This is another one of those very creative ultra low-budget productions that have incredible difficulties in finding any distribution at all. It hit the festival circuit some time in 2007 and is supposed to finally come out on DVD some time this year. Of course, that's what we heard last year too... And I must say, I do understand - why release something excellent and disturbing when you have Saw XIX to sell?
The Poughkeepsie Tapes disguises himself as a true crime doc about a serial killer with a strangely variable M.O., the sort that makes Hannibal Lecter look like some way too soft bore. Part of the killers ritual is the use of a (obviously cheap) videocamera to document his crimes and the parts of the film that don't consist of experts analyzing the case are supposed to be passages of these video tapes.
You can make nitpicks about some of the "expert" footage - not everyone seen there is an excellent actor and a few moments just don't feel right - but the writing and the tone of these segments is excellent enough to make for an effective film. The tapes themselves are to disturbing to be criticized. You won't find much else like those parts of the film anywhere else, the only parallel that came to my mind is Last House on Dead End Street's equally disturbing mixture of grimy footage and ritualized violence. Poughkeepsie Tapes is less explicit than the older film in what it actually shows of the violence, but the physically real feeling quality of the film material itself and the plain nastiness of the things we see and those things we imagine we're seeing combine to form a really unpleasant experience.
People with fragile dispositions should stay away from the film. It hit me on the kind of gut-level horror films seldom reach with me, and considering what kind of stuff I watch without being bothered, this says something - if about the film, me, or the state of mind I watched it in, I'm not completely sure.
Let's call this a rather excited recommendation for a disturbing time.
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