The term “based on a true story” has essentially lost its meaning. Sure, some rare films such as Lincoln and Apollo 13 became renowned as thoroughly accurate depictions of historic events, but in Hollywood those are rarities. Goodfellas is based on a true story. Sort of. Remember Dallas Buyers Club? Jared Leto’s entire Oscar-winning Best Supporting Actor role was entirely fictitious.
It really starts to get funny when we see supernatural horror stories and myths allegedly based on some sort of actual account. Yeah, uh, The Conjuring? Only some of those cases were real. Likewise, The Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are sort of based on actual serial killers, but only in the vaguest possible ways.
Any horror movie claiming to be completely faithful to historical fact is most likely fudging a few things, but that doesn’t mean they lose any of their dramatic potential. Is the idea of a president’s assassin haunting the city totally out of the question, though?…