Dir. John Erick Dowdle | Now Streaming On: Tubi | Rating: 2/5

I went into The Poughkeepsie Tapes with little information and really didn’t know what to expect. If I did more research on this, I might have been less disappointed. The short and long of this, is it really feels like exploitation horror, which as many of you already know isn’t really my thing.

Poughkeepsie is an interesting nugget of found footage history, as one of early and stand out horror mockumentaries. It serves as a midway point between Blair Witch and the fan favorite Lake Mungo. Due to its subject matter, it struggled to get a theatrical release and ultimately didn’t get officially released until 2014, a whole 7 years after its production. In many ways, this timeline really left Poughkeepsie to become overshadowed by the films that followed shortly after it.

The film is split between two main storylines. One is the police procedural piece, which has a very obvious dark comedy lens to it. The second is the snuff footage piece, which is exactly what you expect it to be. Did these sections succeed in making me viscerally uncomfortable? Yes. Did I come away with anything that I felt was worth this discomfort? No.

Poughkeepsie is exactly what it says it is, a mockumentary about a serial killer. It lacks storytelling prowess in that it doesn’t try to do anything but display violence. Nothing stands out about this. No skilled cinematography, no remarkable characters, no creative gore or SFX. I’ll be real with you, when you sit down to watch this, you’re going to sit through a little under 90 minutes of essentially torture porn to get no real measurable ending.

If that’s your thing, and no judgment if it is, then I’m sure you’ll love this. It takes a lot for me to enjoy exploitation or torture porn, but I do try to see it’s value beyond my taste. Unfortunately, I really don’t think Poughkeepsie brings anything memorable to the table.

Know Before You Watch: Features blood, flashing lights, discussions of sex crimes, murder, suicide.