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This debut feature from Justin Kurzel is directly based on the Snowtown murders carried out in Adelaide Australia in the ’90s by John Bunting. Daniel Henshall is captivating as the charismatic father figure who grooms an abused teenaged into helping him carry out several murders. Bunting kept the bodies in barrels in in a Snowtown bank vault. Kurzel’s movie is depressing and distressing, a miserable portrait of a hard-up family, destroyed by a violent, homophobic monster. It was quite the calling card for Kurzel, whose most recent movie, Nitram, depicts another national tragedy, that of the Port Arthur massacre. Tough but worth it. – RF
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
Based on the real-life exploits of notorious serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer was both the directorial debut of John McNaughton (who also co-wrote and produced the film) and the screen debut of character actor Michael Rooker, the Guardians of the Galaxy and The Walking Dead star whose chilling, amoral performance as the title character instantly marked him as an intense performer to watch. Filmed in 1985, Henry didn’t find distribution until nearly five years later due to its controversial subject matter and unflinching portrayal of almost inhuman evil.
The movie, which centers around Henry’s relationship with a fellow psychopath named Otis and Otis’ sister Becky, was based in part on a stretch of the real Henry Lee Lucas’ life in which he lived with both (although the real Becky was Otis’ niece). While the movie fictionalizes this segment of Lucas’ life to a certain extent, it certainly captures the nature of this monstrous drifter – a human monster who calmly and emotionlessly mapped out his strategies for luring and murdering his victims. At one point, the real Lucas (who died in prison in 2001 at the age of 64) claimed to have slaughtered hundreds – while this turned out to be untrue, his malignant existence might very well make it believable. – DK
The Conjuring (2013)
When The Conjuring was first being developed, the film was originally titled “The Warren Files.” What a relief it must’ve been to Warner Bros. accountants that a much more abstract title was ultimately chosen for this burgeoning shared cinematic universe. Nevertheless, that original title indicated just how strongly producers initially wanted to lean into the “based on a true story” sales pitch. And in the case of the first movie that was ultimately directed by James Wan, that story was loosely based on paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren’s visits to a farmhouse in rural Rhode Island.
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