The Big Picture

• Lakeview Terrace is based on a real-life story of a former LAPD officer who harassed his interracial neighbors, but the film takes artistic liberties.
• The real events involved restraining orders and court appearances, but did not culminate in a shoot-out or involve any deaths.
• The film gives a clear backstory to the antagonist's motivations, attributing it to his wife's involvement with a white man, whereas the real events are less clearly defined.

One of the simple gems of the late 2000s came in the form of Lakeview Terrace, a small-scale crime thriller doubling as yet another irresistible Samuel L. Jackson vehicle. Also starring Kerry Washington and Patrick Wilson, the film centers on the pair, a married couple moving into a new home in a Southern California neighborhood, and their increasingly horrific troubles as they're subjected to the harassment and intimidation of their neighbor: an African-American LAPD officer named Abel Turner (Jackson). Officer Turner holds a firm grievance about the fact that his new neighbors are an interracial couple, a grievance he's not exactly keen on hiding. It's a relatively straightforward conflict that snowballs swiftly throughout the film, and it's not entirely a work of fiction, either.

The couple, Lisa and Chris Mattson (played by Washington and Wilson, respectively) are based on Mellaine and John Hamilton, and the real-life events they endured loosely inspired the plot of Lakeview Terrace. Samuel L. Jackson's character, Officer Turner, stems from a real-life former LAPD officer, Irsie Henry. Henry found himself making headlines and steeped in a slew of legal trouble after engaging in acts directed toward his neighbors, reportedly spurred by racial motives similar to Lakeview Terrace's central antagonist. Even without the artistic liberties taken, the true story that inspired Lakeview Terrace was a dramatic saga in and of itself.

Samuel L. Jackson Plays an Obsessive Cop in 'Lakeview Terrace'

When pouring over accounts of the true events that inspired Lakeview Terrace, you'll be immediately struck by the local reports finding great ease comparing those events to that of the film. "What if you had a neighbor who was so obnoxious that you finally had to call the cops? Then think of what would happen if that neighbor was a cop and all of his colleagues wanted nothing to do with you or your complaints?" That's how Carl Kozlowski began his 2008 piece in the Pasadena Weekly, before then offering a brief synopsis of Lakeview Terrace just before the film's release. "If this storyline has a familiar ring, it should," he continued, "at least to readers of this newspaper, which during the past seven years has been following a remarkably similar story that's been an ongoing concern in a middle-class neighborhood in Altadena."

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Coleman Swart characterized Irsie Henry as "obsessive" and "extremely disturbing." Henry had been let go from his job with the LAPD and was eventually convicted of contempt of court for violating a restraining order brought on by the Hamiltons. One of Henry's arrests, as that report details, arose from Henry presenting the court with a videotape that depicted him allegedly chasing John Hamilton with pepper spray. After a 2007 court hearing, Henry was reportedly seen crying, overwhelmed with emotion when the judge found him in violation of his restraining order and ordered him to pay a hefty sum of fees. "Mr. Henry, these charges are very serious," Judge Swart proclaimed. "I am giving you your last break." Henry's family members were present and expressed outrage over the court's ruling.

The Hamiltons, however, seemed satisfied. "I think justice was done," Mellaine Hamilton admitted. "He was an officer of the law, so he should pay attention to the law and give this neighborhood some peace." These tepid similarities and visual callbacks, like the tearing down of barricades between their yards and the flicking of cigarette butts, are where the direct comparisons between the real events and Lakeview Terrace cease, save for the alleged motivations being based on the neighbors' status as an interracial couple. The differences are worth exploring, especially with the added context of a decade and a half since the film's release.

How Is 'Lakeview Terrace' Different From the Real Events?

Lakeview Terrace, directed by Neil LaBute and written by David Loughery and Howard Korder, took its fair share of artistic liberties, which is reasonably expected for any film not claiming to be a historical recreation or biopic. Still, the drama of it all appears to come from a genuine place. Based on the available reporting, the tension and trauma that was born from Irsie Henry's brief tirades against his Altadena neighborhood conjured circumstances not too far off from those reflected in the film. However, with any case that's traveled in and out of court, marred by word of mouth and an inability to fully substantiate either side's accounts, the truth is less plainly laid before us. (And less scripted, of course.)

Moreover, the real events, of course, did not culminate in a shoot-out with the metaphor of a raging wildfire as the backdrop. No death was involved, and all the aforementioned accounts indicate the matter was mediated through several court appearances and the use of restraining orders. In the film, the Mattsons do not yet have children, in contrast to the Hamiltons. An alleged incident in which Henry was accused of making lewd sexual gestures toward the Hamiltons' pre-teen daughter led to the escalation of the restraining order of which Henry would eventually be found in violation.

Finally, there's the matter-of-fact motivations given to Jackson's character, ascribing a backstory to Officer Turner that leaves little room for speculation. That's the most glaring difference between Lakeview Terrace and its real-world inspiration. In the film, Officer Turner is a newly single father of two children, after the sudden and tragic passing of his wife. It goes deeper, though. His wife was involved in a brutal motor vehicle accident and, as it turns out, was accompanied in the car by her boss, a white man. Officer Turner makes it clear to his neighbor that he suspects an extramarital affair of some sort must have led to these circumstances, the blame for which he seems to place on his wife's boss. The film not-so-subtly implies that this caused (or at the very least deepened) Officer Turner's distrust of white men and led to his violent disapproval of his neighbor's relations. Sociologically, a potentially messy way of giving simple roots to a complex reality. Artistic liberties, you know?

Lakeview Terrace is available to watch on Netflix in the U.S.

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