Top 10 Horror Movies People Believed Were REAL
#10: “Ghostwatch” (1992)
Mockumentary or documentary? Viewers of this BBC show on Halloween night in 1992 had a lot of trouble telling the difference. Set in a fictional London home, this pre-recorded television event portrayed itself as a live broadcast with reporters and ghost hunters searching for evidence of a poltergeist named Mr. Pipes. He was supposedly terrorizing the Early family, making scary sounds in the house’s plumbing and periodically possessing one of the family’s children. The problem was that the presenters and actors rather convincingly portrayed the supernatural events of the broadcast as real life, terrifying and confusing audiences in the process. The BBC received around 30,000 complaints, and the frightening mockumentary never aired in the UK again.
#9: "The Poughkeepsie Tapes" (2007)
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What would you do if you discovered 800 videotapes that turned out to be a serial killer’s personal snuff films? Well, if you're anything like the makers of “The Poughkeepsie Tapes,” you’d piece them together into a terrifying found footage documentary-style slasher flick. The trouble is, even though the film claims the videos are real, they definitely aren’t, and the movie is merely masquerading as true crime. But this reportedly didn’t stop some audience members from wondering if they were watching actual violence. There was even a rumor that the movie’s lack of official distribution at the time was due to a lawsuit from the victims’ families. Turns out, it was all made up, but the film is pretty disturbing nonetheless.
#8: "As Above, So Below" (2014)
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We’re stretching the criteria for this one. While audiences might not have believed that the found footage film “As Above, So Below” was real, many speculate that it could be based on a true story. The movie follows a scholar and her friends as they search for the legendary philosopher’s stone in the Catacombs of Paris. But, when you’re poking around a dark, underground crypt lined with skeletons, something’s bound to go wrong … Fans have suggested that the story could be inspired by actual found footage. In the year 2000, documentarian Francis Freedland presented footage of a man getting lost in the catacombs and dropping his camera, before disappearing. Is it fact, or just more fiction? Debate continues to this day.
#7: "Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood" (1985)
Some movies are so gruesome and detailed that it’s hard to believe what you’re watching isn’t real. This Japanese horror film follows a killer who abducts and dismembers his hapless female victim. The issue is that the special effects used in the film were so realistic they had some viewers calling the authorities. It’s even rumored that actor Charlie Sheen reported the film to the FBI because he was convinced he’d just watched a genuine snuff film. But that story may be more urban legend than actual fact. Either way, “Guinea Pig 2” might leave you questioning what you see, but just keep reminding yourself that it’s only a movie.
#6: "The Fourth Kind" (2009)
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Given the earnest manner in which this sci-fi horror insists that it’s a documentary, you gotta forgive people for wondering. In the opening, lead actress Milla Jovovich claims that the film dramatizes events in the life of psychologist Abigail Tyler as she investigated alien abductions in Nome, Alaska. These re-enactments are intercut with “archived footage” - which is of course fake. The movie’s marketing exploited real missing persons cases in Alaska, disgruntling Alaskans and leading to legal action against Universal. In the movie’s wake, people wondered online whether the film was real, or at least based on a true story. Well, rest assured, it was entirely fictional.
#5: "[•REC]" (2007)
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This modern classic of the “shaky cam” genre poses the question: What would you do if you were quarantined in an apartment building while a disease turned residents into raging zombies? If you answered, “Film the whole thing while running for my life,” then you might fit right in with the cast of this Spanish horror flick. So, who thought it was real? Well, again, we’re stretching a bit, but, in a sense … the cast! Wanting authentic performances, the directors leaned into improvisation and filmed long sequences to disorient, tire out, and scare their actors. This created what’s been described as a “haunted house experience”. While the actors of course knew that it wasn’t the zombie apocalypse, some of their reactions are very genuine!
#4: “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974)
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Leatherface has become iconic, but did you know that the original 1974 film was marketed as a true story? The opening narration tells audiences that the events to come really happened, misleading them into believing that the family of cannibals actually existed, and carried out their gruesome crimes. The truth is that Leatherface was loosely based on two real serial killers - Ed Gein and Elmer Wayne Henley. But what happened in that house of horrors in Texas was all fictional, despite what the filmmakers want us to believe. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop Leatherface’s chainsaw dance from being the stuff of nightmares.
#3: “Cannibal Holocaust” (1980)
This Italian found footage film was so convincing that director Ruggero Deodato was charged with murder! The charges were dropped once the supposedly dead cast members were interviewed on TV and the director explained how he used special effects to achieve the film’s realism. But “Cannibal Holocaust” remained extremely controversial. Its depictions of mutilation, sexual assault, and animal cruelty led to the film being banned in several countries. It nonetheless gained a cult following, and inspired directors like Eli Roth to continue its graphically violent legacy.
#2: “Snuff” (1976)
This splatter film depicts the murder of an actress and her companions by a biker gang somewhere in South America. The story was inspired by the Manson Family murders of 1969. However, producer Allan Shackleton decided to tack on a new ending that supposedly shows the crew of “Snuff” killing a woman for real. Shackleton marketed it as a genuine snuff film - a movie that shows an actual homicide. This prompted public outrage and even an investigation by New York District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau. Fortunately, the movie was soon exposed as a hoax; the ‘murdered’ actress was in fact alive and well. Despite this, rumors have persisted ever since.
#1: "The Blair Witch Project" (1999)
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Some consider it the ultimate found footage film, and the viral tactics used to promote it tried to convince viewers that the film was real. This included a website with fake missing persons posters, police reports, and news footage, making “The Blair Witch Project” what some consider the first movie ever to primarily use online marketing. And it worked. As audiences watched three students get lost in the woods looking for the Blair Witch, many people left the theater thinking they’d watched authentic footage and that the film’s stars were either missing or presumed dead. Makes you wonder: could a film get away with these kinds of tactics today? With internet sleuthing at an all-time high, likely not.
