John Erick Dowdle’s THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES is a film we’ve been waiting over ten years for, as you can see by the date on this article from when the film’s trailer was first released online. After playing some festivals, it had been scheduled for a February 2008 release by MGM, but then those release plans were abandoned and the film has been shelved ever since. It was briefly given a VOD release back in 2014, but was then pulled and stuck back in the MGM vault.
Bolstered by the reputation of THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES, Dowdle went on to direct the [REC] remake QUARANTINE, M. Night Shyamalan’s DEVIL, AS ABOVE SO BELOW, and NO ESCAPE, but most horror fans still haven’t had the chance to watch his most famous (or infamous) movie.
The folks over at Scream Factory have announced that they are going to right this wrong and finally release THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES into the world on DVD and Blu-ray. Information on special features aren’t available yet, but the company has provided a look at the cover of the DVD / Blu-ray combo pack and set a release date: THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES will be hitting home video in the US and Canada on October 10, 2017.
The film has the following synopsis:
Throughout the 1990s, a serial killer terrorized upstate New York. After a decade-long crime spree conducted largely under the radar of law enforcement, the killer left behind the most disturbing collection of evidence homicide detectives had even seen – hundreds of homemade videotapes that chronicled the stalking, abduction, murder and disposal of his victims.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes examines these horrific tapes at length: what they reveal about the killer, why they were made and how FBI profilers have used them to better understand violent, psychopathic behavior. The Poughkeepsie Tapes combines interviews surrounding the devastating impact of the "Water Street Butcher," with shocking footage from the tapes themselves.
“What the hell is going on with THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES?” has been one of the biggest mysteries of horror for the last decade. Thanks to Scream Factory, that’s not going to be much of a mystery anymore.