The Movie Like The Poughkeepsie Tapes That Horror Fans Need To See
The found-footage horror sub-genre is littered with masterpieces and flops alike. For every film that doesn't live up to the hype, there's a hugely successful (and massively) chilling tale like "The Blair Witch Project," "REC," or "Cloverfield," there are countless others that simply don't live up to the hype. "The Poughkeepsie Tapes" took terror to a new level back in 2007. It follows the crimes of serial killer Edward Carver (Ben Messmer) as police officers find a mountain of tapes documenting his various heinous crimes. Each tape follows Carver abducting a victim (or victims) before mutilating them or assaulting them in horrific ways. Yeah, it isn't for the faint of heart at all.
Thanks to each tape containing a different murder, director John Erick Dowdle's "The Poughkeepsie Tapes" works like an anthology, but with Carver acting as the one thread tying it all together. For horror fans, "The Poughkeepsie Tapes" is a diamond in the rough — but thankfully, there are a few more out there too. The anthology style really lends itself to the horror genre, especially with found-footage as it allows filmmakers to focus in on one particular theme without worrying about stretching the plot and its characters to fit a feature-length runtime, instead focusing on scaring the audience half to death. So, if you liked the story of Edward Carver and the tapes of his crimes, here's another classic that you should see — if you dare.
Plenty of tapes in V/H/S
While it would be easy to simply recommend any other horror anthology movie like "The Mortuary Collection" or "The ABC's of Death" there's only one other film in recent years that captures the griminess of "The Poughkeepsie Tapes," and that's "V/H/S." One of the best things about it is that it's collectively produced by a handful of directors who all add their own flair to each segment. The story is framed with a group of criminals who are hired by a mysterious individual to steal a tape from a strange house — and that's where the fun begins.
Overall, there are six tales including the overarching narrative — and each one comes with gross body horror, bizarrely supernatural entities, and even a zombie thrown in for good measure. The "Amateur Night" segment sees a steamy situation take a monstrous, bloody turn that will no doubt make some men squirm, while others like "Tuesday the 17th" adds an almost "Black Mirror"-style twist to the slasher sub-genre. There's plenty to enjoy about "V/H/S," but it's largely so much fun because it's made by horror fans, for horror fans.
It was produced by Brad Miska and Bloody Disgusting, who assembled a team of directors to take on the challenge. Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, and Radio Silence all stepped up to the plate to deliver something pretty special. It's no wonder it was followed up with "V/H/S 2" and "V/H/S: Viral".