Watch The Poughkeepsie Tapes For Free

You won't be disappointed!

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

There are only two things holding 'The Poughkeepsie Tapes' back from being a truly great movie. The first is the acting. My goodness it is shocking in some scenes. It's rare for a movie released as recently as 2007 to have acting this bad. The girl trying to pop the balloon is possibly the worst piece of acting I can remember seeing. The second thing is the inclusion of some scenes in the final cut. This is supposed to be a (fake obviously) documentary on a serial killer and yet there are a tremendous amount of things that would simply never be shown in any real documentary (explicit patient records spoken out loud by a doctor is a very obvious one that comes to mind). Apart from those two things though I have to say I quite liked this film.This is an exceedingly dark film, make no mistake about that. It was made without a conscious, and I quite like that quality in a film. There is also one element to the story (revolving around 9/11) that I found very innovative, creative and original. It's one of those things that keeps you thinking after the film is finished. This certainly isn't for the faint of heart, however if you're up to it you may just find yourself very much enjoying 'The Poughkeepsie Tapes'.

Firstly, I must point out that this film had me second guessing the backstory research (that I had done previously) throughout! Some of the clips from this series found footage 'tapes'-that we are exposed to- are reminiscent of scenes from snuff films and appear so vividly realistic; that it became hard to distinguish when the narrative was being genuinely scary rather than real ( I will say this film is NOT a true story, but speculation is that it has some moments that resemble actual cases). It is through these raw realistic portrayals and crime show documentary style techniques, that we are drawn into the film with both awe and repulsion. We recoil at some hideous moments, terrified of the fate of the person we are viewing. We gasp as people are bound,gagged, tortured and then slain in front of our eyes. This is a film on par with Cannibal Holocaust or even the original release of The Blair Witch project, for it's believable portrayals and twisted take on the horrifying insight into a criminal's psyche. Like a studious serial killer who is etched forever in our memory (like the evolution of Hannibal Lector in the films The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon and Hannibal), we learn how intelligent The Water Street Butcher (as he is dubbed by investigators) is and how creatively he has developed his techniques, his executions and ultimately his power over his victims.Our killer uses his crimes to set up a series of red herrings for the police, which ultimately help him to evade capture. One particular victim develops a love so fascinating for her captor that it makes us shudder at her unnerving desire to continue to please her "Master". We learn of how she has slowly been tortured, dominated and submerged within his world, to the point of developing symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome and thus furthering her twisted attraction to her captor (more so due to his perpetual dominance over her for several years and an inability to break free from it once her ordeal is over). Through the interviews with the victims families, forensic specialists and differing levels within law enforcement and their equally involved legal guides, we learn more about the details for these crimes and the hellish nightmare like levels of depravity our killer delves into. The use of the documentary style, the camera/video techniques, the dialogue (which is wonderfully realistic) and the casting -all unknown and believable in their roles from each angle of the film have all created this very pragmatic and factually realistic film that is a superb, if not unnerving watch in parts. My only fault is the limited release of The Poughkeepsie Tapes. It did appear at some festivals with the Dowdle brothers in 2007 upon release, but since has been pulled from the actual release (despite cinematic advertising) and not been released either cinematically or on home media to this date! It's been 9 years and further developments on why are torn between issues with distributor MGM and the possibility the films likeness was too realistic and possibly touched on some actual real life crimes of a similar nature. The truth.....we may never know.

I remember this movie being advertised a long long time ago and wondered why it wasn't hitting theaters. With the success of the found footage genre when it comes to profit. They probably wanted to cash in, but they put some thought into this one. Not to say this has a lot of psychological depth or anything like that. But it does have that gritty and raw feel to it that was prevalent in the 80's. This is basically a fake found footage movie that goes is a sort of trippy and psychedelic direction when it comes to how it was shot. The routine torture and murder seemed to drag on and on and would have been somewhat effective if the acting was good. But you can clearly tell the actors were well...Acting. I know that sometimes the mystery adds to the fear effect, but a bit more psychological depth would have made it more effective. I mean this is a fake found footage and documentary about a serial killer and rapist. Who is crazy and yet very methodical and knows how to frame and clean up the evidence. I will say that when it delved into one of the victims Cheryl Dempsey's story-line it did get a bit interesting with the stockholm syndrome and all. The first hour was routine and tedious, however after a hour into the movie it does get a bit intriguing but it takes too long to get to that point. Overall, if you are into the horror genre it's watchable.5.5/10

I was quite impressed with this film and definitely think it's worth a watch.It is low budget and in some instances the acting isn't stellar and occasionally some of the really dark sequences make it a bit too dark to see what is going on - normally this works fine as it makes your imagination do a lot of the work, but in one or two cases I really would have liked it a little brighter just so I could follow what was happening (mainly involving the killer moving and I didn't fully catch exactly what he was doing.) This is however a fairly minor gripe and I enjoyed the film and found it pretty engrossing.As many people have noted, the standout parts of the film involve the gradual breakdown and degradation of the Cheryl Dempsey character and the Master/Slave relationship that develops between herself and the killer. It was a surprisingly effective story and I don't think the film would be anywhere near as good without it.For the most part I like that the vast majority of the killers motives and so on go completely unexplained (though it does lead me on to one of my gripes later on). One of the FBI profilers offers some conjecture as to what might have driven the killer to do these ghastly murders but that is about it. The film also does a pretty good job of making you dislike the killer (some of the stuff he does is pretty awful and sadistic) and wanting background that is never provided - in most cases this works well as it makes the viewer feel the same level of exasperation as the authorities.That said....there were a few things that didn't work for me -almost all of them mechanical/technical details.1.) There is too much emphasis on how awesomely great the killer is. By this I mean things like not a single finger print being found at the house, etc didn't work for me. I began to wonder at one point if they were building toward a superhuman/supernatural angle and it did spoil some of my suspension of disbelief.2.) Partially tying in with the above point - the whole James Foley storyline. i seriously think this entire thing could be cut form the film and it would make the film a lot better. For starters, it only serves to make the killers skills laughably good rather than intimidating (the whole taking his sperm donations from a fertility clinic......I guess it's not impossible but I found the level of planning/resources and time involved in the frame job so ludicrously unlikely that I think the film suffers for it).Secondly, given that the killer actually approaches Cheryl Dempsey's mother and she becomes aware that he is the killer before he leaves just makes the whole Foley angle even more ridiculous. If Mrs Dempsey has met the killer then unless he was masked/heavily disguised (which would be rather odd at a crime scene) then she must have known enough to know that Foley was not the killer (I don't think she comments on the Foley angle at all in the film). I certainly think she would know enough to help narrow down some of the profiling issues the authorities have been having, unless the killer actually looks like Foley, but even then, that's a pretty good lead. No, for me the Foley angle weakens the film considerably.3.) While I realise that a lot of stuff goes unexplained in this (and as I mentioned above this is mostly actually a positive thing) I think at least some hint of a reason as to why the killer chooses Cheryl to be his "Slave" rather than a victim would have been good.Beyond that though it is a good film and I would recommend watching it.