August 06, 2017
In a day and age when the U.S. government has an elaborate plan to stave off a zombie apocalypse, it's hard to believe there was ever a time when absurdly fictional armageddon scenarios might have spread legitimate panic.
Such is the subject of the limited-run film "Brave New Jersey," a comedy that plays off the country's current epidemic of "fake news."
Directed by Jody Lambert, the movie depicts the chaos that broke out in Grover Mills, New Jersey, during a dramatized broadcast of Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" on Oct. 30, 1938.
How did it come to pass that New Jersey would be the epicenter of a Martian invasion? Howard Koch, the original writer of the Welles radio adaptation, was simply looking for a place to set his story, as the New York Post recounts.
Koch pulled his car over at a gas station, grabbed a map and randomly marked a town with his pencil. Many in the town, fictionalized as Lullaby, New Jersey, in the new film, had no idea they were listening to a radio play.
That's because Koch wrote the script as an interrupted news broadcast, first with dispatches of odd activity on Mars and later of a UFO crash landing in Grover Mills.
Those who missed the programming note spread the news across their community, sending some out of town in a flash and others into battle mode at the supposed crash site.
Most of the panic was concentrated in New Jersey and New York, where many assumed the crisis was connected to Germany, Japan and the events leading up to World War II.
Historians reportedly estimate about 6 million Americans listened to that "Mischief Night" broadcast, while only about one-sixth of those listeners were seriously duped.
"Brave New Jersey" is currently playing in 14 markets including New York and Los Angeles, with plans for a broader release later in August. Watch the trailer below.
