True crime stories ready to be movies

We all love a real-life horror story. CONSTANTINOS PSILLIDES looks at those yet to make it to the screen

We love true crime.

People think that this fascination with the morbid is a newfound thing, a symptom of the morally bankrupt age we live in, but that’s simply not true. We have always been obsessed with blood-soaked stories featuring unimaginable crimes. Why are we like that? Maybe we desire to exert some control over a story, the knowledge that whatever happens in the story we are safe. Maybe we just like twisted tales. Or maybe is a healing process for those who have been through a traumatic experience, which would explain why fans of true crime are overwhelmingly women.

Whatever the case, true crime has been an inspiration for Hollywood. Documentaries, movies, and dramatised series, about the most heinous crimes fill our screen. Some though have been ignored. Here are three stories that should be made into a big movie!

Russian hikers were killed by an ancient curse. Or aliens.

In January 1959, nine Russian students set out for a trek through the Ural mountains. They were experienced mountain hikers led by a man called Igor Dyatlov. When they missed a scheduled appointment, search parties were sent to rescue them but came across a bizarre scene: their tent was found empty, with all their things and supplies neatly ordered, while the fabric was cut from the inside. Near the tent they found the first two bodies, wearing nothing but their underwear, besides the remains of a fire. They found the rest in a small forest all of them bearing bizarre injuries like a broken neck, skull fractures, and other unexplainable injuries. The way they were found indicated that they were desperate to run away from something. The last hiker discovered was a woman and she was found positioned in a ritualistic manner, missing her eyes and tongue.

Nobody is really sure how they died. The top of the trees near the bodies were burned, maybe a sign of an incoming spaceship? Also, rescue parties found a wooden structure in a nearby clearing, made by members of a hunting tribe as a way to ward against evil spirits.

Movie director gets three people killed on set

Back in 1983, directors Steven Spielberg and John Landis went to studio heads with a brilliant idea: capitalise on the success of the Twilight Zone series by making an anthology movie split into four parts. The project was greenlighted and moved directly into production. Landis directed the fourth segment, about a bigot (played by actor Vic Morrow) who gets a taste of his own medicine by being magically transported to the US South back when the KKK was in its heyday.

Studio heads sent a note to Landis saying that the character was just too unsympathetic, so the creative team came up with the idea of him realising the error of his ways and rescuing two Vietnamese orphans from a burning village. Two Chinese child actors were cast, Myca Dinh (7) and Reinee Shin-Yi Chen (6). In the final scene, Morrow was supposed to take each child under his arms and cross a river to save them while fires roared in the background. To add to the realism of a big-budget film, the scene required a helicopter flying low over the set. Concerns were raised about the dangers of such a stunt but they were ignored.

On the shooting day, a miscommunication between the pilot and the effects team resulted in the pyrotechnics being set early, catching the pilot by surprise. He lost control of the aircraft and crashed on top of Morrow and the children. A subsequent trial acquitted everyone involved, attributing their deaths to an accident.

A gentle, loving Italian grandmother turned people into soap

Leonarda Cianciulli had her share of misfortunes. Her husband was imprisoned for fraud, her house was demolished by an earthquake, and 13 of her 17 pregnancies resulted in a dead baby. So, she became extremely superstitious and fiercely protective of her four remaining children. When her oldest, Giuseppe, told her he was volunteering to fight in WWII she went into panic mode and did the only sensible thing: decided to make human sacrifices to appease the gods so her boy was not harmed. Over the next few years, Leonarda killed four women by first drugging and then hacking them to pieces. To make sure the bodies were never found, she melted most of them and turned them into luxury soaps. Whatever was left was ground into a fine powder, mixed with flour, and used as an ingredient to make delicious muffins which she then served to the deceased’s family. She was eventually caught and sent to prison. Her son made it through the war. So, was she on to something?