J.R.R. Tolkien Based One of the Most Terrifying Parts of Lord of the Rings on His Own War Experiences

There is no shortage of chillingly creepy locations in The Lord of the Rings, but it's hard to beat the Dead Marshes. It's the vast, eerie swamp that Frodo (Elijah Wood), Sam (Sean Astin), and Gollum (Andy Serkis) venture into in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, littered with corpses of Elves, Men, and Orcs from a great battle fought a long time earlier, as Gollum explains. Near each corpse, small flames draw the wanderers' attention, and Frodo even falls into the trap of one of them, nearly becoming a corpse himself if it weren't for Sam's always-ready helping hand. What they don't know is that, in a way, the Dead Marshes are like that because of the One Ring, too.