Chillingly, the screams of 1997 Neve Campbell in the original Scream bear an unsettling resemblance to the genuine terror which gripped a small Florida town earlier that decade.
The actual crimes were far more brutal and featured a decapitated head, bite wounds and a deliberately positioned headless corpse.
In 1994, screenwriter Kevin Williamson became fixated on the nightmare which descended upon Gainesville when five university students were slain within a mere three-day period during the summer of 1990.
This served as the foundation for Sydney and the masked murderer, who in reality was a disturbed and damaged individual named Danny Rolling.
Rolling’s string of atrocities became the blueprint for one of the most commercially successful and genre-defining series in horror cinema.
Born in 1954 to an adolescent mother, Rolling endured a nightmarish upbringing. His father, James, was a decorated Korean war veteran who probably battled post-traumatic stress disorder.
He was aggressive and violent towards his wife Claudia and domineering over Rolling and his younger sibling Kevin. This psychological mistreatment escalated to physical violence as the lads matured, reports the Mirror US.
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Daniel Rollings (Image: Wikipedia)
Rolling’s sole refuge was a guitar he received as a gift for his 15th birthday. Rolling sought comfort in art and music – his Christmas present of a guitar at age 15 remained one of his fondest recollections from his teenage years.
In his memoir The Making Of A Serial Killer: The Real Story of the Gainesville Student Murders, Rolling claimed his early adolescent years were when he developed multiple personalities as a “defence” against his father.
Following his enlistment in the airforce at 18, he was discharged in 1972 after being caught with drugs. Rolling relocated to live with his grandfather and briefly discovered comfort in the church.
He subsequently wed O’Mather Halko, with whom he had a daughter. Tragically, Rolling soon began displaying the same violent tendencies as his father, prompting O’Mather to escape with their child.
Manuel Taboada was one of the victims (Image: Find a Grave)
Rolling’s criminal activity started with voyeurism and intensified when he raped a woman. He then carried out a series of armed robberies which resulted in his imprisonment in Jackson, Georgia, in 1979.
This marked the start of his repeated incarcerations throughout the 1980s. He maintained his pattern of rape and robberies during this time.
In November 1989, Rolling lost his restaurant position. That very evening he committed his first murder, which would prefigure the disturbing crimes that later inspired the original Scream film.
He killed Julie Grissom, 24, her nephew Sean, eight, and Julie’s father Tom, 55. Disturbingly, Julie was discovered with bite marks and her body positioned with her legs spread on the bed.
Tracy Paules was homecoming queen at high school (Image: Getty Images)
This bore an eerie resemblance to how his subsequent victims were found.
In May 1990, Rolling confronted his father, produced a gun and shot James in the stomach and head. Remarkably James survived but lost function in his eye and ear.
Rolling then escaped to Gainesville.
Establishing a makeshift camp in woodland behind the University of Florida, Rolling devised his scheme. His initial victims were first-year students Christina Powell and Sonja Larson, whom he viciously stabbed and raped on August 24, 1990.
Sonja Larson was one of the students killed (Image: Find a Grave)
On August 25, Santa Fe Community College student Christa Hoyt, 18, became his third victim. Horrifically, he positioned her severed head on a shelf and arranged her body in an upright position on her bed.
Three days afterwards, Rolling attacked two University of Florida students, Manuel Toboada and Tracy Paules, both 23.
Rolling fled, leaving the community traumatised and bewildered. Police mistakenly identified a former college student as a prime suspect, whilst Rolling was actually detained in a Florida prison.
Following his killing spree, Rolling carried out an armed robbery of a Winn-Dixie supermarket and was apprehended after crashing his vehicle.
Christina Powell suffered a horrifying death (Image: Getty Images)
In 1991, police eventually connected Rolling to the crimes using DNA from the murder scene and matching it to an extracted tooth from the then 37-year -ld. More than a decade after his first offence, he was formally charged with the murders of the five Gainesville students in June 1992.
At this stage, Rolling initiated correspondence with Sondra London, to whom he later proposed and who assisted him in writing his memoir.
Rolling entered a not guilty plea but utilised fellow inmate Bobby Lewis as his “mouthpiece” to confess to the murders. In 1994, just before his trial commenced, Rolling altered his plea to guilty.
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His mother described the abuse he endured and remembered one of his personalities “Gemini,” who compelled him towards his most heinous actions. Two psychiatrists stated they believed Rolling suffered from a severe and serious personality disorder, though acknowledged he comprehended his crimes.
The jury unanimously convicted Rolling of first-degree murder on all five counts in late March, and a month later he received the death sentence.
Rolling met his fate at Florida State Prison on October 25, 2006. Disturbingly, during his final moments the witness box of 47 people heard a religious hymn with the lyrics “none greater than thee, O Lord, none greater than thee.”
