Make no mistake about it: The Poughkeepsie Tapes is purely fictional. Nevertheless, newcomer John Erick Dowdle's terrifying tribute to cinema verite comes with an interesting concept—a film pieced together from 2,400 hours of amateur footage shot by a serial killer as he terrorizes then murders his victims. Sure, it's part Blair Witch Project and part Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but from the looks of the trailer (which surfaced on YouTube within the last month), this pseudo-snuff fright flick isn't strictly derivative. To the contrary, writer-director Dowdle's originality earned him a prestigious spot in Robert De Niro's Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. The Poughkeepsie Tapes is slated for an official release sometime next year. We'll keep an eye out for more details (and forgive the soundtrack's atmospheric orchestrations).
