Earlier in the Spring, I was fortunate to check out a few cool flicks at the TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL – one of them being the creepy POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES, which it’s being reported was picked up by MGM and is scheduled to be released on Feb. 22, 2008.
Check out my review for the flick, which I gave a 7 out of 10, below. Though it has its faults, some 2 1/2 months later, it has still stuck with me (minor spoilers follow).
“Throughout the 1990s, a serial killer terrorized upstate New York. After a decade-long crime spree conducted largely under the radar of law enforcement, the killer left behind the most disturbing collection of evidence homicide detectives had ever seen hundreds of homemade videotapes that chronicle the stalking, abduction, murder, and disposal of his victims.”
… or so pretends THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES, a faux-documentary in the Errol Morris vein – charting the “Water Street Butcher’s” reign of horror – complete with talking heads, dramatic re-enactments, maps, charts, dreamy music, beautiful aerial shots, and of course, the raison d’etre – the footage itself, which is comprised mostly of a tied-up girl whimpering and gasping while her masked captor instructs her to call him “master,” and do some unspeakable things.
The film isn’t particularly violent, a lot more happens off-camera than on. That said, some of the footage is skin-crawlingly disturbing, as in one scene where the killer stalks around the house of a teenage girl, spying on her and her boyfriend. The sequence plays out exactly like a slasher film, from the killer’s P.O.V., and while the concept isn’t exactly brand new, there’s a real creepiness at work (especially when he hides in the closet). Another queasy scene has two girl scouts innocently visiting his home, and perhaps the most chilling involves him playing police officer and giving a stranded woman a ride. The culmination of this is sure to send hands flying over faces.
It may sound exploitive, and of course, it is, but there’s no getting around the fact that the tapes are the best thing about this movie, as the fake professors, criminologists, detectives and grieving parents all feel forced and inauthentic.
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