The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)

 

The definition of Remake is to make again or differently as a verb or as a noun a movie or piece of music that has been filmed or recorded again and re-released.  Now over the past few decades we have seen numerous remakes, revisions or reimaging of every kind of movie in Hollywood. Be it a little known old school film to a big budget film that Hollywood seemingly wants to try and cash in on again with a younger generation. Now most remakes are or are not as good as their predecessors, some of them can be defined as a remake but have little to nothing to do with the movie itself but simply have the films name instead. Now today's review is called a remake but to me its more a revision with a slight continuation of the original. A different take to the story and a twist.

 

 

Now the film does follow the original story of the original movie but its been spun a different way. As this film starts off with the annual showing of the film "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" on Halloween. Texarkana has become famous for this incident in their history and its believed that the killer is either alive or dead. But our main female character Jami Lerner explains her dislike of horror movies to Corey Holland after which they decide to leave the event and decide to go to a secluded area and begin to make out. It is there that Lerner notices the masked man and they decide to leave again but the masked man smashes through the glass window and holds them at gun point. The masked man makes a vow to make everyone remember and that this is all for someone named Mary. He forces Corey to undress partially and tells Jami to turn her back to him, in the hue of the car's brake lights Jami is horrified to watch Corey become the first victim. She escapes but is caught and attacked by the masked man. He leaves her for dead but she manages to crawl her way back to the drive-in where people find her and she awakens in the hospital. She is questioned and then she decides there and then to investigate why this has happened.

 

 

Now last year I watched the original film after Scream Factory had released a knock out blu-ray that I will recommend you buy if you haven't already. The feeling I had with that film as one of being shock and fear that this really happened somewhere. Though the film is loosely based on a real event the fact that at the time this film had the tagline that the killer possibly still lurked the streets. That to me when I was a kid tormented me cause this could've been anybody in the world. So to not know if this guy was dead or alive and if so could've easily been your next door neighbor. Yeah the fear was ramped up. This film that same feeling was there as you couldn't figure out who the killer until the very end. I would give it away but there are those out there that have yet to see this film and I will respect their wishes as to not release that info at the time cause lets face it when somethings spoiled its not easy to sit there for a few hours to watch something when you already know the outcome. But yes this film does stand next to its predecessor as an equal on par if not better. I went into this with the same notion I have with remakes this is either going to be really bad or surprise me.

 

 

I applaud both the director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon whose directorial debut is this film and the producer Ryan Murphy whose been doing very well for himself with that show on FX called American Horror Story. Gomez-Rejon and Murphy here took a film and spun it on itself giving us the finished product of a movie that's both remake and possibly a pseudo sequel if you want to call it that. The inclusion of a certain kill scene which everyone knows is the trombone scene has been redone here and just like the original scene's creepiness and unsettling nature that scene has the same feeling the viewer will have for the victim as they had for the original victim. Its not easy to watch cause your wondering is it really that necessary to stab someone that many times but then again this is a horror movie and those stabs are felt through out your body, like that chill you get that goes up your spine. The use of camera angles such as a chase scene through knee high grass causes a beautiful image of a maze-like atmosphere having you sitting there watching in hopes that this victim survives or dies cause of a mistake. And blurred imaging helps  as a way to blend the now with the past giving us a glimpse of what possible happened and why.

 

 

Now with the films twist in the story and the twisted ending. Which to me seemed kind of rushed if not how exactly did this ending come to be. I was slightly confused about the near ending cause your left to wonder how the killer got to where the main character was in a much more speedier time than then them. It made no sense and to me it was a distraction. I mean the ending was nicely done with the twist and you should be completely satisfied with the main characters outcome and where she's gone to but the use of what hides in the shadows could one day come back to haunt you. I will admit there was times that I was picking this person or that person as the killer but I was wrong completely about it. So this movie is available now anywhere you can buy your movies or your local cable provider should have it on their VOD service. Sorry but Netflix at the current moment only has the original streaming on their service, so if you haven't seen that now's your chance cause with Netflix you never know when it will disappear. So take it from me this film is worth your time and more than one viewing like some other remakes are tend to get.

 

 

          

reviewed by Bucky