Directed by John Erick Dowdle

True Crime is huge these days. I don’t personally understand the appeal, but loads of people love listening to podcasts about real people committing real atrocities on hapless victims. Sure, Jason hacks people up with a machete and Michael Myers has his infamous kitchen knife, but there’s always that element of cartoonishness that separates slasher movies from real life serial killers. That element, and the line that separates slashers and serial killers, is blurred expertly by The Poughkeepsie Tapes, a found footage movie about a fictional serial killer operating in the Poughkeepsie area. Presented as a documentary, this film blends segments of reporters, FBI personnel, and local law enforcement with footage found to have been filmed by the killer. I think this goes without saying The Poughkeepsie Tapes is an excessively triggering movie, and the level of violence, depravity, and straight up cruelty is pretty sick. 

That all being said, The Poughkeepsie Tapes is never as graphic as I was thinking it might be. There are moments of extreme violence and cruelty, but the sheer levels of depravity and evil that this film is capable of are smartly offscreen, alluded to by interviewees or seen after the fact. This helps keep the gritty realism that’s key to The Poughkeepsie Tapes’ success, even when kind of absurd things are happening on-screen there’s always that pull back that keeps things grounded. Unfortunately, there are moments when this reality begins to crumble, this may be more obvious to people who are really into True Crime but even I was able to catch some things that were definitely incorrect about procedure, particularly the ‘you need to wait 24 hours to report someone missing’ thing that gets brought up in the silliest way possible. Those moments weren’t enough to keep me out though as the quality performances and disturbing imagery more than made up for these flubs. I would recommend The Poughkeepsie Tapes so long as you know what you are getting into. This movie is cruel, disgusting, and vile, but it was the change of pace I needed from all the middle of the road stuff I’ve seen lately.