Review of Catfish (2010) by Luke B — 22 Jan 2012

Real or not, this is an incredible film watching experience. I decided to check this out after being relatively impressed with Paranormal Activity 3. The film starts as a documentary about the friendship between a photographer, Nev, in his 20s becoming friends with an 8 year old painter, Abby, that does recreations of his pictures.

As their friendship starts to blossom, he gets to know Abby's whole family over Facebook. Most importantly, Megan, her older sister. A relationship of messages, phone calls etc. blossoms for 8 months.

However, one night Nev discovers something that will change their entire relationship. I'll leave the synopsis there, as I knew nothing about this film so every second had me gripped and was shocking.

The film seems innocent at first, but soon ominous tones start to set in. It really does feel like some kind of horror movie, and the more that is revealed the more I was gobsmacked. As the fear levels rise, it then turns into something completely different.

Schulman and Joost certainly have an ability to create tension, and get some emotional resonance too. Out of a documentary, that's pretty impressive. I could not have predicted where this was going at any time.