Review of The Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014) by Jairo A — 26 Oct 2015

A somewhat remake, somewhat meta-sequel to the first film from the 70s that ups the ante and thankfully drops the comedic elements, but it also falls into the trap of being too similar to other slasher films and fails to leave a credible mark.

Right off the bat the film establishes that it lives in a modern world, where the movie, The Town That Dreaded Sundown is screened every year in Texarkana and a copycat killer has resurfaced to continue the legacy started 65 years ago.

The leap in quality from the original to this film is staggering and we're given a polished, well-directed film that uses long panning takes to its advantage and there is a constant unease that the killer can pop up at any time.

The actors range from familiar to brand-new faces and the stand-out is clearly Addison Timlin as the main character, Jami, and more surprisingly character actors like Anthony Anderson and Gary Cole are wasted! As the film goes on it becomes apparent that the killings are near-identical re-enactments of the most famous scenes from the original and it honestly makes me wish this was the only version because the first film can't be more irrelevant now.

It's nothing outstanding and the ending "twist" feels borrowed from another popular horror franchise, but it's certainly a rare case where the remake is better than the original and there is a really great jump-scare early on that actually got me!