a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I decided to give this a viewing after reading how disturbing it's supposed to be and that it was never given its cinematic or home releases that were intended for it.Some imagery and themes are unsettling, particularly those involving the younger victims. If you are very bothered by the implication of children being harmed then you should probably watch something else but I find real life is much scarier than fiction.It's loosely based off of an actual serial killer in that city in the 90's though it's really a work of fiction as most if not all of the events in the film do not reflect reality. Found footage genre so some people will treat it like they are viewing real events anyway.The acting is so mediocre that the best I can do is a 5/10. Acting is not this challenging...and even worse it's not challenging for someone to notice poor acting so it's a mystery why it's allowed in so many indie films as if a director can't notice it, yet I can without a problem.In the case of found footage, it would seem acting should be relatively simple...but the "FBI agents" that are interviewed on camera just seem like loser actors hamming it up, right down to the hesitant breaths they take before speaking, and the dramatic facial expressions. Watch some true crime stuff on TV where they speak to real FBI agents...they are completely calm and collected, factual and to the point. These FBI agents in the film come off as actors who want to be noticed by exaggerating their parts and making their lines seem more poignant than that of how your typical dull federal agents would express themselves on camera, a place where they are not naturally comfortable being.All in all, if you want some torture porn, this movie may suffice. If you want convincing acting, you may feel insulted.

Honestly, the concept was interesting and it started off not TOO badly, but this movie is SO TRY HARD. It seems like a horrible, sad version of an edgy torture film that a bunch of bros stand around each other in a group and go, "Yo, you see The Poughkeepsie Tapes? Aw, man- it was ssiiiiccckkkk." Exactly that.It lacked ANY depth, nothing was a shock and everything was predictable. You didn't get to know any of the victims or many details of the crimes. Why wasn't the house where they found the tapes registered to anyone? They still have no idea how they got that guy's sperm and didn't really care to investigate how he did that or if he chose that guy specifically? Then, more than anything, the acting was HORRID. Especially Cheryl's mother, anyone in the medical profession and any police officer. It seemed so incredibly stereotypical and like they were literally instructed to "act like a doctor, act like a cop, act like a mom, etc." No one acts like that. Also, police forces never refer to cases/killers as the names chosen by the media. This was all based on a bizarre 80s fantasy to make an edgy (but not really that edgy) film that would be a cool and interesting thing to happen in real life- but it's like no one attached to this film has ever done any real investigation themselves or read up on any real crime stories- they've only ever watched movies that romanticize all of this. This movie is all artsy show without any actual grit or authenticity.Would not recommend. Don't waste your time. Also, the static transitions between every damn shot was annoying just 5 minutes in and it lasts the entire movie. Film school amateur move.

Usually I hate these found-footage styled movies. They're often shaky, full of bad lines and an excuse for producers to skimp out on expensive editing. I am a big fan of horror though, and of the VHS format. There's something strangely captivating and nostalgic about those bright contrasting colours and flickers of tape tracking across the screen. That being said, after seeing the brutal sadism within this story that goes beyond normal for most horror, it didn't scare me per-say but it came across like the producers were trying too hard for shock value.The Poughkeepsie Tapes throws together every serial killer trope from the media, borrowing from the disturbing and meticulous crimes of murderers and molesters like John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy (both of whom if I recall were actually mentioned in the film), and of course we get some elements from unsolved cold cases like the JonBenet Ramsey murder. There are even a few themes similar to fictional films such as The Lovely Bones (2009) and Sinister (2012). Sometimes though it felt like The Poughkeepsie Tapes didn't know which direction it was going in. We've got this serial killer without much of a purpose, who seems to be a sociopath, who uses a girl as his "slave", whose crimes have no motive or similarities (of course, this killer is also supposed to be some kind of genius doing different murder styles each time to throw of the cops, of course), oh and let's not forget, he's also a fetishist for scantily-clad women sitting on giant balloons and bouncing on them. O-kay, yeah. This comes across as neither frightening nor creepy, but rather just bizarre.We also have his VHS tapes, which are quite well-done for an indie film although it's obvious that the VHS footage was tampered with on purpose for a low-grade quality effect. Yet the events occurring on each tape all have more of an early Eighties vibe than a Nineties vibe. Watching them had me immediately thinking back to that period when the two polar opposites of the news, both the sensationalist and the fluff, began to emerge, which would be the Eighties. The popping bright colours also give a more Eighties atmosphere than a Nineties one. If the VHS tapes hadn't been such a central plot device to the story I probably wouldn't care as much, but it does seem like The Poughkeepsie Tapes is definitely set in the wrong era.I absolutely loved the eerie, ambient soundtrack. The acting was okay, nothing special but not terrible, either. Sometimes "Ed" the Poughkeepsie killer seemed quite over-the-top, to the point where his angry screaming of "POP IT!" to one of the balloon girls and his angry rant at Cheryl Dempsey seemed more comedic than scary. I've seen better performances frankly in my high school drama class. Ed's entire character was utterly ridiculous. I don't mean to sound all pretentious but nothing about him felt real. Even sociopaths and nihilists usually have some underlying motive in their crimes. The ones who kill simply because they love blood and guts are the ones who always get caught and arrested right away because they see it as a sick game. Ed just wasn't realistic enough to be scary. What was more disturbing in this film than Ed himself is the psychological grief and turmoil of the victims' families, especially Cheryl's mother, who finds herself going through the supposed "five stages of grief" blatantly on-screen before accepting Cheryl's death, only to discover that Ed has not killed Cheryl at all but instead turned her into a mentally-ill shell of her former self who later commits suicide.As a film working by acting as a fake documentary, The Poughkeepsie Tapes is not really a slasher picture and won't give any fans of that genre the frequent elaborate murders they are expecting. It does tend to drag on a lot while still having quite a powerful atmosphere. Evidently a lot of effort went into this film; we get aerial shots of Poughkeepsie itself in all its Autumn glory. We get numerous types of found footage from different years. We get references to significant historical events of the time, such as the tragedy of 9/11. I did enjoy it; with horror films I often find that less is more. Gratuitous violence, sex, profanity and blood can just make a film look cheesy. This one isn't one of my favourites and I think a lot could have been improved upon, but I did still like it. The Poughkeepsie Tapes was filmed in 2007 but mysteriously held back from its release date until 2014, which I wonder was possibly an attempt to create anticipation from a crowd of moviegoers, the suggestion of "this is that film they didn't want you to see".

Look, this movie is definitely disturbing on many levels and that is exactly why I gave it 2 stars even though I wanted to give it none. "Found footage" style is the new go-to for every hack in Hollywood and I'm tired of it. It was barely good back in 1999 when Blair Witch was released. Every moronic filmmaker with a flimsy idea and no money wants to use this method. So why is this one worse than most? Because it used something real. Something this was a REAL tragedy that ruined quite a few families. And I'm not being a moralist here; I would not have had any problem with this film, had it only been artistic, original, or inventive in any way. But it wasn't. It was just another gross-out ripoff trying to suck from the teat of the Saw franchise, but even worse because actual women were murdered by this guy. So I was bothered and disgusted for NO reason, because I could have watched a legitimate documentary about this case. Or, even better, a well-made movie based on characters that weren't either victims of actual, serious crimes or fat pieces of psychotic s*** that died in their prison cells. Do we really want to appreciate anything made by sick, non-imaginative a-holes who spent this much time trying to emulate a snuff film? I sure as hell don't. This was an abomination and I regret every minute I spent watching it.