13 Iconic Horror Movies Inspired by Real-Life Events

What's real: In A Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddie Kruger kills his victims while they're dreaming, and Wes Craven was said to have drawn inspiration from a shocking series of unexplainable real-life deaths in Southeast Asia. An archived article in the LA Times describes the cause as "a rare affliction that kills young male Southeast Asian refugees as they sleep." In a New York Times article from 1981, it's described as "nightmare death syndrome" and outlines an anamoly "in which death results from terror induced by a nightmare." So, while Freddie Kruger may be a fictional monster, the way he kills his victims is a very real, mysterious phenomenon.