Is That Night Based on a True Story?

Created by Jason George, Netflix’s ‘That Night,’ originally titled ‘Esa Noche,’ follows three sisters whose lives are irrevocably altered after a single tragic incident. Desperate for a change in life after the birth of her child, Elena, the youngest of the three Arbizu siblings, plans a vacation in the Dominican Republic, where her sister, Cris, works as an animal rescuer.

However, the siblings’ vacation quickly takes a dark turn when Elena accidentally kills a man in the dead of the night, and has to ring up both Cris and their eldest sister Paula to deal with the mess without alerting the police. This ends up triggering a domino effect, where each episode of this psychological thriller series only pushes the trio deeper into a world of trouble. The only thing that remains unchanged is the sisters’ unshakeable bond, which is put to the ultimate test.

That Night is Based on the Eponymous Novel by Gillian McAllister

‘That Night’ is a fictional story penned by novelist Gillian McAllister for her book of the same name. In adapting this twisty family thriller to the screen, writers Marian Fernández Pascal, Jason George, and Lara Sendim likely added a few creative touches of their own, but at its heart, the story remains invented in nature. McAllister, during a conversation with Netflix, framed the book as a psychological inquiry in three levels. She explained, “(‘That Night’) asks the question: how far would you go for your sibling? Would you lie for them? Would you commit a crime for them? And – finally – would you bury a body with them and, if you did, what would the fallout be?” This is not McAllister’s first time conceiving mind-bending narratives, and across various interviews, she has expressed a recurring love for exploring familial complexities.

With ‘That Night,’ McAllister’s focus turns towards redefining what it means to be siblings. For her, writing is a dynamic process, with each draft of the story often flipping the story upside down. It is possible that something similar happened during the creation of this novel, hence explaining its unpredictable nature. In an interview with Writer’s Digest, McAllister talked more about her creative process, specifically how she deals with twists. Understanding that a good twist is reliant on the understanding of what a reader would expect, she often prepares a list of assumptions someone would make about her work and then proceeds to subvert them.

This technique is in full display throughout ‘That Night,’ specifically as it is oriented around the three sisters’ guilt or innocence. While the finer details of the story may have originated from the creators’ minds, both in the novel and television format, their understanding of storytelling styles and human psychology is what gives the work many extra dimensions.

The Story of That Night Loosely Resembles the Case of Regina and Margaret DeFrancisco

While the book by McAllister is set in England and Italy, the Netflix series shifts the setting to Spain and the Dominican Republic, owing to the fact that the adaptation is in Spanish. In the same vein, the names of the three sisters, Joe, Cathy, and Frannie, are also changed to Paula, Cris, and Elena, respectively. These superficial changes aside, the creative team behind the show preserves the spirit of the narrative, all the while expanding on the sibling drama. Much of the tension is driven by the three sisters’ differing responses to a childhood traumatic event, and real-life research in the field complements how the show tackles grief.

A study conducted into what has been referred to as “adverse childhood experiences” or ACEs shows that older siblings often shield younger siblings from traumatic events, leading to different trauma responses down the line. Such elements are specifically brought to life in how the show navigates Paula’s relationship with her sisters. Additionally, there is a chance that the story draws a partial influence from real-life incidents of a similar nature. In June 2000, sisters Regina and Margaret DeFrancisco killed Regina’s boyfriend, Oscar Velazquez, and later tried to set his body and his car on fire. The following investigation immediately pointed towards the sisters as the prime suspects, but before the police could apprehend them, the duo managed to flee.

Reportedly, Regina and Margaret were on the run for two years, and by the time they were caught in 2002, the incident had gained national notoriety. After being charged with murder, the two sisters claimed self-defence, and after a lengthy trial, Regina was found guilty on September 9, 2004, and sentenced to 35 years in prison. While Margaret wasn’t convicted in that trial due to one of the jury members holding out for acquittal, a re-trial a few months later led to her conviction on December 14, 2004, with a sentencing of 46 years. Although there are some clear overlaps between the case of the DeFrancisco sisters and the story of ‘That Night,’ there are still significant differences, all of which reiterate the latter’s invented identity.

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