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Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

ModernMike When I first heard about this film, I had seen the trailer before a film and then suddenly heard nothing more. Thankfully I had written the title down in the notes section of my cell phone because, had I not, I probably never would have seen this movie. I'm a student studying criminal justice with a particular interest in serial homicide. When I had broken my phone and synced my new phone with the old data I found the list of movies and noticed this was still on the list.This film takes you deep in the mind of a killer and his journey from amateur to, practically, professional level. I found the idea of having found a killer's old video documentation of his murders an interesting and great way for analysis through out the film. Personally, I have used this film for analysis in classes and my professors agree that it does help get into the mind of a killer.

InfinateANGELzPORTALz I really liked how its a totally different form&approach-more like a"Mock-umentary/Documentary"style,where the actors/characters are literally doing great,directed well w/what their parts directions go,adding great in combination w/the movies unveils!I love my various forms of Sci-Fi's,&of course Horror-type movies,they're my Top Favs(although I've seen my fair share of HUGE Movie Flops,even ones w/bigger Movie Budgets)!!I felt its all around,really great w/the overall movies story line concept.Most horror flicks have the usual things they're known for,like killing,blood guts&gore(not to forget the musics used for added dramatic effect in building up to an event during the movies beginning to end),&so on.Although,@the same time,they can also end up being pretty much another carbon-copy type of thing,or to where its even just flat out predictable,etc.But this one(without saying any Spoilers),as Id said before,uses a different angle,that to me feels like it also kind of uses the movies characters lines,&also how theyd been directed.Its what made me feel as though it was intentionally done this way,so each viewer interprets the movie using more of there minds thought process.To where I"filled in the blanks",w/the director uses more of the acting,so I come up w/my Own Interpretations&the feelings I get as I watched on,such as horrific pictures in my mind,my heart thumping thrill feeling, shared w/the dramatic,&/or mysteries from things said,described(or in some various parts that are shown,rather than having the "fed to me" of dramatic feelings(rather than through music effects&other traditionally used methods fed pretty much on a plate...Bottom line is everyone has their own opinions,and if you're every in the mood to try,I hope others give this movie a shot w/watching though!!

CinemaClown Definitely amongst the better examples of found footage horror, The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a downright shocking, extremely disturbing & profoundly scarring experience that offers an unnerving insight into the psyche of a sadistic serial killer, is filmed in a manner that makes its images look highly gruesome & realistic, and contains segments that's going to make its viewers flinch multiple times throughout its runtime.Shot in a faux-documentary style, The Poughkeepsie Tapes follows police investigators who recover around 800 videotapes after raiding an abandoned house in a city just north of New York. Within these tapes are recordings that unveil a sadistic killer's decades-long reign of terror during which he abducted, killed & mutilated nearly as many victims and recorded his crimes on camera. As they go through the tapes one by one, they find themselves severely affected by these horrific images.Co-written & directed by John Erick Dowdle, The Poughkeepsie Tapes is based on the real- life crimes committed by the notorious serial killer, Ted Bundy, and captures his crimes in a very grainy, messed-up & low-resolution style which does conceal the gruesome details of those recorded footages to an extent but in turn also allows the viewers' imagination fill in those gaps, thus leaving its audience utterly disturbed by the inhuman nature of it all. But it isn't just one brutal sequence after another for there is more to this film.It attempts to shape up the psychological profile of the serial killer although that part isn't very refined. The documentary style of shooting, interspersed with those tinted recordings bring a discomforting layer of its own, its 86 minutes of runtime is steadily paced, and even its cheap looking production ends up working in its favour. There's one particular scene in the story where we meet the killer's only surviving victim and to witness the entire effect of the prolonged torture on her psyche is not only troubling but equally heartbreaking as well.On an overall scale, The Poughkeepsie Tapes is undeniably a difficult film to sit through but it also left me pleasantly surprised with its interesting plot, captivating narration, menacing tone, relatively fine performances from its amateur cast and its uncanny ability to instil fear without showing everything on the screen. The tension is palpable at times and although it isn't devoid of its shortcomings, The Poughkeepsie Tapes ends up faring much better than my initial expectations and is one chiller I don't mind recommending to every horror fan out there. Definitely not for the squeamish!

badbones777 I was quite impressed with this film and definitely think it's worth a watch.It is low budget and in some instances the acting isn't stellar and occasionally some of the really dark sequences make it a bit too dark to see what is going on - normally this works fine as it makes your imagination do a lot of the work, but in one or two cases I really would have liked it a little brighter just so I could follow what was happening (mainly involving the killer moving and I didn't fully catch exactly what he was doing.) This is however a fairly minor gripe and I enjoyed the film and found it pretty engrossing.As many people have noted, the standout parts of the film involve the gradual breakdown and degradation of the Cheryl Dempsey character and the Master/Slave relationship that develops between herself and the killer. It was a surprisingly effective story and I don't think the film would be anywhere near as good without it.For the most part I like that the vast majority of the killers motives and so on go completely unexplained (though it does lead me on to one of my gripes later on). One of the FBI profilers offers some conjecture as to what might have driven the killer to do these ghastly murders but that is about it. The film also does a pretty good job of making you dislike the killer (some of the stuff he does is pretty awful and sadistic) and wanting background that is never provided - in most cases this works well as it makes the viewer feel the same level of exasperation as the authorities.That said....there were a few things that didn't work for me -almost all of them mechanical/technical details.1.) There is too much emphasis on how awesomely great the killer is. By this I mean things like not a single finger print being found at the house, etc didn't work for me. I began to wonder at one point if they were building toward a superhuman/supernatural angle and it did spoil some of my suspension of disbelief.2.) Partially tying in with the above point - the whole James Foley storyline. i seriously think this entire thing could be cut form the film and it would make the film a lot better. For starters, it only serves to make the killers skills laughably good rather than intimidating (the whole taking his sperm donations from a fertility clinic......I guess it's not impossible but I found the level of planning/resources and time involved in the frame job so ludicrously unlikely that I think the film suffers for it).Secondly, given that the killer actually approaches Cheryl Dempsey's mother and she becomes aware that he is the killer before he leaves just makes the whole Foley angle even more ridiculous. If Mrs Dempsey has met the killer then unless he was masked/heavily disguised (which would be rather odd at a crime scene) then she must have known enough to know that Foley was not the killer (I don't think she comments on the Foley angle at all in the film). I certainly think she would know enough to help narrow down some of the profiling issues the authorities have been having, unless the killer actually looks like Foley, but even then, that's a pretty good lead. No, for me the Foley angle weakens the film considerably.3.) While I realise that a lot of stuff goes unexplained in this (and as I mentioned above this is mostly actually a positive thing) I think at least some hint of a reason as to why the killer chooses Cheryl to be his "Slave" rather than a victim would have been good.Beyond that though it is a good film and I would recommend watching it.