TRUE Detective first hit the silver screen on January 12, 2014, to critical and commercial acclaim.

Now in its fourth season, True Detective: Night Country is poised to match the success of the original HBO detective drama, complete with a frigid, wintry setting that matches an equally chilling crime.

HBO’s True Detective: Night Country stars Kali Reis (left) as Trooper Evangeline Navarro and Jodie Foster (right) as Chief Liz DanversCredit: True Detective Night Country

Is True Detective: Night Country based on a true story?

True Detective: Night Country has already hatched multiple supernatural theories, some more believable than others.

Fans of the bone-chilling, gritty drama may be surprised to discover that the show, while not necessarily based on a true story, is heavily inspired and influenced by real-life events.

The show, set in the Alaskan wilderness, follows two unusual mysteries.

One revolves around an unsolved murder of a woman known as Annie K.

The other mystery revolves around a group of scientists who mysteriously vanish from their research station.

Some of the scientists are later found frozen in a giant block of ice.

The terrifying events in the show are heightened by a real-life incident known as the Dyatlov Pass.

The Dyatlov Pass Incident, also called the Death of the Dyatlov Tour Group, involves a case in which nine Soviet hikers died in the Ural Mountains between February 1 and 2, 1959.

The Urals are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan.

The Soviet hikers had been camping on the eastern slopes of the mountain when something – or someone – caused them to cut their way out of their tents and flee their campsite.

The hikers, who weren’t dressed appropriately for the frigid temperatures and heavy snowfall, were later found dead.

Six hikers had died from hypothermia, while the remaining three hikers perished from physical trauma.

When they were found, one of the hikers had major skull damage, two had chest trauma, and another hiker had a cracked skull.

Four of the bodies were found in a nearby creek along with damaged head and facial soft tissue.

Two of the hikers had missing eyes, one had missing eyebrows, and one even had a missing tongue.

Many theories have popped up over the years to try and explain these tragic and unnerving deaths.

Some say the unexplained deaths were caused by animal attacks, while others blame the incident on an avalanche or heavy winds.

Conspiracy theories have also emerged about the event, with some claiming that the mutilations and missing body parts were caused by infrasound-induced panic, military involvement, or even unexplainable, supernatural forces.

In 2019, Russia reopened a new investigation looking into the case and ultimately determined that an avalanche had caused the hikers to leave their campsite, where they ultimately perished.

Still, the hikers’ unique injuries have led some to believe the investigation was incomplete or inconclusive, while others have discredited the investigation altogether.

True Detective: Night Country doesn’t copy-and-paste the Dyatlov Pass Incident in its fourth season.

Instead, the show draws inspiration from the real-life events, including showing a severed tongue at the scene of a crime.

In the show, the hikers are replaced with a group of men working at the Tsalal Research Station, and as of the first episode, only a few have been found in a frozen lake located in the outskirts of town.

Who stars in True Detective Season 4?

Like its preceding seasons, True Detective’s fourth season features a star-studded ensemble cast, along with some promising newcomers.

Jodie Foster and Kali Reis star as the series’ two co-leads, Chief Liz Danvers and Trooper Evangeline Navarro.

True Detective: Night Country is Foster’s first adult TV role, her first starring role in a TV series since 1975, and her first major acting role in the last decade.

Foster, whose birth name is Alicia Christian Foster, is perhaps best known for her roles in Taxi Driver, The Silence of the Lambs, and Panic Room.

Kali Reis is an American actress and professional boxer, with 19 wins and several welterweight and middleweight titles.

Reis made her acting debut in the 2021 film Catch the Fair One, for which she received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead.

Reis, who is of Native American descent and Cherokee, Nipmuc ancestry, is a vocal supporter of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement.

Rounding out the main cast are Fiona Shaw as Rose Aguineau, Finn Bennett as Officer Peter Prior, Isabella Star LaBlanc as Leah Danvers, and John Hawkes as Captain Hank Prior.

Fiona Shaw is perhaps best known for her role as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter film series.

She’s also acted in True Blood, Killing Eve, Fleabag, and Enola Holmes.

Finn Bennett, who hails from London, has previously appeared in the TV shows Domina, The Nevers, and National Treasure: Kiri.

Isabella Star LaBlanc, who plays Foster’s adopted daughter in the series, has previously appeared in the series Long Slow Exhale and the film Pet Sematary: Bloodlines.

John Hawkes is best known for his roles in Winter’s Bone and The Sessions, along with his appearances in the TV series Deadwood and Eastbound & Down.

Rounding out the show’s ensemble are recurring cast members Christopher Eccleston as Ted Corsaro, Anna Lambe as Kayla Malee, Aka Niviâna as Julia Navarro, and Joel D. Montgrand as Eddie Qavvik.

Eccleston is best known for his role as the ninth incarnation of the Doctor in the BBC sci-fi series, Doctor Who, as well as for playing Matt Hamison in the HBO supernatural drama series, The Leftovers.

Anna Lambe made her acting debut in the 2018 film The Grizzlies, for which she received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Aka Niviâna, an Inuk writer, poet, and climate activist, makes her television acting debut in the series.

Joel D. Montgrand, a Cree First Nations actor from Canada, has appeared in episodes of Bates Motel, Legends of Tomorrow, and Altered Carbon.

He’s also set to appear as Hakoda in the Netflix live-action series, Avatar the Last Airbender.

2

True Detective: Night Country premiered on HBO and Max on January 14, 2024, and the series’ fourth season will have a total of six episodesCredit: True Detective Night Country

Are past seasons of True Detective based on real stories?

True Detective: Night Country isn’t the only season of the hit anthology show to draw inspiration from real-life events.

While the show’s second and third seasons aren’t necessarily based on real events, True Detective’s acclaimed first season was partly based on a true story.

Starring Matthew McConaughey as Detective Rustin “Rust” Cohle and Woody Harrelson as Detective Martin “Marty” Hart, True Detective’s first season focused on the murder of prostitute Dora Lange in 1995, with the detectives revisiting the crime, along with other unsolved murders, including a missing persons case, 17 years later.

The show drew inspiration from a real-life child abuse scandal in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, also known as the Hosanna Church scandal.

As reported by Screen Rant, the Hosana Church scandal is “one of the darkest and most heinous child sexual abuse cases in Louisiana,” making the show’s first season’s “ritualistic killings” seem tame by comparison.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Hosanna Church was one of the fastest-growing congregations in the South.

However, things took a turn for the worse when it was discovered that the church was “involved in the sexual abuse of around 24 children, along with the mutilation of animals for ritualistic purposes.”

True Detective’s second and third seasons were by-and-large fictional dramas, though there were some aspects of each season that may have been inspired by true events.

The show’s second season, which takes place in the fictional town of Vinci, California, is rumored to be based on a real-life California town, Vernon.

Like the show, Vernon “had a shady past and corrupt government officials, and both saw the death of a city administrator.”

The show’s third season, about an aging detective revisiting a cold case, also draws inspiration from the West Memphis Three case, which had ties to Satanic rituals.

Time will tell whether True Detective: Night Country will continue to include plotlines based on true events in the season’s remaining five episodes, which air on Sundays at 9 pm ET.