When hundreds of hours of videotapes are found in an abandoned house in upstate New York, a multi-agency task force uncovers the most disturbing collection of evidence that homicide detectives have ever seen. Revealing a decade-long reign of terror, the tapes chronicle a serial killer's gruesome work: the stalking, abduction, torture, murder and dismemberment of his victims. Brutal and engrossing, The Poughkeepsie Tapes takes us through the methodology required to identify, hunt and capture such a killer. State law enforcement agencies and the FBI piece together the horrifying footage taken by the killer himself along with the evidence and clues gathered over the past decade in separate investigations. But as the police race to sift through the grisly clues, they are eventually led straight back to where they began. With every new clue, more questions begin arise. How can you track a serial killer that has no pattern? How can you catch an evil so cunning that it quite possibly knows police procedure better than the experts? By weaving the graphic images on the tapes with interviews of police investigators, FBI profilers and victims' families, the filmmakers have carefully constructed a journey that seamlessly moves from stoic police routine to a quick zigzag along the dark and twisted path carved out by an arguably psychopathic genius. Director John Erick Dowdle's flawless composite seamlessly connects the many pieces that represent the killer and his crimes, building a crescendo of tension that bounces between dread and hope.