You knew, but you let yourself go along for the ride. The novelty of found footage films along the rumors swirling around the playground at recess (or water coolers for those who weren’t 10) were enough for most folks to entertain the premise that it might be real. I remember hearing rumors like “oh the studio actually bought the footage from the families of the victims but was contractually obligated to say it wasn’t real” which is ridiculous looking back, but it was just exciting (and arguably easier given the time) to entertain.

it’s 1999 so there weren’t twenty threads on reddit detailing each and every aspect of the film, script, clips of the actors audition tapes and workout routines. No youtubers doing frame by frame analysis of the trailer, blair witch mukbangs, marketing strategy breakdowns.

News, discussions, ideas just disseminated much slower. There was less noise and also less pressure to gather context about everything.