4 out of 5

Director: John Erick Dowdle

The Poughkeepsie Tapes… is perfect. (…Almost.) Not torture porn, not a pointless slasher, Poughkeepsie is a film presented in documentary style about a notorious serial killer focused around Poughkeepsie, NY. The narrative here progresses through interviews with police, FBI, and connected witnesses, along with clips of footage the killer captured during all of his crimes, left for police to find. Now I watched this on the back of a series of rather notorious serial killer movies – the August Underground series – and it must be noted how a framing narrative can add so much more creepiness and intensity to a movie. But thats a separate discussion. …Poughkeepsie grabbed me from the start thanks to its balance of style. The interviews and tapes are spliced together perfectly, with the violence and torture spaced appropriately to be effective. There is, I believe, intentional humor laced into some of the interviews, but what worked about this was that it seemed purposefully disarming. The humor disappears later into the movie, and so it seems used early on to give you a sense of comfort. Some have criticized the acting for being poor, but it came across very documentary-style to me, the only distracting portions being the news segments. But local news segments are often wooden, so this seems excusable. I dont know… its hard to say too much about the film as its more about the effect of watching it. As a study of serial killers it is chilling, as it covers the scope of possibilities in a believable fashion. The lack of five stars is simply because… you hope for more. In a sick way, but also in a way of resolution. It couldnt end any other way, or itd seem trite, but that also adds to the documentary feel… An excellent horror movie, either for people who want to be creeped out, for people who like torture-porn films, or for a study of killers.