The Poughkeepsie Tapes

(2006) ****

Done documentary style, this found footage film gives an account of the notorious Water Street Killer. This was done well enough that my son Paul and my friend Liz had both seen clips on YouTube and thought that it was real. I looked it up on YouTube and we all watched this:

Afterward, I said, “There is no way that’s real, they would have pulled it from the site.” So I searched and discovered that it was a film done as a mocumentary. There in fact was a real serial killer in Poughkeepsie who had murdered eight victims, but did not videotape the murders. The filmmaker swears he knew nothing about the real guy when he made this. After informing Liz and Paul that what they had seen was not real, their shoulders relaxed in a visible sigh of relief.

The film reads like one of those shows on Trutv or the History Channel. We see interviews with police, parents of victims, psychologists and several others, all intermingled with video footage found at the killers residence. Some of the scenes are downright bone chilling.

I watch a lot of shows about serial killers, like Forensic Files and Notorious. I know I’m a sick fuck, but the idea that someone could totally lack compassion and torture another human being just baffles the shit out of me, so it interests me. This film is superbly done like one of those shows. The footage is grainy and somewhat distorted at times, but believable. Great film, if you can handle torture and depravity.