This creepy trailer for The Imposter will make you wish it wasn’t a documentary

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

When it comes to documentaries, I feel that if it does not stick with you the way a fictional movie would then it did not do it’s job successfully. There are countless documentaries that haunt me to this day: MARJOE, PARADISE LOST, GRAY MATTER, THEY KILLED SISTER DOROTHY, TARNATION, and DEAR ZACHARY, just to name a few. THE IMPOSTER looks bound to join that list.

Synopsis: A gripping thriller straight out of real life, THE IMPOSTER is an original film experience that walks the razor’s edge between true-crime documentary and stylish noir mystery. The twisting, turning tale begins with an unsettling disappearance–that of Nicholas Barclay, a 13 year-old Texas boy who vanishes without a trace. Three and a half years later, staggering news arrives: the boy has been found, thousands of miles from home in Spain, saying he survived a mind-boggling ordeal of kidnap and torture by shadowy captors. His family is ecstatic to have him back no matter how strange the circumstances–but things become far stranger once he returns to Texas. Though the family accepts him, suspicion surrounds the person who claims to be Nicholas. How could the Barclay’s blonde, blue-eyed son have returned with darker skin and eyes? How could his personality and even accent have changed so profoundly? Why does the family not seem to notice the glaring differences? And if this person who has arrived in Texas isn’t the Barclay’s missing child… who on earth is he?

I read about this story in Time magazine a few years ago and felt that weird pang in my stomach that you get when something truly disturbs you. When I saw that a film was being made, I hoped that it would be a documentary. What director Bart Layton has created seems to be a balanced mix of reenactment and interview footage. Plus, he snagged the actual imposter, Frédéric Bourdin, himself. This looks to be one hell of a movie.

Check out an exclusive clip from the film below.

THE IMPOSTER is currently playing in theaters.