From Paranormal Activity to Grave Encounters, the most popular Found Footage movies tend to focus on supernatural horror. However, the sub-genre is capable of much more than that, with the believable thrills of the format becoming especially useful when telling stories about plausible terrors. After all, spooky media isn’t exclusive to fiction, with the True Crime genre offering up plenty of grounded scares without the need for literal ghosts and demons. That’s why I’d argue that the Dowdle Brothers’ controversial The Poughkeepsie Tapes is one of the most effective Found Footage flicks out there.
Not only is it a chilling addition to serial killer cinema, but it also serves as a rare example of a modern cult hit, with the Dowdles’ film becoming something of an urban legend due to the convoluted circumstances of its release. And with the film celebrating its 15th anniversary, I’d like to look back at how it was the first Found Footage flick to embrace the True Crime format.
If you’ve never seen The Poughkeepsie Tapes, the film is structured like a sensationalist crime doc about a collection of snuff footage shot by a deranged serial killer. From talking-head interviews to crime scene photos, the film uses every trick in the True Crime book to describe this madman’s reign of terror while also exploring why we’re so enamored with serial killer media in the first place.
Originally debuting in film festivals back in 2007 (almost concurrently with the original Paranormal Activity), The Poughkeepsie Tapes definitely left an impression on those lucky enough to view it on the big screen. In fact, many critics claimed that the movie was a cult classic in the making, including our very own Brad Miska. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop MGM from keeping the film in distribution limbo by refusing to give it a wide release.
Now that’s what I call Found Footage!
Naturally, the internet soon began to speculate about these delays, with some fans going so far as to suggest that there were legal issues afoot due to the director’s supposed use of actual snuff footage in the picture (which obviously wasn’t the case), as well as fear of backlash by the Poughkeepsie police department. Meanwhile, bootleg copies of the film slowly made their way online, with snippets of the then-unreleased picture being used to promote popular internet legends like The Grifter. It was extremely common to see footage from The Poughkeepsie Tapes being paired with doctored screenshots from A Serbian Film when browsing creepypastas online.
I only bring this backstory up because I had these associations in mind when I first laid eyes on a bootleg DVD of the film back in 2010, and I think that a little bit of context helps with the Found Footage viewing experience. While the movie would eventually be released on VOD in 2014, and Scream Factory graced us with an official Blu-Ray release in 2017, by then it was much harder for audiences to be in the right state of mind to properly engage with the picture’s simulated reality.
This is a huge shame, as I believe the film boasts some of the most terrifying moments in all of Found Footage – all without resorting to monsters or jump-scares. In fact, the mere description of the killer’s actions is often more impactful than the accompanying VHS footage, with law enforcement struggling to process the horrific aftermath of a single man’s rampage. I particularly appreciate how the movie plays with the expectation of horror, like the scene where a couple of girl-scouts show up at the killer’s door attempting to sell cookies, or the creeping dread when a victim slowly realizes that the man giving her a ride isn’t a cop.
Of course, not everything is that subtle, with the film making use of various serial killer movie tropes during its more exaggerated moments. For example, there’s a staged interview with the infamous Ted Bundy, with the real-life killer (portrayed by a lookalike on grainy CCTV footage) giving the authorities advice on how to apprehend the Water Street Butcher. There are also a couple of John-Carpenter-influenced POV sequences where the killer invades his victims’ homes while recording, though some of these are conveniently edited and fail to show the murders themselves.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
For 2007 standards, it’s hard to get scarier than this, but a decade-and-a-half of genre evolution means that in the year of our lord 2023, The Poughkeepsie Tapes simply doesn’t feel 100% authentic anymore. From the widescreen VHS footage to obvious digital filters – not to mention convenient camera placement – there are plenty of shortcomings that are likely to bother Found Footage and True Crime fans alike. Hell, the movie even perpetuates that myth about having to wait 24 hours before declaring someone missing, which is completely untrue.
There are also a handful of over-the-top performances and hammy line deliveries that make the film feel less convincing, especially among the supporting cast. That being said, I think the film’s solid collection of lo-fi scares more than makes up for these blunders. I mean, that final scene is honestly one of the most disturbing endings in Found Footage despite not really showing anything, and there’s a reason that the injection scene became so popular on the horror-oriented corners of the internet.
Of course, despite its factual shortcomings and a handful of unconvincing performances, The Poughkeepsie Tapes is still a fairly accurate representation of sensationalist True Crime from the 2000s. I remember watching tons of serial killer docs on Discovery Channel that looked and felt exactly like this film, though they would rely on dramatic re-enactments rather than recovered snuff footage. The movie is also somewhat prescient in its depiction of media frenzy making a situation worse, with the Dowdles preceding the podcasts and streaming shows that led to the massive resurgence of scary non-fiction. That’s why I think the film would have been much more successful had it been made and released today, though it would be a little harder to fool casual moviegoers.
Regardless, The Poughkeepsie Tapes remains a Found Footage landmark 15 years later despite never reaching mainstream audiences. While the movie boasts a sizable cult following among folks who watched it back when there was still a bit of mystery to the flick, I’d argue that it’s worth revisiting if you can put yourself in that mid-2000s headspace. It may not be for everyone, but even the harshest critics have to admit that we’ve yet to see a Found Footage antagonist as memorably evil as Edward Carver, so unearth these tapes at your own risk…
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