These movies might have been a work of fiction, but what you don't know is that they served as an impetus for movie buffs to do the unexpected.
Copycat crimes have been there for quite a while now. The concept is really interesting and it inspires a lot of deep questions in the subjects of psychology, philosophy, and criminology. When we get to know that a number of movies have inspired real-life crimes, a lot of us end up wondering if filmmakers are somewhere responsible for these crimes. At times, movies can be so provocative by nature that it eggs people on to tread on the wrong path. Some try to replicate the same crime for the thrill and some do it only to check if they can pull it off. Here is a list of 11 such movies that inspired a volley of movie buffs to do the unexpected...
This franchise deals with the psychopathic serial killer, Jigsaw is one of the most terrifying and feared villains in the history of motion pictures. He has some extremely elaborate and gruesome traps that capture his victims and he tortures his victims beyond measure until he decides if he will let them live or die. A lot of copycat crimes have been committed after being inspired by what was depicted in the movie. One of the most notable ones being the incident where a mother sought help from the cops after she overheard her son and his friend, speaking one night, about kidnapping, torturing, and murdering several people. Both the boys explained in detail how they were planning to recreate a Saw-style torture room, to teach people lessons that were harming others. Additionally, they also mentioned that they procured cameras in order to record the entire incident, just like Jigsaw would have done.
One of the best psychological movies of all time, with a mind-blowing twist, in the end, this movie was equally violent in its depiction. In 2004, a man named Michael Hernandez stabbed his middle-school classmate to death and he admitted that his actions were inspired by 'The Silence of the Lambs' and 'American Psycho'. He believed that God granted him special powers and had completely agreed with his choice to murder his classmates. He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2008 after he was discovered with the evidence linking him to the crime.
It is one of Christopher Nolan's most acclaimed and profitable films and is still given a mammoth status even now. In 2010, a man was sentenced to almost a year of jail time after he broke into his cousin's home and assaulted him while he was dressed as The Joker. In 2009, another incident happened where a young girl assaulted an Indiana High School teacher. She ran after her teacher, holding a razor blade and carved the Joker's trademark smile into her face, after the teacher went to the bathroom, full of the Joker's red, white, and black makeup.
This teen sensational movie made a teenager so involved in the movie that he went completely insane. The vice-principal of his school received reports regarding him biting another female classmate of his. The situation was investigated further and it was found out that the boy had actually bitten 10 different classmates. The parents of the teen said that their son was obsessed with the Twilight movies and that had caused him to act out and bite the fellow students. He was eventually sent to a juvenile corrections home.
The novel written by Chuck Palahniuk was the inspiration for David Fincher's masterpiece. It is a brilliant psychotic movie that goes deep into your psyche, where it reaches into the mind of a single man until he goes absolutely insane. Inspired by the movie, a group of men tried to commit a series of terrorist activities similar to those in the film. Firstly, they set off a series of homemade bombs in various locations across the city. The bombings were then later traced back to an individual named Kyle Shaw, who was a member of the local fight club and bragged about his activities.
This cult horror movie was later known to be the inspiration behind the murder spree of Daniel Gonzalez that happened in 2004. Gonzalez was already a paranoid schizophrenic who, one night, ended up consuming a series of drugs and went on an absolute rampage and killed four people in the process. He carried kitchen knives as his weapons and he pretended to be the killer from A Nightmare On Elm Street, Freddy Krueger. The official reports of the incident claimed that Gonzalez did not get proper treatment and that's why he acted out the way he did. He was given six life sentences for the murders.
One of the most notable and horrendous crimes inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange' took place in 1973 when a group of young teenagers beats up a tramp to death, similar to an instance in the movie. Another such instance stabbed a younger boy. A Dutch girl was gang-raped in Lancashire by a group singing, “Singin’ in the Rain”, which is the same song Alex sang in the movie in one of the most notorious scenes in the film.
This movie is regarded as one of the most notorious and bloodiest crime-inspiring movies on the list. The story follows a young man named Daniel Sterling who watched the movie with his girlfriend in 1994. The next day, he told his girlfriend, "I'm going to kill you and drink your blood." At this point, she thought this was it for their relationship, but could have also assumed that her boyfriend was joking, but sadly, he wasn't. The same evening, he ended up stabbing his girlfriend seven times and drinking her blood for quite a while. Eventually, he confessed that he was inspired by the events in the movie but that he did not attribute those actions solely to the film.
It is one of the cult movies made by Wes Craven and he completely revolutionized the slasher genre. The movie had an extremely detailed portrayal of murder that one American judge even went on record to say that it was, " a very good source to learn how to kill someone." Like the others on the list, this movie inspired its own share of copycat murders, but the most notorious of the lot was that of Thierry Jaradin. Jaradin then befriended a young teenager named Alisson Cambier and invited her over to his house. There he proposed that they would have sex, but she refused. After hearing this, he excused himself to another room and put on the iconic costume. He came back in with two large carving knives and stabbed Cambier 30 times that mirrored the opening scene of the movie.
It is one of the most infamous movies when it comes to crimes committed because of a single movie. The movie tells the story of a couple on the run from authorities, who go on to commit a series of violent and terrible crimes, and they have a lot of fun while doing so. Inspired by the movie, a young couple in love set out from Oklahoma on their own killing spree, mimicking the movie. In March 1995 they began their series of crimes by robbing and shooting the owner of a liquor store. Then, they traveled all the way to Louisiana to shoot a cashier at a convenience store. The couple had the audacity to return to their hometown so that they could brag to their friends about their exploits. Soon after, they were arrested and sent to jail in 1995.
While this is regarded as one of the best movies by Martin Scorcese, it is also pegged as his most violent movie. This movie tells the story of Travis Bickie, who is a vigilante set to murder a politician and receives acclaim and appreciation for his violent acts. Inspired by the acts in the movie, a man named John Hinckley Jr. started having an unhealthy attraction to the 12-year-old female leader of the film, Jodie Foster. He then ended up firing six bullets towards the then-President Ronald Regan when he was leaving for Washington, D.C., Hilton on March 30, 1981. In the process, he was injured by one of the six bullets that were fired by Hinckley and his press secretary, James Brady, was hit in the head by another one of the shots.
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