The Haunting of Bly Manor”) called “The Fall of the House of Usher.” It’s based on the short story by Edgar Allan Poe. For this project, Flanagan has tapped some of his favorite actors including Carla Gugino, Rahul Kohli, Henry Thomas, and Zach Gilford (plus new cast member Mark Hamill). The story follows siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher whose pharmaceutical company has amassed a fortune for their family. Secrets bubble to the surface when their heirs begin dying. “The Fall of the House of Usher” premieres Thursday.
— E! has recruited 10 so-called baddies of reality and competition shows including Johnny Bananas (“The Challenge”), Omarosa Manigault Newman (“The Apprentice”), Jax Taylor (“Vanderpump Rules”), and Corinne Olympios (“Bachelor in Paradise”) to face off in a new reality game show called “House of Villains.” The contestants live together, compete in different challenges and one contestant is eliminated each episode. The one who remains at the end is awarded $200,000 and the title of America’s Favorite Supervillain. Joel McHale hosts and special guests including Spencer Pratt from “The Hills” and Carole Baskin of “Tiger King” appear. “House of Villains” debuts Thursday.
— “Lessons in Chemistry,” premiering Friday on Apple TV+, follows Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson), who works as a lab assistant in the 1950s. She’s just as smart – if not more – than her male colleagues and could easily be promoted if it weren’t for the rampant sexism that was commonplace for the time. Elizabeth meets a fellow scientist (played by Lewis Pullman) who appreciates her brains, beauty, and independence. Their love story changes the trajectory of Elizabeth’s life, presenting obstacles and challenges that she faces head on and with the help neighbors and unlikely friends. The eight-episode series is based on the best-selling novel by Bonnie Garmus.
NEW VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY
— In video games, it’s OK to mess around with cars — you can crash them, steal them or throw giant banana peels from them. But if you want an ultra-realistic driving experience, Forza Motorsport is the way to go. The new installment of Microsoft’s flagship auto racing franchise promises dazzling graphics, cutting-edge AI opponents, dynamic day/night lighting and dramatic weather effects. Still, the real appeal of Forza is the chance to ditch the family minivan and take a Lamborghini for a spin, and the lineup includes more than 500 cars that are all sexier than whatever’s cluttering your driveway. You can hit the gas pedal Tuesday on Xbox X/S and PC.
— If race cars aren’t fast enough for you, maybe you want to hop into a starship. Star Trek: Infinite puts you in command — not just of one vessel, but an entire fleet. You’re in charge of one of four factions: the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire or the Cardassian Union. As in classic Trek, the Federation’s all about diplomacy, the Romulans are stealthy and the Klingons and Cardassians are ready to pick a fight. Publisher Paradox Interactive is known for the galaxy-spanning strategy epic Stellaris, but says Infinite has been streamlined to fit better into the Trek universe. Set your engines to warp speed Thursday on PC.
25 of the best horror movies based on true stories
‘Based on a true story’
“Based on a true story” has been creatively interpreted when it comes to horror films. Director David Fincher, for example, investigated the titular serial killer of his 2007 film “Zodiac” so thoroughly that he and his team actually turned up new evidence. Others play more fast and loose with the phrase.
While “The Mothman Prophecies” remains somewhat faithful to recorded sightings of a humanoid being with moth wings and red eyes, it’s unlikely that such accounts will ever be verified. Some inspiration—like Ed Gein, a Wisconsin man who decorated his home and wardrobe with pieces of women he killed or exhumed—could have been made into gripping cinema based on just the facts; instead, he inspired varied genre canons “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” “Psycho,” and “The Silence of the Lambs.”
Stacker researched horror film history and spotlighted 25 horror movies with at least a 6.0 IMDb user rating that were based on a true story. The 25 were then ranked amongst themselves by IMDb user rating with ties broken by votes.
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#25. ‘The Strangers’ (2008)
– Director: Bryan Bertino
– IMDb user rating: 6.1
– Metascore: 47
– Runtime: 86 minutes
In “The Strangers,” three masked individuals commit a senseless act of violence against a randomly selected couple (Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler) whose only crime was that they happened to be at home—the ultimate nightmare “what if” scenario spun out from one of Bertino’s childhood memories.
The director’s inspiration knocked decades earlier when he was home alone for the evening with his 7-year-old little sister. While babysitting, several people came to the door and asked for someone who didn’t live there. Bertino later found out that they were would-be home invaders stalking their neighborhood, looking for empty houses to break into.
#24. ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ (1977)
– Director: Wes Craven
– IMDb user rating: 6.3
– Metascore: 64
– Runtime: 90 minutes
The desert-dwelling cannibals terrorizing a family on a road trip to Los Angeles in Craven’s second effort are based on a centuries-old legend. Sawney Bean—a Scotsman who allegedly lived with his incestuous family in a seaside cave and devoured over 1,000 innocent travelers—may have actually been the brainchild of English authors during the Jacobite rebellion in the mid-1700s. The tale’s sheer outrageousness and historical inconsistencies suggest that Bean was a caricature drawn from the era’s anti-Scottish sentiment.
#23. ‘The Serpent and the Rainbow’ (1988)
– Director: Wes Craven
– IMDb user rating: 6.4
– Metascore: 64
– Runtime: 98 minutes
Harvard ethnobotanist Wade Davis wrote in his 1985 book “The Serpent and the Rainbow” that he had observed a Haitian man “zombified” by the poisonous chemical tetrodotoxin that naturally occurs in puffer fish. Although many in the scientific community discredited it, Wade’s claims provided fodder for Craven’s adaptation a few years later, which follows a Davis doppelganger’s terrifying journey into the land of voodoo.
#22. ‘The Mothman Prophecies’ (2002)
– Director: Mark Pellington
– IMDb user rating: 6.4
– Metascore: 52
– Runtime: 119 minutes
Pellington is the first to admit that “based on true events” is a generous interpretation of unverified 1960s-era eyewitness accounts of UFOs and other supernatural phenomena that inspired “The Mothman Prophecies.” Investigative journalist John Klein (Richard Gere) is based on author John Keel: In his 1975 book of the same name, Keel swore that he received premonitions for catastrophes—including the 1967 collapse of the Ohio River’s Silver Bridge and several assassinations—over the phone from a shadowy moth-human hybrid with red eyes that many West Virginians also professed to have seen.
#21. ‘The Clovehitch Killer’ (2018)
– Director: Duncan Skiles
– IMDb user rating: 6.5
– Metascore: 59
– Runtime: 109 minutes
Many true crime fans have noticed some specific similarities between the titular character (Dylan McDermott) and self-proclaimed BTK Killer (short for “bind, torture, kill”), born Dennis Rader; notably, both men acted out sexual bondage fantasies on their 10 victims while maintaining façades as pillars of the community, leading Boy Scout troops and assuming positions of authority in their neighborhood churches.
And yet, Skiles is reluctant to single out one person as the inspiration for “The Clovehitch Killer”—named for the type of rope knot found at his crime scenes—because he doesn’t want to give serial killers the attention he says they crave.
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#20. ‘Lords of Chaos’ (2018)
– Director: Jonas Åkerlund
– IMDb user rating: 6.6
– Metascore: 48
– Runtime: 118 minutes
A former drummer for Swedish extreme metal outfit Bathory, Åkerlund adapted his vision of Norwegian black metal icons Mayhem from “Lords of Chaos,” a book written by neo-Nazi sympathizer Michael Moynihan.
The biopic stoked controversy even before its release: Mayhem’s co-founding member and bassist Necrobutcher told Rolling Stone that he would “do everything I can to stop this film.” It chronicles real-life deaths within the band—vocalist and lyricist Per Yngve “Pelle” Olin (stage name Dead; played by Jack Kilmer) died by suicide, and bassist Kristian “Varg” Vikernes (Emory Cohen) stabbed guitarist Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth (Rory Culkin) 23 times—and church burnings that swept Norway in the early ’90s.
#19. ‘The Snowtown Murders’ (2011)
– Director: Justin Kurzel
– IMDb user rating: 6.6
– Metascore: 66
– Runtime: 119 minutes
Kurzel’s directorial debut tracks nearly a dozen grisly deaths between 1992 and 1999 associated with Snowtown, a suburb north of Adelaide, Australia. Many of the characters are named after their flesh-and-blood analogs, and the official trailer emphasizes its connection to “the most notorious serial killings in the country’s history.”
“The Snowtown Murders” recreates events that led to the discovery by local police of eight bodies decomposing in acid-filled barrels that were hidden in an abandoned bank. John Bunting (Daniel Henshall, one of two working actors that Kurzel cast) recruits a sexually abused teenager, James “Jamie” Vlassakis (Lucas Pittaway), and others to help him massacre—and in some cases, torture and cannibalize—town residents he deemed “pedophiles” and “homosexuals.”
#18. ‘The Entity’ (1982)
– Director: Sidney J. Furie
– IMDb user rating: 6.7
– Metascore: 35
– Runtime: 125 minutes
California resident Doris Bither in 1974 admitted to parapsychologist Dr. Barry Taff that she had been assaulted sexually and physically in her home by something that no one could see. Taff concluded that paranormal activity was involved in Bither’s case (although he dismissed the idea of “spectral rape” and clarified that he believed the culprit to be a “poltergeist outbreak“); later researchers have attributed her invisible attacks to severe childhood trauma that was never resolved.
Regardless of whether or not these events happened exclusively inside Bither’s mind—or the extensively debated photographic evidence that demonstrates either ghostly apparitions or malfunctioning camera equipment—they became the material for Frank De Felitta’s 1978 occult novel “The Entity,” which Furie later reimagined for the big screen.
#17. ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’ (2005)
– Director: Scott Derrickson
– IMDb user rating: 6.7
– Metascore: 46
– Runtime: 119 minutes
Splicing scenes in a courtroom with scenes from a horror movie, “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” takes place in the United States just over half a century after the young German woman who was the film’s source material, Anneliese Michel, died following 67 attempts to exorcize the demon many believed had taken possession of her.
Real and fictional juries found the priests who conducted the exorcisms responsible for the deaths of Rose (Jennifer Carpenter) and Michel, and both trials pitted science against religion to find an explanation for each victim’s disturbing behavior.
#16. ‘From Hell’ (2001)
– Directors: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes
– IMDb user rating: 6.7
– Metascore: 54
– Runtime: 122 minutes
The account of Jack the Ripper—a still-unknown assailant who butchered five sex workers in London in the 1880s and foreshadowed 20th-century serial killers—has been adapted many times over the past century, from Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog” (1927) to Bob Clark’s Sherlock Holmes-centering “Murder by Decree” (1979).
For their stab at a retelling of the well-known tale, the Hughes twins drew from Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s 1998 graphic novel, “From Hell,” which pegged the so-called Whitechapel murders on British physician Dr. William Gull (Ian Holm). Where the written version starts with a prologue, however, the film begins with police detective Inspector Abberline (Johnny Depp) receiving premonitions in an opium-induced haze.
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#15. ‘Ravenous’ (1999)
– Director: Antonia Bird
– IMDb user rating: 6.9
– Metascore: 46
– Runtime: 101 minutes
Cannibal Western “Ravenous” failed to recoup its $12 million budget upon release in 1999 but has since become something of a cult classic. A starving and frostbitten mystery man, Colonel Ives (Robert Carlyle), shows up at an army base in the Sierra Nevada Mountains during the Mexican-American War, confessing that he was forced to eat his fellow travelers to survive the winter.
This premise evokes the infamous Donner Party: a group of migrants in 1846 who resorted to cannibalizing their deceased through the same mountain range. Ives’ fondness for human flesh brings to mind Alfred (or Alferd) G. Packer, a 19th-century prospector charged with eating his comrades and who allegedly called the “breasts of man … the sweetest meat I ever tasted.”
#14. ‘Shadow of the Vampire’ (2000)
– Director: E. Elias Merhige
– IMDb user rating: 6.9
– Metascore: 71
– Runtime: 92 minutes
This film’s title is a bit of an oxymoron since according to monster lore, the undead blood-suckers don’t cast a shadow. This John Malkovich vehicle is a fictional behind-the-scenes look at 1922’s massively influential silent film “Nosferatu,” itself the copyright-infringing adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula,” released 25 years earlier.
Merhige’s historically referential film takes the longstanding rumor that “Nosferatu” star Max Schreck was an actual vampire and runs with it. Willem Dafoe plays a vampire masquerading as a method actor whose taste for blood is a little too realistic for the comfort of cast and crew.
#13. ‘Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer’ (1986)
– Director: John McNaughton
– IMDb user rating: 7.0
– Metascore: 80
– Runtime: 83 minutes
“Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” is so unsettling that even McNaughton was “shaken by the discomfort [he] felt was present in the theater” when it was screened at the Telluride Film Festival. In the actual cases of Henry Lee Lucas and his accomplice, Ottis Toole, the facts can be difficult to separate from fiction: Lucas showed signs of being a pathological liar, and Toole twice recanted his confession of abducting and decapitating 6-year-old Adam Walsh.
McNaughton imagines an alternate universe in which each man’s kill count could realistically be in the hundreds—and Henry (Michael Rooker) simply drives off into the sunset after disposing of Otis (Tom Towles) and dismembering his girlfriend (Tracy Arnold).
#12. ‘Cold Fish’ (2010)
– Director: Sion Sono
– IMDb user rating: 7.1
– Metascore: 66
– Runtime: 146 minutes
Dog breeder Gen Sekine was renowned for introducing the Alaskan malamute to Japan before he, along with his former wife and an accomplice, achieved notoriety for poisoning four people over likely financial disagreements in 1993.
Although Sono told the Tokyo Reporter that he researched many Japanese criminal cases while developing “Cold Fish,” it’s not much of a stretch to find similarities between its exotic fish emporium and Sekine’s kennel, or between the store’s merciless owner (Denden) and the convicted serial killer with reputed links to the yakuza. Despite the gruesome subject matter, Sono said in the same interview that he chose to lighten “Cold Fish” with humor because “when you read crime files there are extreme situations whereby interviews with people can be very funny.”
#11. ‘Angst’ (1983)
– Director: Gerald Kargl
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 87 minutes
Kargl based his first feature-length outing on Werner Kniesek, an Austrian man who went on a rampage shortly before his 1980 release from prison where he was doing time for robbery and attempted homicide.
Driven by an apparent addiction to killing, both Kniesek and his on-screen representation, K. the Psychopath (Erwin Leder), dispatched a widow, her daughter, and her intellectually disabled son with methods including drowning, strangling, and stabbing. It wasn’t long before Kniesek, like K., was apprehended for acting suspiciously at a nearby eatery, and police discovered the deceased family in the trunk of the car that he stole from them.
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#10. ‘Monster’ (2003)
– Director: Patty Jenkins
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 74
– Runtime: 109 minutes
Despite Charlize Theron’s Academy Award-winning transformation into Florida serial killer Aileen Wuornos, Jenkins’ widely lauded interpretation of Wuornos’ crimes for the big screen has received criticism. Whether or not Wuornos acted in self-defense or cold blood is a controversial subject.
Several of her victims’ families disputed her portrayal in “Monster” as a sympathetic casualty of extreme childhood abuse and sex work, a profession in which women are not infrequently brutalized and killed. In response to these critiques, “Monster” producer Brad Wyman told ABC News that “based on a true story” should not be taken too literally in this case: “It’s not a documentary,” he said in 2004. “I mean in no way is it.”
#9. ‘Poltergeist’ (1982)
– Director: Tobe Hooper
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 79
– Runtime: 114 minutes
The poltergeists of folklore are mischievous rather than malevolent beings. Not so the phantoms of “Poltergeist,” which invade a family’s new suburban home through a television portal, abduct their 5-year-old daughter (Heather O’Rourke), and terrorize her mother (JoBeth Williams) with unearthed corpses.
Hooper’s classic of cinema is based on the case of the Herrmanns from Seaford, New York, who in 1958 reported incidents that were so inexplicably strange—from bottles opening and knocking over by themselves to levitating sugar bowls—that they were featured in Life magazine and prompted an overwhelming amount of fan mail and telephone calls.
#8. ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ (1974)
– Director: Tobe Hooper
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: 78
– Runtime: 83 minutes
Prompted by television news coverage of the Vietnam War and serial killer Elmer Wayne Henley’s arrest in 1973, Hooper marketed “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” as almost a documentary.
While power tool-wielding cannibal Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) is made up, the figure who inspired him, Ed Gein—aka the Butcher of Plainfield—was real. Following his ultra-religious mother’s death, Gein ransacked graves for female body parts, which he fashioned into home decorations and items of clothing (he also admitted to killing a shopkeeper, whose mangled body was discovered in his home, as well as a tavern owner).
#7. ‘Scream’ (1996)
– Director: Wes Craven
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: 65
– Runtime: 111 minutes
Struggling screenwriter Kevin Williamson wrote the script for “Scream,” originally titled “Scary Movie,” after watching an ABC News program on Danny Rolling, who later became known as the Gainesville Ripper.
In 1990, Rolling broke into the homes of five students in the Florida college town and stabbed them to death; additionally, he raped and mutilated the four female victims. Although Rolling acted alone, law enforcement at the time speculated that there might be two suspects working together—a fact that’s referenced in “Scream”: What appears to be one killer is actually two.
#6. ‘The Conjuring’ (2013)
– Director: James Wan
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Metascore: 68
– Runtime: 112 minutes
“The Conjuring” was inspired by the alleged experiences of the Perron family in 1971 after they moved into a Rhode Island farmhouse and were reportedly bedeviled by spirits for the next nine years.
Ed and Lorraine Warren, a married team of paranormal investigators, supported the family’s allegations: In the film, the Warrens (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) drive out Bathsheba Sherman—the ghost of a rumored witch in the 1800s and a prime suspect in the hauntings—but in reality, the Perrons eventually fled. The infamous dwelling sold in 2022 for $1.5 million; its previous owners had rented the space out to ghost hunters, demonologists, and anyone else seeking things that go bump in the night.
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#5. ‘Zodiac’ (2007)
– Director: David Fincher
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Metascore: 78
– Runtime: 157 minutes
Fincher doesn’t dramatize the transgressions of the Zodiac, an unidentified California serial killer who claimed the lives of at least five people in the late 1960s and mailed encrypted letters to newspapers about his exploits.
“Zodiac” draws faithfully from research and evidence as well as two books penned by former San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist and true crime enthusiast Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal). As such, “Zodiac” zigzags along a similar trajectory as the true unsolved mystery, only to wind up at the same dead end.
#4. ‘The Exorcist’ (1973)
– Director: William Friedkin
– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Metascore: 81
– Runtime: 122 minutes
In the real-life exorcism that laid the groundwork for “The Exorcist” novel and film, no one projectile-vomited on a priest or desecrated their genitalia with religious iconography. But the account of Roland Doe—whose real identity was revealed in 2018 as NASA engineer Ronald Hunkeler—tracks with Regan MacNeil’s (Linda Blair) in other ways, including their beds shaking, words appearing etched into their skin, and speaking in distorted voices. In the end, MacNeil and Hunkeler were relieved of the demon that had purportedly inhabited their bodies.
#3. ‘Jaws’ (1975)
– Director: Steven Spielberg
– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Metascore: 87
– Runtime: 124 minutes
You won’t find the name Frank Mundus, aka Monster Man, in the official credits for “Jaws”; even Peter Benchley—who wrote the 1974 novel that gave rise to the influential summer blockbuster about a man-eating great white shark—said his fictional shark hunter, Quint (Robert Shaw), was a “composite character.”
But those that personally knew the legendary Montauk, New York-based, shark-hunter-turned-conservationist swear that the two men shared many characteristics, like the way each attached hollow barrels to the harpoons they used to catch and kill sharks.
#2. ‘Psycho’ (1960)
– Director: Alfred Hitchcock
– IMDb user rating: 8.5
– Metascore: 97
– Runtime: 109 minutes
To preserve the mystery surrounding “Psycho,” Hitchcock bought every single copy of Robert Bloch’s 1959 novel “Psycho” (after acquiring the rights) so no one would know how the now-iconic film ended.
Indeed, both versions of “Psycho” follow essentially the same plot, in which deranged motel proprietor Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) lives with his mother’s preserved corpse and acts, dresses, speaks, and kills as though he is her. Like the killers of “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and “The Silence of the Lambs,” Norman is said to have been inspired by Ed Gein.
#1. ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991)
– Director: Jonathan Demme
– IMDb user rating: 8.6
– Metascore: 85
– Runtime: 118 minutes
“The Silence of the Lambs” author Thomas Harris takes the tale of Ed Gein and turns the intensity up to 11. In his novel and Demme’s screen adaptation, there are two serial killers: Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) and Jame Gumb, aka Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine).
The latter skins his victims and aims to stitch together a suit from female epidermises, similar to Gein, whose wardrobe contained a shirt bearing a dead woman’s breasts and a belt adorned with nipples. Unlike Gein’s case—which a seasoned male sheriff cracked open—Buffalo Bill is brought down by a woman (Clarice Starling, played by Jodie Foster), who also happens to be an FBI agent-in-training.
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