Review: The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)

It's not really that long, it just feels that way

This movie kind of flew under the radar when it was released in 2007, and for good reason. I'm a found footage and fake documentary nut, and when I saw a gif of this film appear on reddit a few weeks back I had to track it down. The title itself implies video tapes that must contain some horrific evidence left behind by someone or something. Too bad the film, then, plays out like a cheap program shown at 3:00 in the afternoon on TruCrime.

John Erick Dowdle directed The Poughkeepsie Tapes and co-wrote it with his brother. It is a feux documentary presented in the style of a true crime movie. A bunch of tapes were found in the house of a big time serial killer still on the loose, 240 hours worth. The footage shows the graphic and violent nature by which the "The Water Street Butcher" stalked, captured, and killed his victims save for one he kept alive. The movie tracks the progress of the killer in a linear fashion up to the point the tapes were discovered.

Most of the movie is shown through a series of talking head interviews, which really bog the film down. A good mockumentary or found footage film shows a sequence of events happening from beginning to end. I understand The Water Street Butcher killings are supposed to have occurred over a decade or so, but the movie just doesn't work with a bunch of people talking about something you know is fake. It's mostly law enforcement and forensic specialists interviews, some of whom are not very good actors. For a film that does have a fairly twisted killer as its villain, all the talking heads break a lot of the tension.

When the film does actually bother to show footage from the tapes, it can get a little unnerving. I typically don't become unnerved at violence in horror movies, but I will admit that if I do feel a level of disgust with what I'm seeing then the film is working on some level. There are only a few scenes in the film like this but they are effective and show what could have been an extremely disturbing film. I don't know why the Dowdle brothers felt they needed to pad the film with so much cheap documentary filler when by 2006 (when the film was made) the found footage genre was well established.

Overall The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a bit of letdown. It reminds a little bit of The Last Broadcast, though that movie had a fairly good build up. I was expecting a plot twist that never really happened and the end of the movie is supposed to make you think "the killer is still out there." Meh, stop trying to inject reality into your fake movie.