Is ‘Girl In The Basement’ a true story?

Warning: The following article contains content pertaining to sexual assault.

The network prominently aimed at a female audience, Lifetime features some of the most harrowing storylines both real and fictional. In 2021, Girl In the Basement joined the ranks of some of the most disturbing.

Judd Nelson returns to the small screen, this time as a controlling father who will do anything to keep his daughter, Sarah (Stefanie Cody) close. Unbeknownst to his family, Don takes his opportunity. Enacting a ruse of needing help in the basement, he tricks Sarah into entering a room he converted into a prison. There Sarah stays for years while enduring torture and sexual assault at the hands of her father. After birthing his children, she finally finds freedom when one of her children gets sick. They say that truth is stranger than fiction, and in a sense, that is true. But is Girl In the Basement one of these instances?

Is Girl In the Basement inspired by real events?

The devastating ordeal in Girl In the Basement is part of Lifetime’s ripped-from-the-headlines initiative that is based on true stories, but you won’t find Sarah Cody in the news. The television movie only takes inspiration from one infamous case of abuse and assault. The real story is far more complicated, stemming from a real nightmare in Austria.

Elisabeth Fritzl was the real-life counterpart to Sarah Cody. As a teenager, she ran away from home several times before her father, Josef, imprisoned her at age 18. Similar to the Lifetime film, he lured her to the family basement and trapped her for over two decades. Per CBS News, she gave birth to seven of her father’s children. Even to his wife, Fritzl spun a web of lies explaining his daughter’s disappearance. He maintained that Elisabeth had run away once again when she was a captive. During her imprisonment, Frizl took three of Eisabeth’s children shortly after birth and brought them to live upstairs. He told his wife they were Elisabeth’s, who had allegedly left them on the doorstep.

This story all ended when the eldest daughter Kerstin fell ill, per The Guardian. Fritzl agreed to take her to the hospital, and his lies came undone. He allowed Elisabeth to see her daughter at the hospital, and she alerted authorities. Surprisingly enough, Girl In the Basement has less twists and turns than the real story. The Lifetime movie only tells the main beats of the story and sets it in a different country. This strategy is the best way to respect the privacy of the real family and avoid the more disturbing elements of the story.

If you know someone suffering from sexual violence, contact RAINN or the National Sexual Abuse Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.