10 "True Story" Horror Movies That Tricked You Into Believing Them
4. The Fourth Kind
Yet another movie that played into the conventions of mockumentary found footage, The Fourth Kind is an investigation into missing persons cases in Alaska, portrayed through factual-style presentation and reenactments of supposedly real happenings. And like many of the other movies on this list, the studio decided that slapping the true story tag on it wasn't quite enough to truly immerse audiences into its spooky endeavours, so took matters into their own grubby hands.
Universal Pictures decided to fabricate promotional material from real newspapers, using Alaskan named titles on their fake stories about missing people. Amongst others, The Nome Nugget was exploited for its regional journalism which the state took great offence to, filing a case against the studio in protest.
Most upsettingly, the film plays into the reality of there being FBI-investigated missing persons cases in the area, but papier-mâché's over the issue by sticking their science-fiction explanation over the top.
They were forced to pull the stories and pay a fine to the Alaska Press Club in the end, but not before the true story effect had spread like wildfire through audiences the world over.