Catfish (2010)

The 'documentary' (is it, or is it not?) about a photographer, Nev, from New York who starts an online relationship through Facebook with a girl, Abby, and her family in Michigan. The friendship builds and Nev becomes involved with Abby's cousin Megan. Abby sends gifts to Nev and he becomes suspicious when some recordings of 'her voice' turn out to have been pulled straight from someone else on youtube. Strange? But what does happen at the end?

Nev and the guys head over to Michigan for a surprise trip to see Megan and to find out if she and the rest of the family are who they really says they are.

They first visit the stables that Megan is said to be keeping horses and rides them on a regular basis.When they get there, it is empty and deserted with no sign of any horses. The art exhibition where Abby is said to be keeping her paintings is also empty. Spooked, Nev and the guys decide to head straight to Abby's parents house.

When they get to the family house they meet Abby's Mum and Dad and two disabled sons that were not mentioned before. They ask for Megan but it slowly turns out that Megan does not exist. Abby, the daughter who was believed to be a painting prodigy, turns out not to be and when asked if she likes painting, she is not too fussed.

Nev sits down with Abby's Mum Angela and slowly the story starts to unfold. Angela had created the whole facebook family that Nev had got to know and it was all fake. All of Megan's friends were made up and Angela had painted all of Abby's 'paintings'. It appears that Angela used facebook as a source of escape of her current life and stated her regret at letting it get so far.