A serial killer obsessively documents his career in carnage in this pseudo-documentary thriller. When police raid a house in upstate New York, they discover a profoundly disturbing record of one man's ugly crimes. A psychotic serial killer once called the house his home, and along with the implements of his grisly pastime, investigators find over 240 hours of videotape shot by the killer which present a visual record of his murders in all their horrifying details. Both state and federal law enforcement teams sift through the gruesome images, looking for clues of the slayer's identity, the identity of his victims, and where he could possibly have gone. But repeated viewings of the material reveal little beyond the terrible facts of the crimes, and as the authorities comb through the madman's images, they find the tapes have had a disquieting effect on them. Written and directed by John Erick Dowdle, The Poughkeepsie Tapes was screened in competition at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide