The Poughkeepsie Tapes - Blu-ray + DVD

This might be the first movie I had to stop watching and take a break before finishing it. It is very intense. I know not everyone will agree with me, but if you actually allow yourself to be immersed in the story they are telling it is horrifying. Cheryl's story broke me. I had to stop watching and walk away for about two days. The acting may not be the best, but the story and ideas behind the story are horrifying and really kept me up at night. I am a huge horror movie fan and I almost completely walked away from this movie because it messed with me so badly. I will watch horror movies back to back, but this one made me want to turn on some children shows to decompress. I ended up googling the ending to be able to make it through the movie.

I heard good things about this movie before watching it, but was very disappointed.The movie presents itself as an ultra-realistic mockumentary, but the acting of the people being interviewed and very unbelievable plot points create an unpleasant contrast.SPOILERS:The killer lets two Girl Scouts into his house who's parents are nowhere in sight. This is supposed to be the 90s, not the 50's. Parents don't let their 10 year old daughters wandering around town knocking on strangers doors alone. The girls hear violent sounds coming from the killers basement while inside his house, yet don't mention this to their parents at all.The FBI claims they couldn't find any physical evidence in the killer's entire house because "There were no fingerprints". You mean to tell me, they couldn't find a single strand of hair from the killer in his entire house? Seven can get away with this, as it's set in a fictional universe and sells itself as a thriller, not a realistic found footage movie.The kidnapped girls family allows the camera crew to interview her daughter alone only 2 months after returning home. She was also somehow allowed to return home in her fragile mental state.There are many more, but these stuck out to me as being particularly egregious.On another note, I find the way the FBI, police, etc gush over the killer's cleverness to be far too on-the-nose and honestly distasteful. It's as if the director is living out his serial killer fantasies on film.Also for a horror movie, it has zero scares and surprisingly lacks gore.POSITIVES:The movie only has 1 subtle jump scare.The graphics and film crew did a great job of making the video and photos look like the 90s. The high school photo looks straight out of a yearbook. The news clip looks very authentic as well.Overall, skip this movie and watch Noroi, if you're looking for a good found footage horror movie.

I have no idea if this is a documentary or not after seeing other reviews. I had been watching other serial killer documentaries and this one popped up. I was listening to it mostly while working.That being said, I'm still disturbed by it, especially Cheryl. I actually begged my daughter, who has a psychology degree, to watch it and give me her opinion. I actually gagged a few times and said oh my God so much a coworker asked me what I was watching.All the bad reviews from people who laughed their way through this film: that in itself disturbs me. There are serial killers who have done these types of things and more. That is in part what makes this film so believable and frightening.Still disturbed and not sure I could try to rewatch it.

This is not the greatest horror film ever, but it's pretty damned good!It's more "fake documentary" than "found footage," but it IS put together in an interesting and thought provoking way.Let me put it another way,If the acting in some scenes were any more realistic, the film would be unwatchable to all but the most hardcore sociopaths!Complaints about the "found footage" from the supposed tapes completely ignore artistic license. I get WHY it was done the way it was done.I have seen a LOT of really BAD attempts to do what this movie does, but this is not one of them!Instead of relying on jump scares etc, this film gets into your head and makes you THINK! I guess some reviewers either can't appreciate that or don't like that sort of thing, ... their choice, fine, but for a relatively low-budget indie film, this is a DAMN good first start for this director!And I absolutely LOVED the twist involving 9-11!!!I did NOT see it coming even when I saw it coming!But not only was that part realistic- (there's DOZENS of similar cases of stories that would otherwise be national "front page" news events that are shadowed coincidentally by much bigger events,) that part was spot-on!So, no, it's not the greatest horror movie ever, but it's WAY better than I expected after reading the reviews!Let me put it another way:There are WORSE movies than this one that I actually enjoyed, and I DID enjoy this one!