10 Movies That Fooled Audiences Into Watching Them

When you check the TV listings or streaming descriptions for The Fireplace, you’re led to believe it's just another “yule log” video: a simple, stationary shot of logs burning, accompanied by some cheesy holiday tunes, perfect for background ambiance during your Christmas party or while wrapping presents. However, what you get is a full-length film: a holiday-themed comedy/horror movie that begins with that fireplace shot and takes you on a wild ride of surprises. Where to stream: HBO Max

A Deadly Adoption was almost the ultimate cinematic prank. The idea was to have top-tier comedic actors Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig star in a cheap, made-for-Lifetime thriller, but play it completely seriously. The movie was meant to be dropped into Lifetime’s typical cable schedule with zero promotion, hoping to catch viewers off guard and leave them thinking, “Wait, what is happening here?”

Unfortunately, the surprise was ruined when someone leaked details about the film, spoiling the entire joke. The source of the leak remains unknown, though many suspect Lifetime itself. After all, The Hollywood Reporter received a full press release on April 1, suggesting that the network cared more about the ratings from a new Ferrell/Wiig movie than preserving the prank’s integrity. The downside? Ferrell was pretty upset—but he wasn’t planning to make another Lifetime film anyway.

Where to stream: Officially unavailable, but you can find a poor-quality version on YouTube (though it’s not worth the trouble).

Some movie trailers are designed to trick you into thinking you’re about to watch something much better than the film itself, but The Lady in the Water took that to a new level. The trailer had audiences believing they were in for a horror movie, suggesting that director M. Night Shyamalan was returning to his roots with a film akin to The Sixth Sense. But The Lady in the Water is no horror film—it’s a tedious, nearly unwatchable “urban fairytale” that will make you wish the characters would hurry up and get killed off.

Where to stream: Kanopy, digital rental

Much has been discussed about the revolutionary viral marketing that turned The Blair Witch Project into one of the most financially successful independent films ever, but its impact was largely due to the film's found-footage approach. This technique was so immersive and new to audiences in the late 1990s that it made the movie feel real, or at least plausible. Today, after countless imitators, it's hard to imagine how a few shaky camcorder shots and some simple websites could have so convincingly tricked audiences into believing they were witnessing something authentic.

Where to stream: Tubi, Redbox, Pluto TV, Plex

In 2014, Adult Swim introduced the surreal comedy short Too Many Cooks as part of a late-night infomercial block at 4 a.m., without any prior announcement. They allowed viewers, who just happened to be watching infomercials at that hour, to experience it. Imagine being that person—trying to explain to others, "It was like a sitcom intro, but it kept going...then people started dying, and it went to space...yeah, I was probably high, but that’s not important!"

Where to stream: DirecTV, YouTube

Since the 1970s, rumors of “snuff films” have circulated, though no confirmed cases exist where actors are murdered for real on screen. However, many films have tried to convince viewers that they were witnessing real death on camera. One of the most notorious is 1980's Cannibal Holocaust, a groundbreaking found-footage film that staged gruesome murders so convincingly that director Ruggero Deodato was arrested on charges of murder in Italy. Fortunately, the actors involved were alive and well, and they later appeared in court to clear Deodato’s name.

Where to stream: Shudder, Night Flight

Featuring the kid from The Wonder Years, the guy from Heathers, and future indie music icon Jenny Lewis, The Wizard tricked both critics and parents by presenting itself as a movie, when in reality, it was essentially a 90-minute commercial for Nintendo. Though it was criticized upon release for its blatant product placement, the kids it targeted couldn’t have cared less. They got exactly what they wanted: a two-hour ad for Nintendo, and the fact that it was wrapped in a somewhat fun road-trip film just sweetened the deal. Where else could you see Super Mario 3 gameplay footage before its American release and learn all the secrets like how to get the warp whistle? Where else could you hear lines like “I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad”? Nowhere but The Wizard, baby.

Where to stream: Digital rental

Before the 1950s, on-screen nudity wasn’t exactly legal, so exploitation filmmakers had to get a little creative. Enter the nudist “documentary.” In order to skirt obscenity laws, dubious producers slapped an “educational” voice-over on shaky footage of post-war nudists who looked more like potatoes than anything else. It’s hard to imagine they fooled their audiences or the authorities, but they certainly managed to “fool” the law by adding just enough “social commentary” to keep their operations legal.

Picture yourself sitting through two hours of utterly boring “documentary” footage just to catch fleeting glimpses of middle-aged nudists, with strategically placed plants and volleyballs concealing their private parts. The lengths our grandparents went to just to see naked bodies in films is a testament to the persistence and creativity of the Greatest Generation.

Where to stream: Just Google “naked people”; something will come up.

While nudism documentaries are one thing, the notorious 1940s exploitation film Mom and Dad takes things to a whole new level. It managed to deceive both authorities and audiences in very different ways. Mom and Dad marketed itself as a moral lesson to keep the police away, yet promised viewers a shocking amount of illicit on-screen thrills.

In order to keep the film’s production on the right side of the law, producer Kroger Babs cleverly framed Mom and Dad as an educational film. He even went so far as to hire an actor to portray “eminent hygiene commentator” Elliott Forbes, who would give a lecture before every screening. The film itself, however, was a dull, sermonizing docudrama about the dangers of teenage pregnancy. Moviegoers who endured all the tedious moralizing must have been eagerly anticipating the “good parts,” but the payoff was far from what they expected. Instead of the usual titillating nudity, viewers were treated to medical footage of STDs, a cesarean section, and a childbirth. It was nudity, yes, but not the kind anyone probably had in mind.

Where to stream: YouTube

I have a deep affection for quirky, offbeat films. I'll sit through hours of low-budget cinematic disasters if there's something at least remotely captivating about them. However, my tolerance doesn't extend to “mockbusters”—the films that are designed solely to mislead people into thinking they're watching a more polished, higher-budget film. I don't find these movies entertaining. They aren’t “so bad they’re good”; they're just bad. I can’t imagine that the filmmakers even care if anyone watches them, as long as they make their money. This is why I despise What’s Up: Balloon to the Rescue and all its mockbuster siblings. I can easily picture an exhausted single mother at the Redbox machine in a 7-11, unwittingly renting this garbage instead of Pixar’s Up and coming home to a furious group of six-year-olds. I can almost hear her defeated sigh as she pops it into the DVD player, realizing she’s been duped. Again.

Where to stream: YouTube