← Twisted Tales with Heidi Wong
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This is Crime House, an old stone well in a Japanese castle where a nameless terror awaits. At the bottom, a lonely cave in the Scottish Highlands where a clan of cannibals preys on unsuspecting travelers. These folktales come from two vastly different cultures, but they have one thing in common. They're some of humanity's oldest nightmares. Welcome to Twisted A Crime House Original. I'm Heidi Wong. Every week I'll take you deep into the true stories behind horror's biggest legends. From vengeful ghosts to bloody slashers to alien encounters and more, these real life accounts are guaranteed to keep you up at night. But scary stories aren't any fun if you're telling them alone. If you've ever had a haunted moment or a twisted tale of your own, I want to hear about it. Drop it in the comments the creepier, the better Today I'm going to discuss the real life inspirations behind two iconic horror movies, the Ring and the Hills have Eyes. On the surface, they couldn't seem more different, right? One's a chilling ghost story out of Japan. The other is a road trip thriller set in the American desert. But as you soon find out, these two movies have something in common. Both of their monsters come from centuries old folklore, and like all folk tales, there may be a real story behind it all.
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Seven days if you've ever seen a scary movie, or even if you haven't, chances are you recognize that line immediately. That's right. Today I'm talking about one of the biggest horror movies of all, the Ring. Whether you caught it in theaters, saw it at a sleepover, or learned about it on streaming, this movie is guaranteed to make you terrified of videotapes, even if you're not old enough to remember them. In case you've never seen it for yourself, Here's a quick recap. The American version of the ring, released in 2002, is a remake of the 1998 Japanese film called Ringu. If you haven't seen either movie, the plots are pretty similar, but for the sake of simplicity, I'll just talk about the American version. The movie's about a journalist named Rachel whose niece just died. At the funeral, the girl's mom asked Rachel to look into a mysterious videotape her daughter had just watched. Supposedly, anyone who sees it will die seven days later. Well, Rachel looks into it and finds the tape at a cabin where her niece had been with some friends. She watches it, and shortly after, she gets a phone call. The caller has just two words for her. Yup, you guessed it. Seven days. Like any good journalist, she's skeptical that her life is in danger. But over the next few days, weird stuff starts happening to Rachel. Her face starts showing up blurry in pictures, she has terrible nightmares, and she's able to pluck a fly from inside the TV screen. You know, normal stuff. As Rachel rewatches the tape, she realizes it has images of a real place, a farm out in the woods. And it ends with a creepy, demonic girl crawling out of a well. Rachel's able to figure out where this farm is and learns that the girl in the well was named Samara, named Sadako. In the Japanese version, she was tossed into the well and left there to die. Now she kills anyone who watches her videotape, even though they had nothing to do with her murder. Does it make sense? No. Is it scary as hell? Yes. While the folktale it's based on was created long before VHS tapes were ever invented, it's just as chilling. The story is one of Japan's big three ghost stories and originated around the early 1600s. It takes place within the halls of Himeji Castle, which still exists to this day. As the story goes, there was once a woman named Okiku who worked as a servant there. Her job was washing dishes for the Shogun, the lord of the castle. All she wanted was to keep her head down and get her work done. Been there, girl. But Okiku was too beautiful to fly under the radar. The Shogun had a samurai bodyguard named Aoyama, and he was obsessed with her. Over and over, he'd approach Okiku and try to seduce her. Meanwhile, Okiku couldn't care less for this man. She rejected him every time. In some versions of the story, this is because she was already married. Others simply leave the reason unclear. Maybe the guy just had really bad vibes, which would totally make sense either way. Get the hint, dude. But Aoyama refused to give up. He was too proud for that. So instead, he devised a plan to force Okiku to give in. In the kitchens of Himeji Castle, there was a set of 10 priceless plates. A gift from a far off land. How generous. One day, Aoyama removed one of these plates. He hid the plate and called for Okiku. When she arrived, the samurai blamed her for losing the plate, which was really bad. Like punishable by death bad. Understandably, Okiku wasn't just about to take his word for it. She counted the dishes herself and yup, only nine. Well, good guy. Aoyama offers her a deal. He'll tell the Shogun that someone else misplaced the dish if she'll sleep with him. Did not see that one coming. And even though Okiku's life was at stake, she still refused him. And as you can imagine, Aoyama did not take that well. He ordered his servants to seize Okiku, and they dragged her into the courtyard. They beat her with wooden swords, tied her up and hoisted her over the castle's well. I bet you can see where this is going. Aoyama tortured Okiku by repeatedly dunking her into the water and pulling her out, allowing her to desperately gasp for air before thrusting her back underwater. Once again, he made his offer. Just sleep with me and you'll escape punishment. Okiku still wouldn't do it, and Aoyama decided he'd had enough. The samurai drew his sword and killed Okiku. The killing blow cut the ropes holding her in place, sending her tumbling to the bottom of the well. Her body was never recovered, but that doesn't mean that Okiku was never heard from again. One cold night, not long after her death, a guard was patrolling the castle walls. He passed the well where Okihu had died, and nothing was out of the ordinary. But when he returned inside, he heard a voice. It was a woman, counting. 1. 2. 3. She was just up ahead. 4. 5. 6. The guard could just make her out. In the darkness, she looked like Okiku. The guard followed the voice down every hallway, but always it seemed one step ahead of him. 7. 8. 9. All of a sudden, she stopped. And then came the blood curdling shriek. The guard covered his ears in shock. When he removed his hands, everything was quiet. At this point, I'd be calling it a night. And it seems like the guard did too. The next day, he got so sick he couldn't get out of bed. He told everyone who came to see him that Okiku had risen from the well and was wandering the castle grounds. When Aoyama heard this, he was chilled to the bone. But he never told anyone what he'd done, that he was responsible for this haunting. And it wasn't long before the guard died from his illness and Okiku claimed her first victim. These encounters went on night after night. Okiku's spirit returned from the well, desperately counting the dishes to find the one that she supposedly misplaced. And if anyone had the misfortune of hearing her. And they stuck around long enough for her to get all the way to nine, they met the same fate as the guard. Eventually, word reached the shogun. At first, he didn't believe what he was hearing. But once enough of his servants died from this mysterious, serious illness, he couldn't deny it any longer. Something was haunting his castle well. The shogun didn't want to run into Okiku on his next late night dessert run. So he contacted the local Buddhist priest. That was the only solution. Night after night, the priests wandered the castle grounds chanting prayers which did not work. Okiku's spirit kept returning and kept counting. The priest resisted her curse, but Okiku's spirit wouldn't leave. They were at a stalemate until finally the priest ran out of options. One night, he heard Okiku's spirit counting again. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. In a moment of frustration, the priest shouted out, 10. The courtyard fell silent. No blood curdling screaming. Okiku's spirit let out a sigh and returned to the well, relieved that someone had found the missing dish. She could finally rest. Okiku's spirit may be gone, but her story has haunted Japan ever since. And over the centuries, countless variations have expanded on the basic idea. There's a version that places Okiku at the center of a conspiracy to overthrow the Shogun. Another version changes it to to the story of a doomed romance, making Okiku and Aoyama a forbidden love affair. In this one, when he hears Okiku's spirit, Aoyama succumbs to the guilt and commits seppuku, ritual suicide. But in every version, Okiku dies in that well. Wanna hear something crazy? That well actually exists. It's called the Okiku well, and it's still on the Himeji Castle grounds, surrounded by a frame to keep visitors from falling in. Also, in 1795, many of the older wells in Japan developed a bug infestation. One of the sources says it was a type of caterpillar whose chrysalis looked like a tied up woman. It was reminiscent of Okiku, and some people thought the bugs, which emitted a foul odor when threatened, were a reincarnation of Okiku. Real sweet. Clearly this story left an impact on Japanese culture. It's been told and retold from Kabuki plays to books and films, eventually being adapted into the story of a girl in a cursed videotape. And this isn't the only folktale that's become a legendary horror movie. You wouldn't think a film about a family of mutant cannibals in the American west could be based on a true story, but as you'll find out next, the person who inspired it makes the movie look tame by comparison.
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The Hills have Eyes is one of the classic, horrifying road trip through the isolated desert movies. Released in 1977, it helped launch the career of horror mastermind Wes Craven, who later directed A Nightmare on Elm street and the first four Scream movies. If you haven't seen the Original or its 2006 remake, here's a quick recap. In the late 1970s, a large American family, the Carters, are driving through the Nevada desert in a trailer bound for California. When they stop for gas, they meet an old man who has a secret. You know how it goes. He warns them about straying too far from the main roads, and they politely nod and drive away. Of course, they get lost. And then their car breaks down, leaving them stranded in the heat with all the creepy crawlies you can expect in the desert. But the rattlesnakes and the enormous spiders are the least of their worries. They're being watched from the rocky hills nearby. When night falls, the family gets attacked by a tribe of ugly caveman like locals. Not cute. As the Carter family is killed one by one, they realize that this is a family of inbred cannibals who have been living in the mountains for generations. But the Carters fight back. And by the end of the movie, we're left with the unsettling feeling that there may not be much separating the two families, just their environment and the cannibalism. The story that inspired Wes Craven to write the Hills have Eyes actually comes from an extremely different time and place from the 17th century Scotland. It was the time of King James I, whose passion for witchcraft would inspire William Shakespeare to write Macbeth. Death. But it wasn't witches that caused mass panic in James Kingdom. It was a man named Sawney Bean. Sometime in the early 1600s, a gruesome discovery was made in the coast of Scotland. Body parts began to wash ashore. Severed legs and arms. There were no rings or bracelets or scraps of clothing to identify them. And nobody around who seemed to be missing a limb. Most strangely of all, none of these body parts were rotten. It was like they'd been preserved before winding up in the sea. It wasn't long before the area's locals connected these horrible discoveries with a mystery that had been plaguing them for 25 years. There was a western road along the coastline, and it seemed that any traveler who had taken the path alone had disappeared without a trace. They put two and two together. Over the past quarter century, this road had become someone or something's hunting grounds. Townsfolk in the area started taking matters into their own hands, as they tended to do in those times. They went to every inn along the road, the place where these missing travelers had spent their last nights alive. One by one, they arrested the innkeepers and hanged them for murder. It was mob justice. And like most angry mobs they weren't very successful. The disappearances continued and the county's population dwindled. Those that remained were consumed by fear. Innkeepers who'd escaped the mob closed their establishments, leaving the road without any place for travelers to stop and spend the night. It seemed this mystery would remain unsolved forever until one day when the murderers finally revealed themselves. A man and a woman were coming home from a fair that day, riding a horse along the western road. No one had warned them that this wasn't a good idea. All of a sudden, they were ambushed. But these men and women weren't normal bandits. They were like ferocious animals. Fortunately for this couple, the husband was carrying a sword and a pistol. He fought back against their attackers. They even managed to escape the initial ambush. The man urged their horse forward, trying to get away from their attackers. But his wife lost her grip and she fell from the saddle. The bandits grabbed her and the husband could only watch as she was literally torn apart and eaten in front of his eyes. If that's me, I'm done. But this husband managed to fight them off long enough for some other travelers to come to his aid. The psycho cannibals retreated into the woods and the husband gathered what remained of his wife's body. He didn't know it yet, but he was the first person who had survived an attack from this mysterious, mysterious clan. After that, the people who'd helped him brought the husband to the city of Glasgow. They went to the head official there and told him what had happened. As proof, the husband presented his wife's remains pretty convincing. Word reached King James and four days later, he personally left his castle in Nearby Edinburgh with 400 men and several packs of bloodhounds. The men who'd fought the cannibals served as their guide, pointing to the place where they had been attacked. They scoured the countryside looking for a camp or some kind of settlement. But all they found were rocks and trees and wilderness.
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Their search ended when they reached the sea with no sign of the mysterious cannibals. King James was about to order his men to move on when he heard noise. One of the bloodhounds had found something. The tide had gone down, revealing a cave entrance on the coast. It was the hideout of a man named Sawney Bean. You should never go into a creepy dark cave. That's horror movie 101. But King James had 400 men with him, and he was on a mission. At first they thought the cave was abandoned, given how dark it was. But the bloodhounds kept going further in. So James and his men followed, carrying torches. Through the thick darkness, they realized they were in the midst of a vast network of underground tunnels. It just kept going deeper and deeper. And finally, at the end of one of these passages, they found the layer they were looking for. Rows and rows of human body parts hung up like meat in a butcher shop. More hands and feet were pickled and stored nearby. To the utter horror of the soldiers. They also found in an adjacent chamber, a treasure trove. There were piles of silver and gold coins, racks of clothes and other Valuables, pistols, swords, rings, and countless other artifacts. These were all coming from the people murdered over the last 25 years. And there was one more thing hidden in the darkness. The cannibals. They sprang from the shadows, teeth and weapons bared. But King James and his soldiers were ready and vastly outnumbered their attackers. They overpowered their enemies and captured the whole clan. There were 48 in all, 27 men and 21 women. This was one family. Three generations of cannibals. Inbred cannibals. And the patriarch was a man named Sawney Bean. Bean was originally from the area, and it seemed that this was a case of nature over nurture. His parents were poor ditch diggers, but they weren't cannibals. But they say there's someone out there for everyone. And one day, Sawney met a woman who, as they say, matched his freak. Her name was Agnes Douglas. She'd been called Black Agnes by her neighbors and accused of witchcraft. They were literally a perfect pair. Together, she and Sawney fled into the wilds, where famine had driven them to murder for survival. And when they had children, their killings only grew more vicious, along with their eating habits. Once Sawney and his family were captured, the king ordered the men to bury all the remains from the cave and to gather as much of the treasure as possible to take home with them. Might as well, right? With the cannibals captured and the treasure secured, the king and his entourage marched back into Edinburgh with their prisoners in tow. Sawney Bean held his head high, never apologizing for the awful cruelty he and Agnes had inflicted. People from all over Scotland came to the side of the road to watch the cannibals as they were marched to justice. Sawney, agnes, and their 14 children and 32 grandchildren were all brought to a prison called the Tollbooth and sealed away while the king decided their fates. The Bean family would never be put on trial. The king and his court agreed what they had done was so monstrous that they were not slightly subject to the laws of man. Given the lifestyle they led, it's hard to disagree. Sawney Bean and his family were taken out of the city and executed in ways that you'd imagine a 17th century king would punish a gang of cannibals. And with that, Sawney Bean's quarter century of terror came to an end. No one knows how many people his family managed to kill during that time, but it's estimated that they killed and consumed around 1,000 people, which, if you do the math, is an average of 40 per year. The question is did any of this actually happen? People have been wondering this ever since the first versions of this legend started appearing in 18th century street literature. Authors reported on it as eagerly as people today talk about Jack the Ripper. Only there's no historical historical evidence that Sawney Bean really existed. The stories are set around the year 1600, but the first accounts of his deeds didn't show until about 100 years after that. And some historians think the whole thing was a part of an anti Scottish agenda. The argument goes like this. When the Sawney Bean story was first getting around, there was a lot of anti Scottish sentiment going around Britain, which wasn't exactly new. The idea was that the British press created the story of Sawney Bean to paint Scottish people in a negative light. This is a strong theory as to why Sawney Bean exists, but it's still just a theory. But even if Sawney Bean wasn't real, the cave where he was rumored to live is an actual place and you can even visit it. But it's not for the faint of heart. To get into the cave, you have to go when the time is right, navigating rock falls and a narrow entrance. Would you do it for the chance to imagine the horrors of the ancient Scottish cannibal story? If you've been there, let me know in the comments. I'd also love to know if you grew up hearing any of these stories. It's crazy how folk tales like these change over the generations, scaring us in ways we never thought was possible. Thanks to their film adaptations, they have found new life in remakes, adaptations and new spins and will continue to terrify people from centuries to come. Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of Twisted A Crime House Original. I'd love to hear from you. What did you think of today's stories? Anything you're dying for me to COVID Leave a comment or review wherever you're tuning in. And be sure to follow Twisted Tales so we can keep building this community together. I'll be back next week with another unbelievable true story. Until then, stay curious and remember, there's no reason to fear the dark unless you try to hide from it.
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