I truly believe that at the end of the day all of us love horror movies for one basic reason; the Adrenalin rush.
It’s the potential for fear that intrigues us. After all, who doesn’t enjoy the energy that fills a room with a cinematic portrayal of a horror movie. It delivers a far more scintillating experience than most other cinematic niches.
The potential for terror keeps us hooked just as much as it keeps us going. So, here’s a list of two underrated horror movies based on real-life people that will leave you with goosebumps and awakening nightmares.
Berdella (2009)
The movie was directed by Paul South and William Taft. It was written based on a serial killer, Robert Berdella, infamously known as “The Kansas City Butcher”. He was born on January 31st, 1949, in Ohio.
Berdella was a troubled child who faced a lot of social problems growing up. He couldn’t fit with his fellow students.
He was also faced with a huge backlash from his father for being un-athletic and posing no qualities of a sportsperson. He faced child abuse in a form of uncalled beating with leather belts.
According to published reports he suffered from an intense Depressive personality disorder.
Later, he was also diagnosed with Sexual sadism disorder and gained extreme sexual excitation from the humiliation, pain, and torture to which he had subjected his victims.
He wouldn’t just kidnap his victims but before brutally murdering them, he would often rape and perform certain torturous acts.
He’d then collect their bones and skulls as potential products to sell in a flea market. That’s how he got his name “The Collector”.
He was finally convicted after 4 years of man-slaying when a man – wearing nothing but a dog collar around his neck, leaped from a second story window of Berdella’s house where he was being held captive.
Police encountered a cavalcade of horrors inside his unassuming house. Opening a second-story closet, they discovered a human skull as well as human vertebrae, marked from where they had been cut with a bone saw.
In the backyard, they discovered another human head buried in the ground, partly decomposed.
When they ventured into the basement, they found large barrels stained with blood, as well as the personal belongings of two missing people and a stack of Polaroid photos depicting naked men being sexually assaulted and tortured.
They also found a stenographer’s pad meticulously detailing the abduction, torture, rape, and murder of six young men from around the area.
This house, 4315 Charlotte Street, belonged to the Kansas City Butcher, one of the most deranged serial killers in history.
After his conviction, he was sent to Missouri State Penitentiary, where he remained incarcerated until his ironic death in 1992.
The Afflicted (2011)
This movie revolves around the story of an unfathomably violent mother of four.
It is an amazing depiction of the troubles that a child goes through; driven by her mother’s twisted religious beliefs.
The movie is a borderline real story of “Theresa Jimmie Francine Knorr”. She was born on March 14th, 1946.
She was reportedly attached to her mother who died of congestive heart failure, leaving her devastated.
It is believed that her mental instability was a result of her father, Jim being diagnosed with Parkinson’s, followed by her mother’s sudden death. It was later confirmed that she has symptoms of Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
She was married four times and all of the marriages ended up in a divorce. It was probably her PTSD that she developed a drinking habit. After her failed marriages, it was worsened to a point where she started abusing her children.
At first, it was just abusive behavior which then got shaped into heavy torture filled either with days of starving her children or force-feeding them.
It got to a point that she stabbed Suesan with a pair of scissors following Sheila being starved to death a year later. In an interview, Terry, her youngest daughter, reported that her mother believed Suesan was turned into a witch by her father.
Theresa was said to have been struggling with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). She was said to have been obsessed with fictional beliefs that her obesity had to with her daughter, Susan, being a witch and casting wicked spells on her.
After being convicted it came to the front that she forced her daughters into prostitution. As per her say, she did not have another way of making a household.
Theresa Knorr was sentenced to two life sentences after being charged with two counts of murder, two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, and two special circumstances charges: multiple murder and murder by torture.
She is currently incarcerated at California Institution for Women in Chino and will be eligible for parole in 2027.
Since she made her sons, Robert and William dispose of the dead bodies, they were also charged.
Robert pleaded an accessory-after-the-fact charge, serving his time in Nevada penitentiary while William was sentenced to probation and ordered to undergo therapy.
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