 The movie is based on the legend of Sawney Beane and his family (a  wife, eight sons and six daughters), a feral clan who inhabited and  roamed the highlands of Scotlands East Lothian County, near  Edinburgh, in the early 1400s. They captured, tormented and ate  several transients. They were eventually captured on the order of  Scotlands King James, were judged to be insane, and executed  without trial.