The Poughkeepsie Tapes

The Poughkeepsie Tapes
Directed by John Erik Dowdle
USA 2007

PLOT

The small American town of Poughkeepsie is held hostage by a ruthless serial killer named Edward Carver. When the police raid his house, among the various things they find are numerous videotapes documenting his gruesome deeds.

CONSIDERATIONS

The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a unique film: in addition to following the style of August Underground and The Blair Witch Project, using the mockumentary format to showcase the purely horror moments of the serial killer’s actions, it also adopts a more police-driven approach, almost like a TV dossier, with interviews featuring law enforcement, crime experts, and common people during the remaining parts of the movie.

The story revolves around the hunt for the sadistic killer at its center. The chronicles of the investigation are marked by the words of profilers, reports from those following the trails, testimonies from the police, and the terrified citizens of the small town of Poughkeepsie. What emerges is a detailed profile of a sadistic maniac who tortures, dismembers, engages in necrophilia, inflicts terrible psychological violence on his victims, and continues his killing spree, remaining elusive and nearly impossible to identify.
After the accounts, the film presents footage from the videotapes that supposedly support these stories, though, oddly enough, everything is controlled and rarely extreme (with a couple of exceptions), favoring morbidity and psychological imbalance over splatter and the gory details of the murders.

Nevertheless, the final result—while not without flaws, particularly in the narrative department, with a plot that gets lost in several blind spots or abandoned subplots—feels like a “document” that, without the use of special effects, manages to create a thick atmosphere of discomfort and fear, delivering some truly surprising moments of psychological horror.

The Poughkeepsie Tapes relies heavily on the stories of the investigators and detectives, and the visually striking images are few and far between. What truly shocks is the killer’s profile, how he murders, and the disturbing nature of his methods. His voice, as he converses with his victims (his face is never shown, except when wearing masks that heighten the tension of the amateur footage), and the detectives’ and journalists’ analyses, create a chilling atmosphere. For the record, Ed Carver is portrayed by Ben Messmer, who makes the character theatrical, very believable, and particularly terrifying, mainly because nothing about him feels artificial, and he seems genuinely afflicted by severe psychological disorders.

The film works well as a faux documentary. Dowdle excels at pushing the extreme psychological horror, and he does so masterfully. The disturbing atmosphere and the violence described, the moments when the killer plans his crimes, communicates with gas station cameras, and sends signals to the authorities, all demonstrate how much planning and attention to detail went into the script’s creation.

Unfortunately, the film was never released in Italy, but it can be found online with subtitles. If I may give you a recommendation, look for it and watch it—it’s worth it in my opinion, a unique (yet effective) variation in the vast world of serial killer movies.

PANDEMONIUM MOMENT

When the killer invites two little girls, who were selling cookies, into his home and chats with them. The tension skyrockets, but then, inexplicably, he lets them go. Once they leave, the cloth covering the table is lifted, revealing one of his gagged and hostage victims beneath it.

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