Is True Detective Season 4 Based on a True Story?

True Detective Season 4, Night Country, is the HBO crime anthology series’ most overtly supernatural outing yet. As such, you’re probably skeptical of online buzz claiming Season 4 is inspired by real events. So, what’s the deal – is True Detective Season 4 really based on a true story?

Is True Detective Season 4 Based on a True Story?

Now, we should note that True Detective Season 4 isn’t directly based on a true story. It’s a work of out-and-out fiction, not a historical drama. Even so, the HBO show’s fourth batch of episodes draws heavily from a real-life tragedy: the Dyatlov Pass incident.

A bizarre event never conclusively explained, the Dyatlov Pass incident involved the deaths of nine Soviet hikers back in 1959. Some members of the group died from grisly injuries – think missing eyeballs and tongues – while others succumbed to hypothermia. None of them were found properly dressed for the freezing conditions, as they apparently fled their tent in a panic.

If all this sounds familiar, it’s because it mirrors a lot of what goes down in True Detective Season 4’s first three episodes. Here, several Tsalal Research Station workers die after they charge out into the Alaskan wastes naked. Along the way, they suffer strange wounds not unlike those associated with the Dyatlov Pass incident. Heck, a stray tongue even turns up at the station (although it’s tied to a separate crime).

Just about the only detail showrunner Issa López added into the mix was the “Corpsicle,” a gruesome pile of corpses frozen together. In reality, the poor souls caught up in the Dyatlov Pass incident left behind eight distinct, non-fused-together bodies.

Related: All Major Actors & Cast List for True Detective Season 4

Does True Detective Season 4 Riff on Any Other Real-Life Events?

The Dyatlov Pass incident isn’t True Detective Season 4’s only source of fact-based inspiration, either. López and her team also borrow elements from the (somewhat exaggerated) legend of the Mary Celeste. If you’re not up on your maritime mysteries, the Mary Celeste was a merchant ship whose crew seemingly vanished – similar to how the Tsalal workers disappear in Season 4’s premiere episode.

Other than that, True Detective: Night Country‘s primary influences are other works of pop culture. This includes Ridley Scott’s Alien, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and John Carpenter’s The Thing – all of which López listed in a recent A.V. Club interview. True Detective‘s fourth season also frequently references its own first season, which was partly informed by the 1895 short story collection The King in Yellow.

True Detective: Night Country is currently streaming on HBO and Max, with new episodes dropping on Sundays.