Movie Details
| Title: | The Poughkeepsie Tapes | |
| Director: | John Erick Dowdle | |
| Year: | 2007 | |
| Genre: | Mockumentary | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 12.09.07 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 12.09.07 | Alamo Ritz | This Screening is part of event: Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9 fake title: M trailers: -Man Beast -W -Three in the Cellar -The Evictors Drew got up and tried to sell this as a straight documentary. It works for like half a scene until you see how bad the actors are and how stilted and unrealistic the dialogue is. From then on, it's a conscious decision whether to take this as an incredibly unfunny comedic look at the wacky world of serial killers or a badly-made Blair Withch-esque thriller using the documentary form to tell another familiar serial killer story. Except once or twice, I didn't really get any vibe that this was "supposed" to be funny at all. The guys next to me were damning it for making fun of such horrible subject matter but there's way too much straight brutality footage and interview stuff to think that the occasional absurd comment is funny. I hate to say this but it was really terrible. Unwatchably bad. It just didn't work. If it was trying to be serious, everything lacked the authenticity needed to sell it. And should it really be a question of whether or not it's supposed to be funny? Shouldn't we just KNOW if it's supposed to be funny? If it was supposed to be funny, these guys need to watch more Howie Mandel or something. So... afterward Tim said the filmmakers were supposed to be here but got caught up in travel. I heard though... that they were here and chickened out on their Q&A. Probably wise for them although I would've been curious to hear them defend their film. As for the audience, this was the first in an increasingly brutal run of films that I believe left no one unaffected. |
