The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007/2009)
Sub-Genre- Serial Killer
In Attendance- Me.
Cast Members of Note- Um... No one really.
What's it about?- A bunch of people that couldn't get jobs as cops or "Experts" if they tried, participate in a "Documentary" about the worst serial killer the world has ever known... Ed! At least they think that's his name, though they're so inept that they don't have one clue about him even after he leaves them hundreds of videotapes of his crimes. Could they not run the make of his car? Was there seriously not one print or molecule of DNA in his house?
Inept police work aside, Ed sure knows how to have fun; making whores pop balloons while dressed in bikinis, raping random kids and women, terrifying innocent girl scouts, taking advantage of the kindness of strangers... and he tapes it all for posterity's sake. And for the sake of love, apparently, which is something he desperately wants to find.
Interviews, footage, interviews, footage, interviews, footage... I wont spoil the ending here, because it's so shocking, but let's just say that they never catch him.
The Good- Without even having seen this, I loved the premise; police find hundreds of video tapes belonging to a prolific local serial killer, each of them documenting his crimes in graphic detail. This movie contains some absolutely disturbing scenarios and images, courtesy of said tapes, and if you can lose yourself in the "Found tape" storyline, then you're in for a chilling ride.
The acting in this was 50/50; some of it was decent and believable "documentary" style performance, the rest was poor to bad, and seemed ad-libbed at times. Then again, the script was pretty poor in places too; a good example of this is when a frantic mother calls 911 to say she thinks someone took her 8 year old daughter, the 911 operator responds with "Like who?" in an uncaring, dismissive voice. Sub par acting along with a script that needed to be tighter, keeps this one from being a chilling modern day classic.
Overall, this was a disturbing and creepy movie, that would benefit from more professional hand tightening up of the bad production values and acting. And script.
The Bad- Did the filmmakers think that obscuring the look of the killers videos made them look more real? I've never seen a worse camcorder in my life... definitely as distracting as those of the Blair Witch and Cloverfield ilk.
The Downright Horrendous- Do you have to mess with the kids, Mr. Creepy-Video-Murder guy? I mean, all the girl scouts want to do is to sell their cookies, and make enough money for the troop to go to camp "I'll be a whore someday", not be killed in terrible ways by you. You're disturbing.
The Gory- Not much gore here, although there is a little bit of blood... this movie is more about disturbing visuals rather than graphic violence.
The Naked- Dead hooker boobs.
Best Line- "Pop it!" or "This is nothing. He doesn't even know what he's doing yet." or "To be honest, I don't think either of us are gonna want you alive for the things I'm going to do to you."
What did we learn?- Avoid nice guys with video cameras. Also, BDSM is scary.
Rating- C+ I have a feeling people will either love this movie, or downright hate it. Some things in this movie really worked, and some fell flat. I say see it; like The Blair Witch Project, it's interesting at the very least, an awesome movie at the most... that all depends on if the premise sucks you in or not though.
Final Thoughts- She's in this.
