For about a decade,The Poughkeepsie Tapeswas the stuff of legend, the type of movie that’s only found in a creepypasta. If you believed the rumors, thisdocumentary about a serial killerterrorizing Poughkeepsie, New York used real footage of that man assaulting, torturing, and murdering his victims. Obviously, that isn’t the case;The Poughkeepsie Tapesis a completely fictional film about a made-up serial killer, but that hasn’t kept the film from holding on to its “true story” legacy.
The Poughkeepsie Tapesopens with the discovery of the tapes themselves. After uncovering ten bodies in a residential backyard, Poughkeepsie Police unearthed something far more menacing — over 800 tapes from the killer, each detailing his heinous exploits. Composed of this found footage, interviews with experts, and one victim’s testimony,The Poughkeepsie Tapespieces together the story of the Water Street Butcher.
The film’s eerie mimicry of early 2000s true-crime shows likeForensic FilesandUnsolved Mysteriesis convincing, making it difficult not to get sucked into the “reality” of it all. Even today, people are tricked into believing that footage fromThe Poughkeepsie Tapesis real, despite the red flags pointing to the contrary. This claim to reality is a constant source of controversy for the film, as isits deeply upsetting content. But the thing that stands out most in complaints aboutThe Poughkeepsie Tapesis that it wasn’t the movie people preemptively decided it should be.
What Happened to The Poughkeepsie Tapes?
The Poughkeepsie Tapespremiered in 2007 at the Tribeca Film Festival where it was quickly snatched up by MGM for distribution. MGM marketed the movie heavily, but it would all prove a huge waste of money when the film mysteriously vanished from the studio’s 2008 release schedule. Though the movie could be found through less-than-legal means, it didn’t get a wide release until it hit VOD in 2014. Apparently, though, MGM thought they should be making more money off this venture and pulled it for a never-to-be-seen theatrical release. Finally, in 2017, Shout Factory released the movie on DVD and BluRay — just more proof of thevalue of physical media.
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For many of those early viewers, the “fun” ofThe Poughkeepsie Tapeswas the surrounding mystery. Is the footage real? Why did MGM pull it? Was it banned for being too extreme? These and a miasma of other questions swirled around online forums in the time from those early trailers to the movie’s eventual home release. This was all probably a far better ad campaign than any of the marketing team at MGM could have come up with, but the expectations of whatThe Poughkeepsie Tapescould be led some fans to be dissatisfied with what it actually is.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes Wasn’t Extreme Enough
The killer’s tapes are graphic, just not in the way most people expect.The Poughkeepsie Tapes’reputation preceded it; many fans found the movie a disappointment when it failed to live up to years of online hype. Much of the violence is offscreen, implied, or described but not shown outright, forcing the audience to imagine the most disturbing moments. For viewers that only knowThe Poughkeepsie Tapesby the stories they’ve read online, the lack of gore was a disappointment, but part of what makes the film so effective is its subtler approach.
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In whatDowdle callsthe “scariest scene in the movie,” the killer, posing as a police officer, picks up a hitchhiking woman looking for a ride to the nearest gas station. When Carver drives past the station, the woman’s face falls into an expression of absolute dread as she realizes that this is no police officer. Over the next six minutes, the audience is forced to watch as she hopelessly pleads for her life. In another horribly tense moment, Carver invites two girl scouts into his home. What ensues is a creepy conversation with Carver clumsily trying to get the girls to check out his basement. We know the depths of Carver’s depravity, but all we can do is desperately watch in terror and wait for something to go wrong.
The Tapes Aren’t Pretty
Even ifThe Poughkeepsie Tapesisn’t coated in bloodand guts, that doesn’t make the film any easier to watch; if anything, it’s more difficult without the distraction. Throughout the movie, we follow the story of Cheryl Dempsey, a teenager whom Carver kidnaps and tortures into complete submission. By the time we reach the end ofThe Poughkeepsie Tapes, Cheryl is battered and broken into an inhuman state. Thanks to the killer’s footage, we get to see the highlight reel.
The torture scenes are some of the hardest to sit through. Not only is the concept inherently nightmarish, but the unstable film quality and excessive sound of screaming are overwhelming to the senses. These moments make it abundantly clear why people continue to believe that scenes fromThe Poughkeepsie Tapesare real, especially when out of context.
Much more common among viewers, though, is the false belief that the film draws inspiration from real events. There was never a Water Street Butcher, but there have been several serial killers who seem to share his DNA including “Toy Box Killer” David Parker Ray and partners-in-crime Leonard Lake and Charles Ng. In part because of the closeness of Carver’s methods toreal-world serial killers, and in part due to our own imaginations of violence, it’s hardnotto believe in the Water Street Butcher.
