The Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014) Review
"Maybe we could jerk off together?"
Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon Writers: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Earl E. Smith
The Town that Dreaded Sundown is a sequel/remake of a film of the same name from 1976 and yes a sequel slash remake. It's quite clever in that sense, the murders and previous movie are cannon in this film but a lot is remade and re-imagined for a modern audience. A lot of modern remakes and horror movies in general have fell into a pretty shitty formula that is pretty glaringly oblivious when watching them and I'm glad to say that I enjoyed this one!
As the story goes Texarkana had a pretty famous serial killer known as The Phantom who terrorized the town and was never really identified, a film was made based on the murders and murderer and every Halloween the film was shown at a drive in. 65 years after the original murders Jami (Addison Timlin) a high school girl and her boyfriend Corey (Spencer Treat Clark) are viewing the original film on Halloween at the drive-in. Jami, not being a fan of the film decides to leave, so she and Corey drive up for some alone time on a romantic cliff side. The Phantom, a lot like the one from the film shows up to perv on them and murders Corey but leaves Jami alive and no one is quite sure why. An investigation takes place as more murders replicating the first murders go on. Jami gets very involved herself and it seems the killer still has an interest in her as she tries to find out who the killer really is. Not the most inventive slasher movie plot but I think it's pretty effective in the way it's delivered and it's relevance the to the original movie.
The character Jami is likeable and pretty sweet and as where a lot of recent horror movie girls have not been compelling, Jami is a little better at it. She's not amazing but her little connection to the murderer keeps her interesting. Travis Tope plays Nick who is Jami's love interest in the movie, he's a little socially awkward and plays the part well enough, if not a little creepy like. The other character I would like to mention is Lone Wolf Morales played by Anthony Anderson (Yes the guy from a couple Scary Movie films) is pretty fun, I'm use to seeing him in comedy roles and although he isn't in this film too much, he is oddly likable.
The direction of the film is quite artsy and a lot of the camera work is experimental but I kind of liked it, there are some really nice shots in this movie. I loved the way some of the kills were filmed and a lot of them built up suspense while others were shocking without being over the top with jump scares. I'll also note the use of colors which is sometimes very apparent and sometimes underused like they forgot about it too much to make it consistent enough. Quickly noting the effects were pretty good too, though they seemed to go a bit too wacky in a couple of scenes which would work really well in a movie like Evil Dead but in a down to earth slasher movie like this it's a little out of place.
I'm going to talk about the killer, I really like the simple design. Just the sackhead is pretty effective and he talks a little too, actually I guess there's a couple of Scream inspired parts in this movie. Also when the killer is breathing heavily you can seem the sack movie closer to his mouth and back away, shit like that is awesome. As an effective killer he's pretty good, I mean he can use an array of weapons well and can look pretty seedy just standing there staring at you. Makes me think of a smarter Jason Voorhees.
Not too much to say about the soundtrack, it does it's job fine but nothing really remarkable. It's the moments where silence is used well that are the most effective anyway.
The Town that Dreaded Sundown consistently shocked me and I think it does a good job of distancing itself from the original and current remakes. They also have a homosexual couple scene in this, which you never see, it's always hetero followed by hetero scenes. Unfortunately the scene was really awkward and it kind of felt really obvious to the point where it defeated it's own idea by making the situation stand out and not really fit in like it Casually should. It's like whoever wrote it didn't understand what a homosexual was. Maybe they didn't represent Texarkana that well but I've never been there and I've seen people say that it is really like that so I don't know. Altogether I quite enjoyed this movie, it has a few flaws and it's oddly pretentious for a gory slasher movie but hey, it's a lot better than well, a lot of gory slasher movies.
Rating: ***½
Better than: My Bloody Valentine
Worse than: Scream
Definitely watch if your into slashers or horror in general but if you're more of a casual watcher, it isn't necessary. Also I still think The Town that Dreaded Sundown is the greatest name for a movie ever.
