12 Movies That Inspired Real-Life Copycats, For Better or Worse

As Oscar Wilde famously wrote in an 1889 essay, "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life." It seems that works of art can have a memetic, almost magical effect upon their viewers. Sometimes, artists and creators hone in on a symbol or concept that begins expressing itself in people's perceptions. Nowhere is this power more potent than in movies.

Unfortunately, movies, particularly horror movies, inspire the most real-life deeds3 and they often aren't pretty. To compile this list, 247 Tempo used a multitude of references to explore 12 real-life incidents inspired by movies, including Taste of Cinema, Creepy Catalog, and Movie Web. Let's see when reality is scarier than fiction now.

This post was updated June 25th, 2025, to reflect additional information.

Released in 2013 and spawning a list of sequels, "The Purge" explored a near-future where all crime including murder is made legal for one day. A novel concept that generated lengthy discussion, the film also inspired several real-life copycat crimes.

A year after the film's release, the city of Louisville, Kentucky found itself in a lockdown after social media posts sparked panic about a real purge event. More gruesomely, Jonathan Cruz killed three people during an Indiana murder spree in 2016. Upon capture, he cited "The Purge" as direct inspiration and justification. Buckle up, it only gets worse from here.

Upon release, Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" captivated audiences due to its technical acumen and stunning portrayal of the Joker by Heath Ledger. A film in the Batman franchise, "The Dark Knight" follows the crime-fighting billionaire and vigilante as he faces up against his most dangerous nemesis yet.

It was the Joker in particular that inspired several crimes. In 2009, Kim de Gelder dressed up as the Joker and stabbed multiple people at a daycare center in Dendermonde, Belgium. Most notably, James Holmes dressed up as the Joker and killed 12 people at a screening of the film in Aurora, Colorado in 2012. Director Christopher Nolan called the mass shooting a "senseless tragedy."

Another film in the long line of hugely successful Saw films, "Saw IV" picks up where the previous iteration left off. During the autopsy of the serial killer Jigsaw, a tape found in his stomach warns that his gory, mind-bending games of life and death will continue.

The Saw franchise became a massive success thanks to its inventive depictions of cruelty. Tragically, these calculated death puzzles also inspired real-life crimes. After watching "Saw IV," Matthew Tinling attempted to mimic one of the film's scenes when he murdered former soldier Richard Hamilton in 2012.

Based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel of the same name, "Fight Club" follows two men who grow alienated from their corporate, sanitized lives. To combat their ennui, they establish an underground fight club which eventually grows into a terrorist organization well beyond their control.

Thanks to its capitalism critique and a step-by-step guide to forming clandestine organizations, "Fight Club" inspired a host of copycats. Several real-life fight clubs sprung up around the country, including a toddler-age fight club in St. Louis set up by daycare workers. Controversially, Palahniuk once expressed sympathy for people alienated enough to use "Fight Club" as inspiration for real-life crimes.

Wes Craven's 1996 film "Scream" revitalized slasher films by incorporating self-aware nods and references to the genre. It centers on Sydney Prescott, a popular California high school student who becomes the target of a frightening killer known as Ghostface.

Though humorous and often tongue-in-cheek, "Scream" inspired several real-life crimes. Teenage murderers Torey Adamcik and Brian Draper told police the film inspired their brutal 2006 murder of Cassie Jo Stoddart. A few years previous, Thierry Jaradin murdered a teenage girl wearing the infamous Ghostface mask in Belgium.

It's hard to underplay the wide-reaching influence of 1999's "The Matrix." The film explores the relationship between consciousness and reality as it follows Neo, a computer programmer who discovers that his reality is a simulation created by machines to harvest human energy.

While it influenced considerable conspiracy theories and later films, "The Matrix" also inspired violence. Not only did Beltway Sniper Lee Boyd Malvo credit the Matrix for inspiration, but murderers like Vadim Mieseges and Tonda Lynn Ansley successfully used the "Matrix defense" to be declared too mentally incompetent to stand trial.

After the success of "Robocop," its sequel "Robocop 2" dove back into its crime-ridden, dystopian portrayal of Detroit, Michigan. The ultra-violent sequel puts Robocop face-to-face with an evil version of himself.

Unfortunately, Robocop's ultra-violent depictions did not stay on the film roll. Upstate New York serial killer Nathaniel White directly credited a scene from "Robocop 2" as inspiration for his first vicious murder. Though too lengthy to get into here, the murders also resulted in a case of mistaken identity and an eventual lawsuit against the Discovery Channel.

One of Oliver Stone's more provocative films, "Natural Born Killers" follows Mickey and Mallory. A chance meeting of these fated lovers results in a murderous rampage across the United States and a media frenzy in their wake.

The movie inspired several real-life crimes, perhaps due to its anti-hero portrayal of dangerous lovers turned murderers. After teenage lovers Ben Darras and Sarah Edmondson were arrested for a series of shootings in 1995, they told police they prepped for their frenzy by dropping acid and screening "Natural Born Killers" on a continuous loop.

1983's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" kicked off a long line of films featuring Freddy Krueger, a serial killer ghost who hunts and kills teenagers in their dreams using his razor blade-studded gloves. Though the film blurred the line between fantasy and reality, sleeping and waking, it resulted in real-world consequences.

In September 2004, 25-year-old Daniel Gonzalez murdered four people in the London and Essex areas of the United Kingdom. Upon capture, Gonzalez was not only unrepentant but cited both Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th) as direct inspiration for his crimes. After being sentenced to several life sentences, Gonzalez took his own life behind the bars of Britain's infamous Broadmoor Hospital.

Still running with no sign of slowing, the "Child's Play" franchise introduced the killer doll Chucky to the world. The series follows this serial killer-possessed doll's violent exploits as he hunts down Andy Barclay.

Tragically, several violent murders took direct inspiration from "Child's Play" and its titular character Chucky. The perpetrator of Australia's Port Arthur Massacre, Martin Bryant, idolized Chucky and even adopted his catchphrases. What's more, the murderers of Suzanne Capper and spree killer Elena Lobacheva both took inspiration from the killer doll.

When "Friday the 13th" hit theaters in 1980, it was a gory revelation and helped pioneer the slasher genre. The movie centers on a collection of visitors at Camp Crystal Lake. Counselors by trade, the characters seek to set up a new summer camp. Ignoring superstitious warnings from locals, the counselors soon find themselves stalked and killed by quasi-supernatural killer.

Less than a decade later, grocery store clerk and slasher film enthusiast Mark Branch copied the film when he donned the antagonist's signature hockey mask and murdered psychology student Sharon Gregory. Though suspected of the crime, Branch disappeared from view until police found his body in the woods, dead from suicide.

Based on the well-regarded novel by John Fowles of the same name, 1965's "The Collector" follows Freddie Clegg, an awkward butterfly collector who grows tired of collecting flying insects. To up the stakes, he kidnaps a woman to keep as a different type of collectible.

Unfortunately, this novel-turned-movie inspired several violent crimes. Serial killers like Leonard Lake, Charles Ng, Christopher Wilder, and Robert Berdella cited "The Collector" as inspiration for their various murders throughout the 1970s and 1980s.