The Poughkeepsie Tapes

A genuinely looking pseudo-documentary horror film that made me scary, creepy, unnerving, bizarre and very uncomfortable to watch, thus the two star rating. One of the most disturbing films I've ever seen. They shot this in a weird manner that felt realistic in the killer's point of view.

I had never heard of this movie (if you want to call it a movie) read the description and thought it sounded interesting, boy was I wrong. From the first scene I knew it was not a real story, the actors were just so bad except for Stacy Chbosky as Cheryl, did they use friends and family for the parts. I could go on forever about how bad this is so I will just say BAD!!

Well paced, but it reminds me of some real-crime US documentaries from the '70s, so not an original. It is unpleasant, but no jump scares and no tension. So it's not a horror either - although there is a disturbing murder at 1:09. The interviews to camera aren't convincing - I guess that's difficult to get right, to balance script and improv with good editing. The two main characters are interesting. I think they showed too much of the killer in his mask and ruff - gave the impression of a dramatic bloviator, which ruined the deliberate mystery for me. The interview with Cheryl was a chance to make a great story, to show how she was in love yet doomed, show us the real killer. But it was just a bit sad. The decision to use "authentic" '80s sound & vid quality for the first half was a bad call - although it had some effect, I found it irritating. The soundtrack relies on discord at scary moments, elsewhere a soft xylophone rhythm. Well worth a watch, but it me no horror makey.