Prime Video Just Added a Notoriously Banned Found Footage Movie So Disturbing Some People Can’t Even Finish It

Found footage horror movies aim to be unsettling, but few are so disturbing that some viewers can’t finish them. A 2007 entry into the genre blurred the lines between fiction and reality so well that it became one of the most unsettling and disturbing films of its genre and was nearly impossible to watch for years, but brave viewers can now check it out on Prime Video.

Technically speaking, The Poughkeepsie Tapes was never officially banned by any government body, but its extremely disturbing, hyper-realistic content depicting torture, brainwashing, and stalking resulted in it being shelved by MGM for nearly a decade, resulting in it commonly being referred to as a banned movie. John Erick Dowdle’s fictional mockumentary was slated for a theatrical release in February 2008, but was abruptly yanked from schedules after its premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. It took seven years for The Poughkeepsie Tapes to finally be released on VOD by DirecTV in 2014, only for it to be pulled again shortly after before eventually getting a proper home release in 2017, followed by a wider availability on streaming beginning in 2020. Fans brave enough can now stream the movie on Prime Video after it joined the Amazon platform on April 1st.

The Poughkeepsie Tapes Is One of the Most Controversial Found Footage Horror Movies Ever

Play video

If you’re planning to watch The Poughkeepsie Tapes on Prime Video, take this as a warning: the movie is not for everyone. The film is one of the most polarizing entries into the found footage genre. The movie is presented as a faux-documentary chronicling the investigation into a sadistic serial killer’s decade-long reign of terror. The movie features interviews with law enforcement and victims’ families interspersed with the disturbing tapes police recovered of his crimes.

Read Next

5 Horror Movies That Are So Scary, You Can Only Watch Them Once

The movie is an exceptional use of the found footage format, using raw, low-quality, VHS-style footage to create an authentic, documentary-style, and highly disturbing aesthetic that led some early viewers to believe it featured real snuff footage. But its status as a highly realistic, uncomfortable experience and a realistic portrayal of sadism and psychological abuse has proven to be too much for some viewers. The Poughkeepsie Tapes features detailed, disturbing scenes focused on the torture and humiliation of the killer’s victims, particularly the lead character, Cheryl. The film’s unyielding approach to its topic is too much for some viewers to stomach, causing some to turn the film off and adding to its status as a deeply disturbing, effective, and often hard-to-watch entry in the found footage genre.

Other Horror Movies Now on Prime Video

If The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a movie you’d rather avoid, or if you’re simply looking for something else to watch after, Prime Video has plenty of other horror movies freshly streaming. April has brought movies like Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Lifeforce, Teen Wolf: The Movie, The Menu, and The Prodigy. To the platform, as well as two decades-old horror films and their more modern remakes – both the 1979 and 2005 versions of The Amityville Horror and the 1988 and 2019 versions of Child’s Play.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!