When you’re watching a scary movie, there’s always that reassurance that it simply isn’t real.
Of course Hugh Grant isn’t going to trap you in his home, of course Santa isn’t going to show up and kill everyone, and of course Glenn Close isn’t going to become possessed and call you a p***y.
But, rather unnervingly, there are those horror films that draw on real life for inspiration.
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And one of the Saw movies showcases the ‘most painful torture device’ that’s said to have actually been used in real life.
Long, long, long before the horror film franchise ever existed, the ‘Brazen Bull’ was created in ancient Greece during approximately 600-560 BCE with it appearing in numerous ancient texts.
The contraption was made out of bronze and built to resemble the animal. A door on one side would allow the condemned to climb inside while a fire was lit inside - leading to the individual to roast to death as the metal heated up around them.
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Yeah, grim.
Horror fans might now remember seeing this in Saw 3D.
In the 2010 flick, the Brazen Bull was the sixth and last one in a series of tests. If the victim failed to escape, they were entrapped it what looked like a giant oven. Fire then would erupt from all sides of its exterior, with the victim getting slowly roasted alive.
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The Jigsaw Killer made Bobby Dagan and his wife, Joyce, victims of this trap. The husband had to complete tasks and use his strength to attempt to save her but unfortunately, his muscles didn’t quite manage it and he fell several feet.
This was followed by the timer going off and Joyce being lowered down on the platform. With Bobby blocked off by an electric fence, he was forced to watch as his wife was slowly burned alive .
It’s believed the very man who created the Brazen Bull ended up being a victim of it too.
A man named Perilaus of Athens is said to have invented the contraption and proposed it as a method of torture and/or execution to Phalaris, the tyrant of the Sicilian state of Akragas.
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Anyhow, it's not clear whether Phalaris commissioned Perilaus to make the Brazen Bull or whether the inventor decided he knew just the evil b*****d who'd fully appreciate a thing like that, but the inventor certainly knew what the tyrant would enjoy.
However, it turns out that just because you make a cruel tyrant a new torture device it doesn't mean he'll become your friend.
Phalaris asked the inventor to get inside the Brazen Bull to demonstrate what the noises would sound like, and to make it more realistic the tyrant locked Perilaus inside and set a fire under the bull.
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It would have been agony for Periluas, being cooked alive in his own invention, but the tyrant did end up letting him out before he died.
Jess Battison