The first and only time I saw Faces of Death was at a smoke-filled, beer-soaked party in ninth grade–so my terrified memories of it may be exaggerated. But despite the exotic thrill of watching something so utterly, obviously wrong, it definitely left a terrible, permanent, awesome impression on my brain.

So I’m both disappointed and relieved to find out that it was mostly fake.

Though I’m probably at least a year behind on this news (I usually am with these kinds of things), it just goes to show how hard it is to keep a secret these days, what with the internet and all. And though I can’t quite put my finger on it, there is something truly awesome about a world where a group of people can pull such an elaborate, brilliant, successful hoax for such an extended period of time.

The kicker? Faces has apparently pulled in $35M worldwide with word-of-mouth marketing alone.