In this weekend's "The Possession," a young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that it is actually a Dybbuk Box, a container from Jewish folklore that is used to house an ancient evil spirit. She begins exhibiting Linda Blair-in-"The Exorcist"-style tendencies and at one point, a hand crawls up from the back of her mouth. The movie's hype has been based around the fact that it is "based on a true story." So does that mean that hand thing actually happened?
What exactly is the true story behind "The Possession"? The real events surround a Missouri-based college student who sold an old Jewish wine cabinet box on eBay, claiming it had a history of bad luck. For example, as soon as he became in possession of the box, his hair began falling out -- naturally, a demonic spirit must have been the answer. Speculation that it was in fact a real-life Dybbuk Box helped drive up the price of the eBay sale (a fortunate coincidence and nothing more) before it was purchased for $280 by a museum curator, who promptly set up a website for the box and began fielding inquiries from filmmakers and authors. But as he told the L.A. Times in 2004, he's not looking for any attention. At no point in any of the reported bad luck incidents did anyone actually claim to see a hand crawling up from the back of their throat. But losing your hair in your 20s... that's pretty horrific too.
Claiming that your horror movie is "based on a true story" is nothing new, but there's definitely been an uptick in the number of recent movies to make that claim. But just how true are these movies? Moviefone takes a look back at recent supposedly true horror movies to separate the fact from the fiction. (WARNING: SPOILERS)
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