‘Catfish’ Review: One of the Most Terrifying Films Ever

Earlier this year, at the Sundance Film Festival, one of the releases that got audiences the most hyped and divided was “Catfish,” a little gem of a film that seems real, claims to be so, yet it’s absolutely terrifying.

The film was picked up for distribution in the US and has Brett Ratner as executive producer. It drops in theaters on September 17 but fans can already attend free screenings of it in select locations – and reviews for it are nothing short of excellent.

Collider, for instance, says it’s one of the best and most terrifying films to come out in many years – and the fact that it’s all real only makes it that much better.

“Catfish” doesn’t tell – it is – the story of three regular guys. Nev is from New York and he’s single, which means he’s looking for love – online, of course, because this is the modern age.

The first half of the movie is nothing out of the ordinary, but it’s when Nev decides to drop by his girlfriend’s house / ranch unannounced that things start to get really weird.

“Catfish” is being marketed as “the best Alfred Hitchcock film that Alfred Hitchcock never made,” with a very aggressive viral campaign pushing it on Facebook and Twitter. As such, it has already set very high standards for itself.

Luckily, it doesn’t disappoint. On the contrary, Collider says.

“Catfish is, without a doubt, the scariest film that I’ve seen in theaters in the past year. […] Catfish is the real deal, and anyone that tells you otherwise clearly hasn’t seen the film in its entirety yet,” reads the review.

“Catfish has the potential to be one of the biggest movies of the year if Rogue Pictures handles the marketing in the right way, rolls it out in the correct (read: Paranormal Activity) manner,” Collider goes on to say.

“Everyone’s got a Facebook account, after all, and the mystery at the heart of Catfish will do for Facebook what Jaws did for swimming in the ocean,” the review sees.

The mystery in question is a twist in the plot at the end of the movie that is better not given away.

“This is the sort of film that you see, and then you immediately want others to see so that you can discuss it with them over a few pitchers (and perhaps a fistfight, if they decide to view the film differently than you did),” Collider says.

What’s even better, “Catfish” is not even a movie: it’s a documentary, though not the kind we see on the Discovery Channel.

Though, in recent months, audiences have been inundated with faux documentary flicks, this is the exception: “Catfish” is a real story, which only makes it that much awesome, the review also says.

See here for the full Collider piece and check out the official trailer for “Catfish” below. Enjoy.