Ever the ultimate "ambiguous location in upstate New York" setting, Poughkeepsie has remained relatively away from mainstream media.
Its proximity to Canada and its Indian American foundations, however, make it an ideal location for horror movies.
Also, if Hollywood has taught us anything, it's that films where the characters feel removed from the rest of the world should take place here.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a 2007 horror film which revolves around a serial killer's life-long devotion to murder. The veracity of its footage has resulted in countless gigas of cyberspace devoted to forums discussing whether it's based in a true story or not. It isn't. Poughkeepsie did have a serial killer once (a man called Kendall Francois was convicted of 8 murders in 2000), but the filmmakers have stated that they only heard of him when their movie was finished. While the topic matter won't do much for the city's touristy potential, it did put it Poughkeepsie in everybody's mouth for a while.
Your best chance of seeing Poughkeepsie from home, though, is to study the opening scenes of Niagara Niagara, a 1997 indie drama starring Henry Thomas (the boy from ET). They were shot on location and you get to see The Mentalist's Robin Tunney in one of her finest performances.
The city also caused a lot of problems to one of the characters from Friends in the season 4 episode "The One With The Girl from Poughkeepsie". In it, Ross experienced the pains of extreme commuting by attempting to date the girl from the title.
A final note: Poughkeepsie is nothing like the version seen in one of the final episodes of Melrose Place. Just in case you were wondering.