Brie Larson’s Room Is Based On a Real Crime More Terrifying Than The Movie 

Summary:

• Room with Brie Larson is an adaptation of Emma Donoghue's novel of the same name, which is based on the horrific true story of Elisabeth Fritzl.
• Unlike Larson's character, who was held captive for seven years, Elisabeth spent 24 years in the basement. She was kept there by her own father, by whom she gave birth to seven children.
• In 2008, Elizabeth fainted and her father took her to the hospital, where she revealed the truth. Her father was sentenced to life in prison.

Room, based on Emma Donoghue's novel of the same name, has earned Brie Larson multiple awards, including an Academy Award. This chilling and touching story tells of a woman held captive for seven years, during which time she gave birth to a son who was already five years old at the time of the story.

While the movie is based on Donoghue's novel, the writer herself described the chilling events that took place in real life – the Fritzl case.

The Chilling Fritzl Case

The Fritzl family had seven children: two boys and five girls. But of all his daughters, Josef Fritzl "loved" one in particular – Elisabeth, whom he began sexually assaulting at age 11.

Later, Josef began to renovate the basement of his house – over several years, he turned the basement into a prison, with reinforced concrete doors with electric locks that could only be opened with a special control panel, and the code for the remote control was known only to Josef.

In 1984, when Elisabeth had just turned 18, her father asked her to go down to the basement. The frightened girl, accustomed to violence, obediently followed her father. In the basement, Josef forced her to take a drug and then chained her.

Elisabeth Fritzl Was Held Captive for More Than 20 Years

The next time Elisabeth saw the sun was at the age of 42. During her 24 years of imprisonment, she gave birth to seven children by her father, one of whom died from lack of medical care.

For the first few years, Elisabeth was considered missing until her father left one of her children on the doorstep of his own house.

In the box with the child, he placed a note written by Elisabeth in which the girl said that she lived in a sect and could not take care of the child. A year later, in the same way, Josef left the next baby at the house and forced Elisabeth to call her mother and ask her to take another grandson.

Despite the terrible conditions, Elisabeth taught her children to read, write, and count, and hung pictures of flowers on the walls.

In 2008, Elisabeth became ill and fainted, and realizing that there was no other way out, her father took her to the hospital. The first escape to the surface ended with the arrest of Josef, who was sentenced to life imprisonment.