When A Stranger Calls, Scream - Because It's Halloween: True Events That Inspired Scary Movies

There are two kinds of people in the world: people who cover their face with pillows while they watch scary movies - and those of us who inch closer to the screen the scarier the movie gets. 

We've all heard the dime store psychology. Horror movies, claim the professionals, satiate our primitive need for safe thrills. We all KNOW there's no Freddie Krueger... no malevolent clown in the street drains... no evil spirit in your TV about to do a freaky-deaky jerky crawl into your living room. 

These frights, as effective as they are, are just products of the imaginations of skilled - if not deliciously morbid - writers' imaginations. 

And so, we pop our popcorn and turn off the lights and we laugh at the fools who investigate noises in the basement or attic when it's quite obvious that THAT is EXACTLY where death waits. 

We laugh at friends complaining of nightmares, smugly reminding them it's all just Hollywood hooey.

But what if it wasn't…?

What if the horror on the screen is simply a retelling of horrors perpetrated in real life? Worse, what if they could actually happen… again? To… you?

In this final installment of my six-part Halloween celebration, I'll tell you about the REAL events that inspired some of Hollywood's most terrifying feature films. And then we'll see just how brave you really are.

For more information, visit Stephanie Hoover Has That Story.