“Based on a True Story”
Movie marketers understand the value of claiming that films are based on true events. With that said, there are no clear rules that mark how far filmmakers can deviate from the truth when they use the phrase “based on a true story” in advertisements. In the past, when issues arose about the accuracy of “true stories,” the courts have given studios a lot of leeway.
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Many times, when the accuracy of a movie is in question, there is a lot of backlash. That’s exactly what happened with Norman Jewison’s, The Hurricane, or Kathryn Bigelow’s, Zero Dark Thirty. Both of these films are obviously more “fact-based” than The Conjuring, so the viewers’ frustration is understandable.