Review of The Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014) by Bryan B — 09 Apr 2017

The list of grindhouse horror classics that were rebooted and worked well is pretty short ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Hills Have Eyes" are two that did work), and this one mostly works and had a clever twist on not simply being a remake or reboot.

The premiss here is that 65 years after the masked serial killer in Texarkana went on his killing spree, a new copycat killer is now recreating the murders from the 1970s Charles B. Pierce grindhouse film version of the actual murders.

This film boasts a producer, director, and writer from the American Horror Story team, so you would expect something clever and this film does deliver. I think I was most excited when this film brought the Pierce film into the story as a major plot point, including creating a creepy fictional son of Pierce played by AHS regular Denis O'Hare, making the film rather meta.

Also appearing in the film are Veronica Cartwright, Anthony Anderson, Gary Cole, Edward Herrmann, Ed Lauter, and even Danielle Harris if you look fast. Overall, this was a clever reboot that although it's not as scary or creepy as I'd have hoped, is smart and never boring.