10 Horror Movies That Led To Massive Lawsuits

10. 'Based On A True Story' Taken To The Extreme - The Fourth Kind

At this point, horror hounds know that the whole "based on a true story" gimmick is, well, just that: a gimmick.

So many movies have loosely stretched that term so they can tick off an extra marketing box, and for the most part when you investigate these original stories they're completely different to what made it on screen.

While most productions will just vaguely tie the plot to real events and call it a day, alien abduction thriller The Fourth Kind wanted a bit of that Blair Witch money. The whole marketing was based around this being a true story of alien abduction, with the movie being built around "recreations" and "archive footage" of the apparent real abduction stories in Alaska.

The studio went one step further to support the validity of these "true story" claims though, setting up websites and publishing articles about the abductions. However, the production also mixed this fiction with real news stories that were apparently used without permission, according to the IGN report at the time.

The fact that the movie was not only suggesting that these real disappearances were the cause of aliens, but also releasing news posts intended to be viewed as authentic that supported this idea, did not sit well with the people whose history was being used as a gimmick for the movie.

Consequently Universal was sued and settled for over $20,000, removing the offending posts in the process.