Hollywood magic is far more magical than most audiences may realize. Usually, Hollywood magic refers to the skill it takes to assemble incredible feats of make-up and practical effects, but there's more to it than that. Special effects, convincing acting, and a convincing story all fall under that same umbrella - an umbrella that, under the right circumstances, can convince viewers into thinking that what they are watching is real.
These days, it's harder to convince far more self-aware, savvy viewers that a fake movie is actually depicting real events or is based on real events when Google is at everyone's fingertips now, but over the years, there have been some pretty convincing fake movies that fooled everyone.
10 The Blair Witch Project Went Viral Before Viral Was A Thing
This is the movie that probably comes to most minds when thinking about fake movies that people thought were real. After all, The Blair Witch Project is often singlehandedly attributed to being the first to popularize the found footage genre and pave the way for the genre boom of the 2000s.
Since everyone in the cast was an unknown actor, it helped audiences believe in the marketing campaign that listed the actors as either missing or dead. Off of word of mouth alone surrounding all of the curiosity from audiences, USA Today cites this as the first instance where a movie became viral before modern technologies existed from social media to make such a thing happen.
9 Paranormal Activity Kickstarted Hollywood's Found Footage Obsession
If The Blair Witch Project was the movie that helped popularize the found footage movie genre, then certainly, Paranormal Activity was the movie that renewed interest in it. Following the release of Paranormal Activity, a slew of imitators, rip-offs, and found footage movies influenced by it were released throughout the course of the next decade.
It's easy to see why fans were so captivated. Like with Blair Witch, Paranormal featured unknown actors who gave performances genuine enough for people to think they were watching something real. Word of mouth and the new facet of social media convinced one million people to personally request a movie that originally had a limited run be shown at their theater.
8 Faces Of Death Doesn't Have Any Real Deaths
Faces of Death is an odd commodity. It was sold and released on the back of claiming that the movie was practically a snuff film featuring archival footage of real deaths, but most of the movie is done by means of Hollywood magic.
The make-up and practical effects jobs were convincing enough to not only result in a $35 million box office return off of a $450,000 budget, but also got this movie get banned in several countries. There's at least one "real" scene where a body washes up on shore because the filmmakers just happened to be filming in the area when it happened, but other than that, there are no real deaths here.
7 Nanook Of The North Was A Docudrama Before Docudramas Were A Thing
As this movie proves, not every fake "real" movie has to be a horror movie. This exception to the rule is 1922's Nanook of the North, a docudrama made at a time where the concept of such a thing felt entirely fresh and before the word docudrama even existed in the English language. Therefore, this movie was viewed, treated, and thought of as a documentary.
The movie focuses on a man and his family living and surviving in the Canadian Arctic, but director Robert J. Flaherty staged several different scenes throughout the movie.
6 Cannibal Holocaust Duped Their Audience
While different movies mentioned so far have been credited with popularizing the found footage genre, Cannibal Holocaust is often cited as the very first found footage movie. While that's not quite accurate, it became a hit with mainstream audiences because it passed itself off as a documentary depicting a missing film crew.
This was fully the filmmaker's intention, who went as far as to have each actor sign contracts confirming they wouldn't appear in any other movies or commercials until a year after the movie's release in order to make the movie feel all the more authentic to audiences at that time.
5 I'm Still Here Makes The Joker A Rapper
In perhaps the strangest story on this list, and certainly the strangest mockumentary that can be found in anyone's movie library, I'm Still Here is Casey Affleck's feature directorial debut where he films his buddy Joaquin Phoenix pursuing a new career as a rapper.
Obviously, that career never came to fruition as the Joker actor never actually wanted to be a rapper. It was all an act, but the fact that he stayed in character during the filming process and in promotion of the movie for interviews gave people the impression that he was really trying to become a rapper. Phoenix kept up the act right until the movie hit theaters.
4 The King Of Kong Exposes A Cheater
This is a different kind of fake "real" movie. It's not so much fake because anything was fabricated on behalf of the filmmakers, but after the release of the movie, it was discovered that there were some fabrications made on behalf of one of the documentary's subjects.
Billy Mitchell, considered to be the world's best gamer, was exposed in 2018 for using emulation software (basically cheat codes) to achieve his high score in Donkey Kong. As a result, all of his Guinness World records and high scores made in this movie were stripped at the cost of the validity of the movie.
3 Guinea Pig 2 Fooled The FBI And Charlie Sheen
Based on the manga of the same name by Hideshi Hino (who also wrote and directed), the Guinea Pig series, in general, is extremely graphic. The second one focuses on a man dressed as a samurai who kidnaps a woman in hopes of cutting off her body parts and adding her to his collection.
This movie suffered a slew of worldwide controversies that ranged from censorship to copycat killers that pulled it from the video market, but the strangest came from none other than Charlie Sheen. After receiving a copy from movie critic Chris Gore, Sheen was so disturbed that he thought that aspects of the movie were real, prompting him to report it to the authorities, which then prompted the FBI to launch an investigation. The investigation was quickly dropped after the FBI saw the movie's making-of documentary.
2 The Strangers Was Not Really Based On A True Story
No one walked into The Strangers thinking they were watching real footage of a horrible event, but they did think they were walking into an actual dramatization of a true event since the movie opens with "based on a true story." In fact, the marketing campaign continually highlighted that this movie was scary solely because it actually happened.
In actuality, it did not. Besides the screenwriter loosely basing this story on the Charles Manson murders, this story was an entirely original concept not depicting any real event.
1 Snuff Had A Police Investigation
Despite what the title may suggest, Snuff isn't a snuff film nor is it even a found footage movie. It's a splatter house narrative about a movie producer and his pregnant wife terrorized by a biker gang in South America.
The movie is largely based on the infamous Charles Manson murders that claimed Sharon Tate's life, but the movie's graphic depiction of violence, murder, and disembowelment was enough to draw concern from audiences. Not only was the movie protested by crowds, but it earned an actual police investigation regarding what was real and what wasn't in the movie.