Although we weren’t able to attend the Sundance Film Festival back in February, one of the many intriguing movies that I kept hearing about from this year’s festival was a film called Catfish. The unassuming title did not do much to catch my attention initially, and since the film screened under the Documentary Spotlight, I am guessing that a lot of other people probably overlooked it as well. However, it started to build buzz and ended up getting picked up by Rogue Pictures, which is strange, because they are generally known for horror films. Now that they’ve released the first official trailer on Apple, there is no mention of the fact that it is a documentary; the genre is listed simply as “Thriller”.

The vague synopsis explains that filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost began to document an online relationship that was developing between Ariel’s brother Nev and a girl that he met on the internet. They eventually decided to take a road trip from New York to rural Michigan to meet her, at which point they discovered something that was both “shocking” and “unsettling”. The trailer is also pretty elusive, but it does a great job of setting up the mystery and leaves you dying to find out what happens next. The fact that this is a real documentary makes it even more intriguing, although the way the trailer is structured almost leads you to believe it is fake. Either way, I am sold. Catfish hits select theatres on September 17th; check out the trailer and see what you think.

Originally posted at Film Junk