THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES

FBI agents, after years of intense investigations, trace the address of a brutal serial killer they have been hunting for a long time, but upon arriving at the Poughkeepsie residence, they will only find a large quantity of videotapes. The films, shot by the killer himself, will be viewed and carefully studied in order to trace the psychological profile of the man. This little-known film dates back to 2007 and is directed by the author of "Quarantine" (2008), "Devil" (2010), and the recent "Necropolis - City of the Dead" (2014). John Erick Dowdle seems particularly fond of found footage, experimenting with it for the first time and with good results in "Poughkeepsie Tapes". Although built on the typical clichés of the genre, the film in question presents well-developed elements of innovation ingeniously inserted into a context that is always dynamic and never predictable. Abandoning the classic cinematic canons, Dowdle decides to tell us the story of a sadistic killer in a documentary style, halfway between found footage and mockumentary. The American director is skilled at manipulating styles and genres that are now overused, crafting a work perhaps unique in its genre. The film is edited as if it were a television true crime program with interviews, testimonies, and reconstructions — all obviously fake — that retrace the highlights of the serial killer's life, nicknamed "The Butcher". The purely investigative part, which includes the analysis of the butcher's modus operandi and the chronological exposition of the facts, alternates with moments extracted from the videotapes made by the killer's own hand. The latter, dedicated to all kinds of atrocities and abuses (rapes, mutilations, necrophilia), indeed has the unhealthy passion of filming every phase of his criminal plan: from the stakeouts, to the kidnappings, to the tortures up to the inevitable conclusion. Such segments of "real life" (betrayed, however, by the presence of the soundtrack) positively influence the narrative rhythm, breaking the minute and terrifying accounts of the people directly involved and the professionals, and, needless to say, are the strong point of the film. Unlike what one might expect, the violence and brutality with which the maniac operates are never put on screen in a pornographic way but through framings and situations that leave ample space for the imagination, already morbidly stimulated by the chilling and detailed reports of the agents. This choice (probably dictated also by budget limitations), despite the lack of particularly gory episodes and the almost total absence of special effects, proves devastating for the viewer, especially from a psychological point of view. The shaky, grainy, and black-and-white amateur images timidly show the figure of the mysterious man, with theatrical movements and his face always hidden behind unsettling masks. To top it off, the shocking and disturbing testimony of one of the victims who escaped death, released after many years of captivity and affected by Stockholm syndrome. At the end of the film, it is legitimate to have some doubts about the non-authenticity of the entire story, not only because it enjoys an exceptional and rare realistic touch, but also because the portrait of the serial killer could easily correspond to that of one of the many American serial killers who actually exist and existed: a film not so much "film". Although the narrative component shows some gaps and is not the pinnacle of fluidity, the visual impact and mental involvement are so high that they make up for the lack. The director's greatest merit is undoubtedly having known how to manage with shrewdness and technical skill a story that is the fruit of imagination but with plausible content, highlighting the crudest and unhealthiest aspects inherent in an individual with a deviant and perverse personality. A disturbing, sick, and rotten film, capable of awakening a certain voyeuristic appetite wrapped in anguish and depravity, that slaps us in the face with an indescribable horror and, above all, terrifyingly real.