The Poughkeepsie Tapes

You can't take The Poughkeepsie Tapes as an enrichment of film in general, only as a better contribution in the horror section. It works that way despite a fair number of missteps (*SPOILER ALERT* – the innocent defendant not defending himself and generally acting suspiciously, the "electric shocks to the clitoris.... and other things so horrible I won't say them" ho ho); and yet the long scene from the point of view of the killer (!) going home to his victim, for example, is an incredibly suspenseful affair despite the fact that we're watching it from a threatening point of view. I appreciate the lack of jump scares, though every other scene seems to be veering in that direction. I was pleased to see the masochistic relationship between bully and victim developed in Martyrs. Ironically, I found the balloon video the scariest. The Poughkeepsie Tapes have the classic ills of the horror genre, don't look for any greater meaning behind it, but the chosen form is just divine... (02/05/2011)

Objectively, this is perhaps a great pseudo-documentary that is easy to believe as portrayed, but subjectively a bland affair. That’s mainly because these sadistic games of various nutters have left me feeling slight apathy lately. There’s no fear, no tension, just a few blurry shots of women suffering, which basically just pass me by. Dowdle is capable of better craft. (15/12/2010)

The film has a good atmosphere in terms of evoking depression. I assume that was the primary intention and it succeeded in doing so. But it's just an example of how a good idea can be limited by the creators' fear of bringing it to its conclusion. Yes, there are unpleasant scenes, but it could have been worse. The ending is intriguing and shows the strength/weakness of human psyche, which was captured very well and uncomfortably. (03/07/2015)

For some mysterious reason, I missed The Poughkeepsie Tapes when it came out, and my TOP also said quite clearly that it wasn’t too good, so I didn’t even feel like going after it. It was a mistake! It turned out to be an interesting film experience and, even though I had mixed feelings at the beginning (too much blabber), in the end I’m satisfied. The hand-held footage is a lot more “low quality” than in REC, for instance, but also more realistic and intense. If I were to believe this is an actual documentary with real footage (especially the last interview), I would be very depressed. (26/10/2009)