I decided to watch this movie, but I didn't know what to expect really. The documentary style made everything more realistic and scary. This is in my opinion on how you should do an horror. The movie always create tension and you wonder what is going to happen. Unfortunately is not very famous and it is not for everyone, but if you are a fan of horror and thriller movies, this could be a small gem that you may want to watch.

It's not totally original, but it's interesting and well executed. I totally buy this as a real doc. Some really effective scenes.

Maybe it’s because I watched this movie post-“this is the most disturbing film ever” hype/chatter, but this movie was honestly so lame and boring, also super annoying with the 1990’s cartoon “bzzzt” static to imitate VHS film every transition.

The “shock” factor this film constantly tries to hit you with is very low budget and completely lost on a lead “actor” who hams it up like a high school play. Despite this guy doing “horrendous” things, it never feels authentic because it’s like it’s being done by an actor who prepared for this movie by watching Tom and Jerry.

This movie goes super edgy with including children, yet something that should be the penultimate disturbing concept, again, feels so cartoonishly fake with the dialog that it’s almost like it was written BY a child.

I’m not an edgelord who likes extreme content, honestly I avoided this film for years because of its reputation, thinking I couldn’t handle something deemed SO “disturbing.” But it’s not, it’s more akin to a high schoolers film project than a scary movie.

In times of popularity of documentaries about real murderers, the film repeats the pattern. But it was created 18 years ago as a para-documentary, so what was its purpose then?

It is a good concept, the impact is way overhyped. And the shitty tape effects just kill the energy, yeah vhs sucked but it wasn’t that bad and it’s used to be lazy or cheap with fx.

The idealogy behind it is clever, delivery is interesting but for a film hyped up to me as a truly disturbing piece, I have to be honest and say I've seen far worse.

Complete piece of crap this film is.

THIS is how you do found footage movies.

If only the killer recorded with a new VHS tape each time he filmed a killing. All you hear is voices, screaming, slapstick and a camera swaying back and forth. You cannot really see what is going on in the shocking footage left on the tapes. You have to wait until after the scene to have an actor to tell you what you have just seen. Scary? Not to me. The actors in the mockumentary were not the worst, but some of their scripts were just bad. One guy talks about his wife walking in on him watching the tape and she would not let him touch her for a year. That's something an investigator would want the whole world to know. Many such instances as this made me wonder if the makers of the film were making fun of FBI profiling and True Crime television shows in general and left wondering if I was in fact watching a dark comedy.

Interesting concept but the bad acting let's it down a bit. If they reigned in the gruesomeness of the tapes it would also be a bit more believable.

Probably the best found footage movie I've seen. Not the best narrative maybe, but in terms of realism, this is the best you can get. Actually disturbing and chilling, it looks _real._

In anticipation of the many true crimes documentaries that are released now, this "found footage movie" has something disturbing about it. Although it does not work at the documentary level, due to the low credibility of the interpretations, it does work in the representation of the supposedly found recordings. This distortion of the images, although it is a stylistic signature that goes beyond the imitation of reality to create its own, almost experimental language, builds some of the most discomforting moments in recent horror cinema.

i"m not sure what to think, i mean its just a fake documentary about a serial killer. i guess i could watch a real one with far more insight into the materia. i hoped this has some supernatural element of sorts. not bad but kinda useless.

One of the eeriest and most disturbing found footage movies about a fiction serial killer than most movies about serial killers.

I can't fully explain why, but the movie has that icky feeling to it. It's something that anyone with a human consciousness should not be exposed to.

Catching up before it's leaving Shudder. This is a fictionalized found footage documentary film about a serial killer who left behind hundreds of homemade videos that chronicled his crimes after a decade long crime spree conducted under the radar of law enforcement, from him stalking to child abduction, imprisonment, and torture. I'm glad I went in with zero expectations because this one really gets under my skin! This film is downright disturbing that I'm certain it'll stick with me for a long time. It's well directed that it ALMOST feels like a legitimate true crime documentary. There are some really fucked up content inside the tapes, genuinely made me feel I'm not supposed to be witnessing them. One thing that bothers me is in some videos they put too many effects on top. I get that the grainy and distortion effects give them authentic feel but it's a bit too much and they end up looking fake.

That was really good. I truly wish though that they had found and arrested the killer. Even though it’s not real I feel a sense of longing for more in there sense that the case isn’t left as unsolved.

Great movie.