Contrary to popular belief The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is entirely fictional and not based on real events. False marketing and the film's opening narration suggested the events that occurred in the film really did happen on 18th August 1973, however, filming took place before the date on which the events supposedly happened and although the film was initially inspired by real-life serial killer Ed Gein (who was also the inspiration for Psycho) there never was a massacre in Texas, nor was a chainsaw ever involved. Despite this, Gunnar Hansen (who played Leatherface) has said that people tell him they remember when it happened and prison guards have told him they knew Leatherface when he was a prisoner at the state prison in Huntsville, Texas!
After Fargo was released in 1996 journalists went in search of the real story behind the film, due to the fact that it opened with a title card proclaiming "This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987". However, the film was completely fictional and Joel and Ethan Coen admitted the title card was a hoax, saying that although many of the events that took place in the film were based on true cases, they were put together to create one fictional story. Later, in 2001, a rumour circulated that a 28-year-old Japanese woman died while searching for the buried money seen in the film, believing it to be real. However, her death was subsequently ruled a suicide with no connection to Fargo.
When producers were promoting The Blair Witch Project they claimed the footage in the film was real and the three student filmmakers really had disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, and many people believed them (some still do). Missing posters were used to promote the film at the Cannes Film Festival and the IMDb listed Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams as "missing, presumed dead". A website was also launched featuring police documents and interviews, video footage and photographs, and a journal, all of which added to the mystery as to whether the film was real or fake. It was, of course, fake.
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