Is a video of a woman crying while tied up from the Epstein files released by the U.S. Department of Justice? No, that's not true: The footage is from a 2007 mockumentary-style horror film titled "The Poughkeepsie Tapes." The video exactly matches footage from the movie that is easily found on the internet.
The claim appeared in a post with the video on the X.com account @Hey_jahid26 (archived here) on March 31, 2026. It opened:
The Epstein files...
Cannibalism. Rape. Murder. Pedophilia.
Not a single arrest. Not a single investigation.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post from @Hey_jahid26 on X.com.)
This is what the video looked like on X at the time of writing:
The Epstein files...
-- JAHID (@Hey_jahid26) March 31, 2026
Cannibalism. Rape. Murder. Pedophilia.
Not a single arrest. Not a single investigation. pic.twitter.com/6SmDduzulg
A reverse image search on Google Lens of a screenshot from the video produced a match to the 2007 mockumentary horror film "The Poughkeepsie Tapes" (archived here), as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: screenshot from Google Lens.)
Here is footage posted on YouTube that matches the video posted on X. The caption notes this was taken "from the movie The Poughkeepsie Tapes":
A post on the ScreenRant (archived here) notes that the movie is not real but is based on true stories:
The Poughkeepsie Tapes aren't real, but they are based on true stories. The Poughkeepsie Tapes starts with a police raid on a house in Poughkeepsie, New York, where the disturbing discovery of over 800 videotapes filmed by serial killer Edward Carver. The horrifying mementos document everything from his abduction process to the post-mortem mutilation in excruciating detail. While the titular 'Poughkeepsie Tapes' the movies focus on don't exist, they are incredibly brutal and disturbingly realistic -- though they are nothing compared to the events that they draw inspiration from.
Had there been a video of a woman tied up and screaming and crying found in the Epstein files it would have been major news. Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo! News (archived here) and did not find any matching legitimate news reports about the video.
