An incredibly creepy found-footage film which left some viewers believing it was a real story is finally available to watch in the UK.
Set in a small town in the state of New York the movie is told through a combination of interviews, news stories and footage found on videos left in a house raided by the local police force.
Watch the trailer below:
Originally released back in 2007 and directed by John Erick Dowdle, The Poughkeepsie Tapes follows the story of serial killer Edward Carver (Ben Messmer). Police discover he has over 800 videotapes document the abduction abduction, murder and post-mortem mutilation of his victims. Which sounds like lovely light viewing.
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Despite having an overwhelming amount of evidence police struggle to track Edward down as he does not appear on camera with his face uncovered.
Now The Poughkeepsie Tapes may sound tame to f**ked up horror aficionados who enjoy watching movies such as the Terrifier franchise or anyone who has found themselves watching A Serbian Film or 2012's Found but the film actually struggled upon release.
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Originally shown at New York's Tribeca Film Festival in 2007, The Poughkeepsie Tapes was slated to get a theoretical release in 2008, however that never materialised. After being unavailable for several years, the film was briefly on a video-on-demand release for a month.
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It was a lack of access to the film has only garnered a cult interest for the film and which is now available to watch in the UK on Prime Video.
Perhaps the most disturbing part of the film is the fact that so many viewers had believed The Poughkeepsie Tapes was, to some degree, based on a true story.
"OK, I’m ignoring the caption because let’s really talk about how the Poughkeepsie tapes were so terrifying because we all thought that s**t was real. At least I did," one person wrote on X, while another added: "I told my hair stylist that my coworker thought the poughkeepsie tapes was based on true events for several years til i told him otherwise, & my stylist said his dad thought the movie was REAL SNUFF FOOTAGE & would not believe that he was wrong ????"
"My cousin showed me this when I was really young and told me it was real. I was terrified," a third person added on Reddit.
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One Redditor from Poughkeepsie even went on to reveal on a separate thread that some people in the town had even speculated about whether or not it was real at the time, writing: "I'm from Poughkeepsie, I was in like 11th grade when that movie came out and everyone was convinced it was real. It's not."
"We've only had one high-profile serial killer in the area and he's nothing like what the movie depicts."
So if you do wind up watching The Poughkeepsie Tapes you can sleep soundly knowing that it is 100% fictional.
Brenna Cooper