9 Times You Had To Be Tricked Into Seeing Great Movies

8. Catfish

Catfish Nev Megan
Universal Pictures

Before it was a smash-hit MTV show, Catfish was actually a really ominous documentary that took everybody who watched it by surprise. While the central premise of Nev pursuing a romance with a woman who wasn't real was known before release, nobody had any idea how the story was going to wrap up, and whether or not it would descend into sinister territory.

Hell, a lot of people didn't even know if it was a real documentary at all, or simply another found-footage horror movie.

The marketing played this mystery up as well, selling a thriller as Nev slowly uncovered more and more lies, and had no idea who he was dealing with. Was it somebody he knew? Was it somebody playing a prank? Was it somebody looking to hurt him?

Of course - as it has so many times since in the TV show - it turned out to be a lonely woman masquerading as somebody else who didn't mean any harm. With the formula so entrenched in culture thanks to the TV show, it's hard to watch the original Catfish with fresh eyes, but at the time nobody had any real clue just what they were letting themselves in for.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.