Macabre…ish Horror Review: The Poughkeepsie Tapes

The Poughkeepsie Tapes, 2007/ 1 hr 26 min

This is the story of FBI and profilers finding hundreds of tapes in a house. A serial killer’s cache of recordings of his crimes from stalking, terrorizing and harassing men, women and children. Abduction, humiliation, torture and kills, every stage of his different crimes are documented.

Sometimes he attacks out in the open, sometimes he’s already inside his victim’s homes, lurking and recording, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Some times just one victim, other times, entire families.

There are also 911 recordings, crime scene footage, coroners reports, news footage and interviews.

This guy is a mixed killer, no one is safe, anyone can be his victim and the method of attack could be anything. Sometimes he approaches as a friendly local, sometimes a masked and armed boogeyman. He’s a chameleon in everything he does.

Even the burials and methods of disposing of the bodies are different but can span states. This guy is killing everyone, everywhere and has been for a while. His hunting ground is within a 200 mile radius of Poughkeepsie and when it gets too hot and the press coverage is daily, instead of going underground or relocating, he ratchets his activities up, leaving DNA everywhere. He’s even stacking victims, snatching up new ones while there is another awaiting their inevitable demise in his basement. Some potential victims escape harm but he still slips away.

And then the police catch someone but is it the killer? And just when you think it’s over, it’s not, it’s worse and still in the, now empty, house.

This is a found footage movie in the style of a documentary (mockumentary). It has the feel of a Dateline series or other true crime documentary. It’s very eerie but not real, it is made by the creators of Quarantine and As Above, So Below. It was pretty good and very graphic, much of the footage is very grainy but that sells the authenticity. There are disturbing moments and it’s all very bleak.