While people have always been obsessed with death, crime and scandal to an extent, the modern resurgence of true crime media has ignited a series of difficult and perhaps unanswerable moral questions about big-screen adaptations of true stories. Among these questions from critics and viewers, the one that stands out the most is if there’s an ethical way to adapt real-life suffering for either art or entertainment?.
That answer will certainly differ based on the person asked and the film in question. But despite the nuance and argument surrounding the issue, it’s clear that some adaptations of true stories are more ghoulish than others. Conversely, others, likeCome and See, use the brutality and violence of true events to show audiences a horror that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to fully understand.These are the darkest movies based on true stories, harrowing reminders that reality is more tragic than fiction.
10’Wind River' (2017)
Directed by Taylor Sheridan
While working on the Wind River Indian Reservation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agent Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) discovers the body of Natalie Hanson (Kelsey Asbille), an 18-year-old of the Northern Arapaho tribe. Due to the winter temperatures, Natalie is frozen, and the area is difficult to access. The FBI sends Special Agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) to investigate Natalie’s death, and Lambert helps her navigate the difficult terrain and get to know the locals.
WhileWind Riverisn’t based on one specific incident,writer and directorTaylor Sheridanwas inspired to write the film to bring attention tothe violence and sexual abuse suffered by Native American womenon reservations. Much of this violence remains undocumented, uninvestigated, and unsolved. While it could be argued that the film engages in some stereotyping and the portrayal of white savior tropes, the lack of equality that Native American victims of crime experience is very real and is explored in agrueling fashion inWind River.
Wind River (2017)
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9’Dog Day Afternoon' (1975)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Sonny (Al Pacino) and his friends Sal (John Cazale) and Stevie (Gary Springer) enter a Brooklyn bank with the intention of robbing the place. Things get out of hand quickly when Stevie abandons the mission, and the tills are emptier than the group anticipated. What started as a quick in-and-out robbery turns into a tense hostage situation that gets more complicated as the minutes tick by.
Based on the real robbery of a Brooklyn bank in 1972,Dog Day Afternoonperfectly encapsulates the range of contrasting factors that made the robbery itself so notorious. In the cultural climate of the ’70s, conversations and protests around prison reform and rights for LGBTQ+ people smashed into each other, forming the powder keg that resulted in the bungled heist and hostage situation. While all of these elements seem like perfect fodder for a heist film, Sidney Lumet brought nuance tothe chaos of the true story, resulting inone of its decade’s best and darkest movies.
Dog Day Afternoon
8’Hounds of Love' (2016)
Directed by Ben Young
It’s the 1980s in suburban Perth, Australia. Vicki Maloney (Ashleigh Cummings) is an average teenager who sneaks out of home to attend a party after arguing with her mother. As she walks to her destination, a friendly couple pulls up beside her and offers her a ride. Seeing the man (Stephen Curry) and woman (Emma Booth) together and noticing a child’s car seat in the back of their car, Vicki decides the pair are trustworthy and accepts their offer. Unfortunately for Vicki, her assumption is incorrect, and she finds herself held captive in the couple’s suburban home.
While not an explicit adaptation,Hounds of Loveis clearlyheavily inspired by the Moorhouse murders. This crime spree saw Perth couple David and Margaret Birnie abduct and murder multiple young women in their suburban home on Moorhouse Street during a brief period in 1986. The crimes and the film inspired by them are a stark portrait of Australia’s duality at the time and highlightthe contrast between naive suburbia and the darkness of private life.
Hounds of Love
7’Compliance' (2012)
Directed by Craig Zobel
Fast food manager Sandra (Ann Dowd) receives a phone call from a police officer who advises her that one of her staff stole a customer’s wallet. Sandra is concerned and invites staff member Becky (Dreama Walker) into the back office to discuss the matter. At the officer’s insistence, Sandra searches Becky’s bag but can’t find the stolen wallet. Despite Sandra’s assertion that this is out of character for Becky, the officer insists that Sandra continues to search for Becky until the wallet is found.
Based on an extensive series of true events, crudely referred to as the “strip search phone call scam,“Compliancedemonstrates that truth is stranger and often darker than fiction.The crime that inspiredCompliance’s storyoccurred in 2004 at a McDonald’s in Kentucky. By honing in on one of the most extreme crimes,Compliancegets to the heart of the scam’s effectiveness and the weakness of human willin the face of authority.
Compliance
6’Zodiac' (2007)
Directed by David Fincher
In the late 1960s, a young couple is attacked by an unknown man with a handgun, leaving only one survivor. In the aftermath of the crime, encrypted letters and pieces of evidence started arriving in the mail rooms of newspapers around California. The police and the media theorize that the attack on the couple, the letters, and a series of other crimes are all linked to the same perpetrator. While Inspector Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) leads the official investigation into some of the crimes, newspaper cartoonist and amateur sleuth Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his disinterested colleague Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) conduct another investigation.
The biggest mystery of the 20th century becomes one of the best films of the 21st century withZodiac. Based on the controversial novel about the case of Robert Graysmith,this thrillingDavid Fincherfilmis a perfect procedural from top to bottom. While the film explores many factual aspects associated with the case, its strongest function is asa depiction of obsession and the dangerous impact of an unsolvable mysteryon the human psyche.
5’Snowtown' (2011)
Directed by Justin Kurzel
Troubled 16-year-old Jamie (Lucas Pittaway) lives in a poor suburb of Adelaide, Australia. Despite being abused at home, neither the police nor the people around him are motivated to intervene. When John (Daniel Henshall), a violent and homophobic man much older than Jamie, begins frequenting the teen’s home and neighborhood, Jamie gets swept up in the positive attention he receives from John.
Based on one of Australia’s darkest and strangest crime sprees,Snowtownisn’t a film for the faint of heart. The film’s understated tone and pace help to accentuate the extreme violence and abuse depicted on screen. Often referred to as the “bodies in the barrels” case, the crime, and by extension the film, highlights howunchecked cycles of abuse can have devastating impactson individuals and their communities.
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4’Raging Bull' (1980)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
In 1941, Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro) is a young and promising middleweight boxer. As his star rises, he marries Vickie (Cathy Moriarty), a very young girl local to his Bronx neighborhood. The marriage is tumultuous, as is Jake’s career and public image. As he gains notoriety in his sport, his violence spills out from the ring and into his personal and public life.
Raging Bulldemonstrates that, despite skill and success, a person’s legacy is ultimately defined by the choices they make and how they influence those around them. As a result,Jake LaMotta’s legacy is one of violence, toxicity, and failurethat overshadows his career successes. The ups and many downs of his life are rendered perfectly and poignantlyby directorMartin Scorsese, and the boxer’s persona and physique are fully embodied by De Niro’s stellar leading performance.
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3’Changeling' (2008)
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) is a single mother in Los Angeles in 1928 when her young son, Walter, goes missing. Despite going to the police, very little is done to help her. A local reverend shares Christine’s story with the community and simultaneously lambasts the LAPD for their corruption and incompetence. Months later, the police advise Christine that they have found her son, but the boy they bring her isn’t Walter. Despite her objections, the police insist they’ve found the right boy.
Touching onthe stigma against single mothers, police corruption, and the financial and cultural desperation of 1920s America,Changelingis a grim portrait of how one person’s suffering can serve as a stand-in for their community’s ills. If the film weren’t explicitly based on a true story, it would be difficult to believe that a police force would ever try to pass one child as another to mitigate public backlash. And yet,the real Christine Collins experienced just thatand was even committed to a psychiatric ward by the police for daring to challenge and embarrass them.
Changeling
2’Mississippi Burning' (1988)
Directed by Alan Parker
In the mid-’60s, three civil rights workers go missing while organizing an African American voter registry in rural Mississippi. The FBI sends agents Alan Ward (Willem Dafoe) and Rubert Anderson (Gene Hackman) to investigate the case. Of the three missing workers, two are Jewish, and one is Black. The cultural and racial implications of the case make the investigation difficult, hampered not only by secretive locals but also by institutions, courts, and law enforcement.
Centering the FBI as heroes and using the deaths of civil rights workers as fodder for cinematic action and the solving of a mystery were among the film’s biggest criticisms.
Loosely based on the Freedom Summer Murders,Mississippi Burningexploresthe way hate can unite a community to commit cover-up, conspiracy, and murder. While the film brought attention to real-life crime, it isn’t without its controversy. It portrays the FBI as earnest actors for change and justice who find some semblance of closure despite the obstacles in front of them. Centering the FBI as heroes and using the deaths of civil rights workers as fodder for cinematic action and the solving of a mystery were among the film’s biggest criticisms. As a result, the film’s legacy is two-fold. In part, it serves as a reminder of the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, but even more so, it demonstrates that mainstream ideals and the media have a long way to go before they end up on the right side of history.
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1’Come and See' (1985)
Directed by Elem Klimov
It’s 1943, and Belarus is under German occupation. Young Flyora (Aleksei Kravchenko) joins the Soviet partisan forces, a resistance group that wages guerrilla warfare against Axis forces across the Soviet Union. While moving through Belarus with the partisan forces, Flyora sees the occupation firsthand, witnessing an endless barrage of violence, suffering, and inhumanity.
Many films have explored acts of war in evocative and excruciating ways, but very few have done so on the level ofCome and See. Uncompromising in every way, the Soviet Union filmdisplays through a child’s eyes what not even a hardened adult could comprehend. The naturalistic lighting and utterly grueling depictions of violence, depravity, madness, and desperation result in a war film like no other. There is absolutely no glory to be had, no relief at the end and nothing proud or aspirational about the reality depicted inthis incomparable war movie, the best of its decade by far.
Come And See
NEXT:25 Intense and Heartbreaking Movies Based on True Events
