There are very few people on the fence about Lifetime movies. Either you love to sit down to a night of grisly murders and teens in terrible danger of being kidnapped or trying pot, or you don't. And for true Lifetime movie fans, nothing is more exciting than a film that promises it was "based on a true story."
Because lets face it, if Lifetime was interested in your true story, it wasn't just violent or salacious. It was weird. Super weird, with some twists that make you shudder, and some that make you call your friend just to describe how unbelievable the situation is.
Here are some of the craziest films from the network that brought you The Unauthorized Full House Story and The Unauthorized Saved By the Bell Story. It's unclear whether these films were "authorized" or not. But what's really surprising is how little Lifetime had to mess with the facts.
Liz & Dick(2012)
This movie didn't give Lindsay Lohan her big comeback. But it did give the internet a pretty essential reaction GIF. Not bad for a film that ranks just 33% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Pregnancy Pact(2010)
Once you've finished Googling, "What's Thora Birch been up to these days," you might then wonder just how much they had to stretch the truth to get a story about a bunch of high school girls purposefully pulling a Juno. Though the high schoolers in Glouchester, Massachusetts, who inspired the film, deny there was any grand plans to become moms before graduation, there were eighteen pregnant girls at Glouchester High in 2008.
Who Is Clark Rockefeller?(2010)
How can we quickly convey this man is up to no good? We'll give him a pipe and have him give the camera an evil look! Genius! is a conversation I imagine the Lifetime executives having. The inspiration for the film, Christian Gerhartsreiter, really did convince his then wife that he was a Rockefeller.
Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story(2011)
An IRL, Not Without My Daughter, Taraji P. Henson starred in this Lifetime movie two years after her Oscar nomination and four years before she became Cookie. The real life Rubin was able to go after her seven-year-old son, who had been kidnapped and taken to South Korea by his father, after she received a tip on her MySpace page.
Abducted: The Carlina White Story(2012)
For fans of Face on the Milk Carton, (and F inding Carter, for the younger set) is this truly terrifying true life story that will convince you to have a home birth. According to a New York Magazine profile, this is pretty much how White's first call to the missing children hotline went, after twenty-three years of believing her kidnapper was her birth mother.
The Client List(2010)
This Lifetime movie was so gripping (and so full of animal print), that it received its own series. According to a Texas Monthly profile, the biggest liberty the network took was with showing the amount of guilt the "massage therapist" had over her profession. Though, the attention and complications from the job did eventually seem to get to her.
Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal(2008)
It's like someone's B-teen movie script came alive in Texas. Teens cheered, teens jeered, teens took photos of themselves drinking and lounging around an adult toy shop, and faced very few consequences. A solid mix of Mean Girls and Spring Breakers.
Girl Fight(2011)
A Lifetime movie that you would hope came from the twisted mind of a screenwriter, was really ripped from the headlines. A group of high schoolers actually beat a girl (unfortunately believable) then thought it was a great idea to upload actual video evidence of their crime online (though in real life they didn't get a chance to). If only all criminals sought hit-based validation — getting justice would be a lot easier.
Taken in Broad Daylight(2009)
Poor James Van Der Beek (a.k.a. Dawson) donned a ski-cap for his role as the super bold kidnapper in this Lifetime movie. The real life kidnapper got a life sentence for kidnapping and assaulting his teenage victim for six days.
Love, Lies and Murder(1991)
Was anyone else waiting for that Saved By the Bell clip to just pop up amongst the screaming? In 1985 David Brown did allegedly convince his daughter to kill his wife, but not before asking his teenage sister-in-law (who he was also in a relationship with) to do it.
Restless Virgins(2013)
This Lifetime movie could double as a new CW pilot. The film was based on a case in Massachusetts' Milton Academy, where five boys were expelled for receiving oral sex from a fifteen-year-old girl. The sex tape angle was created, I'm guessing, so parents could have even more things to be afraid of.
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