Is The Staircase A True Story And What’s So Scary About The New Horror Movie?

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains information about developments beyond the first episode of The Staircase and the real-life events on which it is based.

Colin Firth will star in a brand new suspense thriller that follows the story of a murder trial.

The series tells the story of a family torn apart by a mysterious death bought for you by HBO and Sky Atlantic.

A mini-series, made by Antonio Campos Maggie Cohn – Campos is known for directing Devil All The Time, Afterschool and The Sinner.

Firth will star alongside Toni Collette, Rosemarie DeWitt and Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner.

The new show has received a lot of positive feedback from critics, with positive reviews from various publications on both sides of the Atlantic.

What is The Staircase about?

The Staircase follows the plight of Michael Peterson, a writer accused and convicted of murdering his wife (played by Collette).

His wife, Kathleen Peterson, was found dead under the stairs of their home.

The show is violent and brutal. In the second episode, Kathleen, a North Carolina business executive, comes home from relaxing poolside with Michael and going upstairs to bed.

Her tortoise caught her and she hit the wall back. Hitting her head on it, she lost her balance.

She managed to get up and call for help before she was injured and died.

The scene was brutal, scary not only because people ran up the stairs so quickly – especially after drinking – but also because we as the audience didn’t know if it really happened.

The program from here then follows the developments of the legal case that happened to Michael and the events surrounding it.

Is The Staircase based on a true story?

Yes, The Staircase is based on a true story. Michael Peterson’s trial took place in the early 2000s and Peterson was convicted in 2003 for the murder of his second wife two years earlier in 2001.

But eight years later, Judge Peterson, a novelist, was brought to a new trial after deciding that a witness important to Peterson’s prosecution had given misleading testimony.

Peterson filed an unusual feature of US law known as Albert Plea, which looked like a guilty plea but found the defendant continued to deny that they were guilty.

However, they admitted that the evidence presented to the judge actually made them appear guilty beyond all reasonable doubt.

The only question left about the truth then, is which side of the story do you believe?

Staircase begins on Sky Atlantic on May 5, 2022.