According to the OED, truth is defined by “that which is true, or in accordance with fact or reality”. For most, this is a pretty straight forward definition: The truth is the antonym of a lie, created by a perversion of reality. However, reality for movie producers is a malleable concept; Fact that inspires fiction steps into a realm where the distorted divide between truth and reality is exploited. So what inspired these ‘true’ stories and by extension, just how much fact can exist in fiction?
The Changeling
Fiction: After her son Walter goes missing, Christine Collins is shocked to meet a stranger the police insist is her child. When she contradicts the LAPD, Captain J. Jones has her incarcerated in an asylum. However, a boy is found claiming to have been bravely helped by Walter during an escape attempt from the farm they had both been imprisioned in. Christine is released and Jones is fired as the world learns the truth. Walter is never found.
Fact: The Changeling is based loosely on the Wineville Chicken Coop murders where a man and his Mother abused and murdered young boys on their ranch, however Norcott’s Mother is cut entirely from the plot. No boy ever recalled Walter’s heroic deeds during an escape attempt. Captain Jones was also the one to question Collins’ imposter son and realise he was indeed fraudulent, whereas in the film it is an empathetic cop who uncovers the truth whilst Jones is portrayed as a tyrant.
The Haunting in Connecticut
Fiction: The Campbell family uproot to a Connecticut home to be closer to the hospital where their son is being treated for cancer. As events spiral, their dying son is terrorised by visitations from a shadowy figure and visions of a young boy forced to participate in twisted seances to appease corpses his Father performed twisted necromancy rituals on. Eventually their son saves the day, burning the house down in a climactic finale revealing mutilated bodies stashed in the walls.
Fact: The Parkers moved to Connecticut to treat their son dying of cancer. Soon after moving they became plagued by a ‘demonic presence’ who reportedly raped and sodomized the parents whilst their son became moody and withdrawn, writing poetry with necrophillic tendencies, eventually being pronounced Schizophrenic after trying to rape his cousin. No seances. No Fire. No heroic son. The truth is far more messed up.
The confines of article word limits allow only these two examples, but it is clear that when it comes to portraying ‘truth’, script writers are bound by nothing. They pick and choose facts, embellish the truth and ultimately produce a piece of very entertaining, but dangerously distorted version of events for us pop-corn munching masses to consume.