Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are adding another entry to our Found Footage Suggested by Reddit feature. Now this one hasn’t been talked about recently but it comes up quite a lot in Reddit’s found footage community. Hence why I thought it would be worth reviewing.

Following the story of notorious, fictional, serial killer Edward Carver. The Poughkeepsie Tapes plays out like a mockumentary; featuring interviews with detectives and investigators working on the case of the Water Street Butcher. Hundreds of snuff tapes featuring brutal murders have been recovered but the killer has never been found. Leading to a documentary being produced to shed new light on the mystery.

Tough to Find

I actually caught this movie over ten years ago. My fiancée and I are big fans of found footage horror and have been on a few binges here and there over the time we have been together.

Found Footage was always fairly difficult to find, up until recently. But The Poughkeepsie Tapes was one of those movies that proved even harder to find than most. So hard to find, in fact, that I can’t remember how we came to watch it. I just remember being pretty amped due to all the hype.

A screenshot from found footage mockumentary The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)

It was spoken about in hushed tones thanks to its disturbing content. Easily considered to be one of the more shocking mockumentaries of the 2000s. So what did I think about it then and how does it hold up all these years later?

Well, to be perfectly honest, I was hugely disappointed. In fact, it was so unremarkable, to me, that watching again felt like the first time I had ever watched The Poughkeepsie Tapes. I had taken no mental notes about it, it struck no chords with me, and left no lasting impression at all.

The Second Time Around

The second time around was equally as disappointing. This is just a below average horror mockumentary. The biggest thing The Poughkeepsie Tapes has going for it is some of its disturbing violence. Outside of that, there really isn’t much to write home about. It is thin on plot, lacks in focus, and all feels a little bit pointless.

Much like the abysmal Megan is Missing; The Poughkeepsie Tapes indulges in the barbaric proclivities of its main antagonist. Writer, director John Erick Dowdle seemingly felt the need to push any real story to one side. Instead choosing to focus on getting into the minutia of the violent acts committed by the Water Street Butcher.

This is all well and good, but Carver just isn’t a very interesting, original, or intimidating antagonist. His high pitched, awkward, line delivery of some, frankly, laughable dialogue is incredibly weak. His fancy dress choice, that’s supposed to inspire fear, actually inspires chuckles. And the character lacks any form of depth that may actually make them interesting. Carver is just an incredibly dull character. Many of the traits of the character are directly ripped from real life killers, as well. There is a huge lack of originality here.

Weak Performances And Ultra Repetitive

The Poughkeepsie Tapes also suffers from some tremendously weak dialogue and some awful performances. The script is banal at best and wince inducing at worst. Characters talk in a manner that could, most accurately, be described as robotic and inorganic. Acting is poor, almost throughout. Stacy Chbosky, as Cheryl Dempsey, is probably the strongest actor. Everyone else leaves massive amounts to be desired.

This has a big impact on the mockumentary format itself as it is hard to believe in the interviews due to the weak acting. Ben Messmer, in particular, hams it up tremendously in a number of scenes. Stripping believability from the tapes and robbing tremendously from what little “scare factor” the movie has.

Speaking of the tapes, all of these are recorded VHS camcorder style. Only, they aren’t, they are just heavily filtered with grain and a strange waviness to the image. It’s horrible and looks terrible. The tape sections of the movie, the place where all the scares are, are an absolute chore to get through. That’s without mentioning the unlikeliness of a documentary airing these scenes in the first place.

It doesn’t help that the scenes just descend into a loop of repeating themselves within a short space of time. You can only see a couple of episodes of uninspired, mindless, torture before it gets a bit old. Very few of said scenes are shocking and few will provoke any feeling of disgust. Sure, the entire movie is fairly misogynistic at its core. But time has severely dulled whatever impact this film would have had back in 2007.

Worth Mentioning

The Poughkeepsie Tapes occasionally threatens to go in an interesting direction but doesn’t ever quite make it there. The story tying everything together is wafer thin. A typical serial killer plot with a nod to them potentially still being out there and maybe wanting to kill again. It’s entirely bland stuff and, to be honest, wasn’t all that interesting, or different, back when it first released. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer was doing this type of thing back in the 80s, just told from a different perspective.

On the plus side, mockumentary fans may find something to enjoy. It’s difficult to go too wrong with the format and if you enjoy the whole interviews and found footage thing you may find something to like. If you have limited exposure to horror, you may find this shocking in parts. I suppose it feels quite novel compared to regular horror. The presentation was fairly innovative, at the time, as well. Fans of true crime may appreciate a simple crime based horror story. However dull it is.

But Reddit Likes It

I’ve seen people mentioning this movie in found footage communities on Reddit and many of them enjoy it. That’s not saying much, though. I saw them talking about The Lost Vlog of Ruby Real, recently, and actually recommending it. Sure, I’d also like to recommend licking a “soap free” person’s taint if you want something disgusting that will leave a bad taste in your mouth. One of them described the universally panned movie’s reviews as being a “mixed bag”. Sure, if 3.6/10 on IMDB is a mixed bag then, yeah.

Incidentally, John Erick Dowdle would go onto direct a couple more big name found footage movies. Namely the shot for shot remake of REC – Quarantine. Which he somehow managed to make worse than the original. And another Reddit favourite that critics hated – As Above So Below. I was incredibly excited for the latter and woefully disappointed when it released. They are an easy to please bunch. I kind of like that about them, though. It’s sort of charming. I wish I was more like that.

Should You Watch The Poughkeepsie Tapes?

No, you probably shouldn’t watch The Poughkeepsie Tapes. Whatever impact and shock value this movie had, at one point, has been dulled by time. All that is left is a boring, repetitive, poorly scripted and poorly acted movie that really isn’t worth your time. Found footage fans may enjoy it, mockumentary fans might find something to like. Everyone else will probably be bored to tears or just horribly nauseated by the terrible cinematography.