Every now and again, there will be a true story that is just too dramatic not be made into a movie. The most recent example would be Captain Phillips, which could have been the best action movie in ages, if someone hadn’t really wanted Tom Hanks to get an OSCAR. Every now and again, I will flick through the paper and find a story so powerful and inspiring, that the writer in me, is tempted to get home and knock a script out, creating a movie about these events. Below are three stories that should eventually be made into a movie.
3 – WOMAN’S LIFE IS DESTORYED BY PERSISTENT INTERNET TROLL
This is one of the stories that I would love to make a movie about, but seeing as the woman it is about had her entire life pulled apart, it might hit a little too close to home to be produced just yet. However, perhaps one day, someone could fiddle with a few details and bring out a vague recreation of these creepy events.
I cannot find this particular article online, as I read it sometime back in 2012. Maybe in 2011. I can recall the most important details though. This single mum, living in England, found herself victimised by an Internet troll. It starts off, fairly routine, with some less than appealing internet messages. This woman tried telling the police, but as we all know about online trolls, they are near impossible to catch, so they told her just to ignore it. However, things began slowly escalating, almost as if the culprit wanted to come across as a creepy stalker movie character. I cannot remember details, but I think the troll pretended to be her ex-boyfriend at one point (he was cleared pretty sharpish by the police), and I think her child is threatened at one point. Something I definitely do remember is that at one point, the troll somehow got her address and posed as her online as a prostitute. This woman had all of these horny men lining up at her door, expecting sex. The police arrested her for prostitution at one point, although she was cleared of all charges. This troll had access to details they shouldn’t have access to: post-codes, her child’s school, personal details… The police began to lose interest, thinking she was doing it to herself for attention. It was everything you would want from a chilling horror thriller.
And then the killer detail that makes this true story so perfect for movie-making. It turns out that it was her best friend right from the start. I can’t remember what kicked it off, but it was something really petty, like a childish squabble between pals. And this ‘so-called-friend’ went online and maliciously tore her life apart. I can imagine it now, in cinemas. This friend, always hovering over her, comforting her, the only one that believes that she is telling the truth. And then all along, she is the one picking up little facts about her life and using them to take her schemes to the next level. With a twist like that, I imagine a writer other than me, is already working out the kinks of this particular story.
2 – THE STRANGER IN THE HOUSE
One of the scariest true stories I have ever read about was on Cracked a few years ago. A man who lived alone in Japan began noticing things disappearing around the house, things only he could have moved, but knew he hadn’t. At first, he thought he was going crazy, and because he was fairly elderly, his family assumed his memory was on its way out. However, this man was so certain that something was amiss, he spent his money on a CCTV system around his house. And then the next morning, he looks over the footage and, to his horror, sees a skeletal-looking woman crawling out of a little den she had carved for herself in the cupboard by his bed. She had been living there for a year, sneaking out when she could and stealing scraps of food and taking showers. It is the kind of thing horror movies are made of.
I thought about making this into a horror movie, but then recalled that so many horror movies claimed to be true, so it wouldn’t have as shocking an effect, as I wanted. Besides, it is a creepy premise, but would be missing a scary kick at the end, as it turns out that the monster is just a scared, little homeless woman in a desperate situation. Which is why my movie would be from the viewpoint of the homeless person. I want to explore the logistics of living in this house for a year without anyone noticing. That is pretty damn incredible, once the scary factor sinks in. I want someone to make a movie about that woman.
1 – THE MAKING OF THE CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST
I am going to steal a lot of these facts from fellow blogger, The Horror Online, so be sure to check out her articles.
The Cannibal Holocaust was an artsy film by Ruggero Dedato, and was the first found footage film ever made, although it was the Blair Witch Project that really made the style of filming popular. I haven’t seen the actual movie, as I have been told that it is pretty much just a group of people being slaughtered on camera. It looks real, feels real and is an absolutely brutal watch. Besides, everyone agrees that the behind the scenes story of this movie is, by far, the more interesting story. Degato wanted to create something really artsy and post-modern with the Cannibal Holocaust, so he got together some actors and paid them a lot of money to just disappear. For a whole year, they would vanish after the making of this film and not tell anyone they were alive, not friends, nor family, or anything. That way, when you watch them all get murdered in the movie, part of you will begin to believe that they might actually have been killed off.
Of course, this plan backfired and Degato was arrested for murder. He denied it, but, of course, he had covered his tracks so well that there was no evidence to prove he wasn’t a killer. The families of the actors he had bribed to disappear off the face of the earth wanted him punished. He had to track these actors down and make them prove that they were not dead. However, he had no idea how to find them or even where to start looking. I would want to make a movie about him hiring this private investigator to find these artsy actor across the globe. I would play it for laughs and basically take the piss out of how far these artists are willing to go to make cinema and art. This is a story that more people need to know about, simply because it is so amusing.