Summary: "Documentary" style, a man meets a family via Facebook and finds out they are not who he thought they were.\r
Review: After leaving the advanced screening of Catfish, all I heard around me was, "I thought this was supposed to be a thriller!" "I thought it was another Blair Witch Project!" "I thought it was Hitchcock!" People stood in circles, talking to anyone who would listen about how they were bamboozled by the trailer for Catfish, directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost.\r
While the previews never say the word horror, the quick editing, the cut to a dark barn, the soft piano keys and the dramatic font reading, "The best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never directed,” most audiences will assume this is a thriller – especially, considering major film web sites like IMDB.com label the flick as a “thriller."\r
Don't be fooled, Catfish is no thriller, it's just another story of they-are-not-who-they-said-they-are via Facebook. Audiences who are expecting low budget suspense in the way of Paranormal Activity will be just as fooled as the main character when he found out "Megan" wasn't the blond, sex-kitten that he thought. It's one thing to only show the "good parts" in a trailer, but the previews for Catfish changed the entire genre to trick viewers -- it would be similar to thinking you were watching a film about the birth of Christ and you suddenly find out it's porn!  Catfish is the worst case of false advertising in cinematic history.\r
Even if the film’s promotion wasn’t misleading, Catfish is still lackluster at best. There is nothing fresh about the content, which can be seen on any late night news special. At times, it’s interesting to watch the main character fall for an imaginary person and the acting is strong from the female lead (unless this really is a "documentary"). Nonetheless, the resolution to Catfish is bland, not too far from a romantic comedy, only with shaky camera angles and a worse ending.\r
Catfish opens in select cities today.  View the deceptive trailer below.\r