''Faking a Murderer'' is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

mockumentary film, directed by

Stuart Stone Stuart Stone (born Stuart Eisenstein) is a Canadian film, television, and voice-over actor as well as a producer of television, film and music. He is best known for his roles as Ronald Fisher in the 2001 cult film, ''Donnie Darko'' and Ralphie Ten ...

and released in 2020.Bobby LePire
"Faking a Murderer"
''

Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. It first ...

'', August 2, 2021. An affectionate parody of the

true crime True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events. The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 per ...

genre, the film stars Stone and his filmmaking partner and brother-in-law Adam Rodness as themselves, trying to make a true crime documentary about their efforts to track down David Stoner, a man they have found seemingly confessing to murders in a series of bloody internet videos. At the outset of the project, Stone and Rodness made a number of short videos with actor

Tony Nappo Antonio Nappo is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his roles in '' Four Brothers'', '' Saw II'', ''Land of the Dead'', '' Bad Blood'', and '' Born to be Blue''. He also is the voice of Jimmy Falcone (McDougal) in ''Fugget About It''. Biograp ...

playing David Stoner in grisly, bloody scenarios that were deliberately ambiguous about whether they represented murders or not, and posted them to a private

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel. From there, they proceeded to pitch the project as if the videos were real, in order to get genuine unscripted reactions out of their friends and family, the police, and executives for

Breakthrough Entertainment Breakthrough Entertainment is a Canadian production company founded in 1986 by Peter Williamson and Ira Levy. It produces famous Canadian TV shows such as ''Jimmy Two-Shoes'' and ''Atomic Betty''. History On July 10, 2018, 9 Story Media Group a ...

and

Hollywood Suite Hollywood Suite is a group of four Canadian specialty channels, each either majority-owned or wholly owned by Hollywood Suite Inc., a privately held broadcasting company based in Toronto, Ontario. The four channels are primarily devoted to classi ...

; only once they're out on Stoner's trail do fictionalized scenes, scripted and performed by actors, begin to enter the narrative. The film premiered on October 14, 2020, on Hollywood Suite, as part of the channel's Shocktober lineup of

Hallowe'en Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...

horror programming. It screened at various international horror film festivals, and was released to international video on demand platforms, in 2021.

Critical response

Bobby LePire of ''

'' wrote that the film's mix of horror and comedy tones don't always mesh together neatly, but concluded that the film "ultimately proves worthy of a recommendation. Rodness and Stone are smart enough to understand that a story such as this can only have one inevitable conclusion. As a result, they don’t try to pull the rug out from under viewers, and the final few minutes generate what is probably the largest belly laugh of the entire production." The film's production and release earned Stone and Rodness a reputation as pranksters; in November 2021, when a truck containing approximately $250,000 worth of production equipment was stolen from the set of their 2022 narrative comedy film ''

Vandits ''Vandits'' is a Canadians, Canadian crime comedy film, directed by Stuart Stone and released in 2022.Chris Knight"Film review: Vandits is Groundhog Day on Christmas Eve" ''National Post'', November 4, 2022. The film stars Tony Nappo as Sheldon, th ...

'', they were widely believed at first to have staged a publicity stunt.Etan Vlessing
"How Heist Comedy ‘Vandits’ Survived a $250K Film Gear Theft"
''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'', October 19, 2022.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 10612478 2020 films 2020 comedy films Canadian crime comedy films Canadian mockumentary films English-language Canadian films 2020s Canadian films Canadian comedy horror films