The Town That Dreaded Sundown

 

Here we go with our first film in this years Countdown To Halloween Blog-A-Thon The Town That Dreaded Sundown.  This 2014 (don't you dare call it a remake) sequel to the same named 1974 original picks up nearly 70 years later.  The film starts at a drive in movie (some of us remember those and some of us, fewer and fewer everyday, have actually been to one) on the Texarkana border where they are watching the original film from '74; which I thought was a nice touch.  In fact, this film is filled with nice touches so kudos goes to Blumhouse right off the bat.  There's a Halloween reference for ya: "off the bat", damn I love "Dad Jokes"!  OK, not really, moving on.  They are watching the film in celebration of Halloween, so see, this one was made for this event!  The original film is based (albeit loosely) on the murders committed by a serial killer in 1946 called The Texarkana Moonlight Murders.  The killer, labeled The Phantom Killer, was never identified or apprehended.  As I said this one is produced by Jason Blum and also Ryan Murphy of American Horror Story fame.  Also from American Horror Story is the director, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.  The film is written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa from Marvel and Archie comics fame. 

 

    

 

The film stars Addison Timlin, this one's Final Girl.  Starring, as her grandmother, is the legendary Veronica Cartwright.  Gary Cole (Office Space) plays Chief Deputy Tilman one of the officers investigating the new murders.  Anthony Anderson (from TV's Blackish and To Tell The Truth) plays "Lone Wolf" Morales the Texas Ranger who is in charge of the case.  It also stars, in their final roles before their deaths, Edward Hermann (Lost Boys, Gilmore Girls, and The Practice) and Ed Lauter (Cujo, Girls Just Want To Have Fun, and True Romance) as Reverend Cartwright and Sheriff Underwood respectively.

    

  

As I said earlier, the film is loaded with nice touches.  Sure there is the expected gore but some of the kills are very original and I can't say that I've seen some of them committed before in quite the way they are here.  So I give it some credit for that and while the film does fall apart a bit at the end, it's still fairly worthwhile entertainment.  Especially consider the nice compact run time of less than 90 minutes, proving it certainly doesn't drag.  All in all I liked it slightly more than the original film and I give it three and a half murder trombones (that was also used in the original so I haven't seen a trombone used as a murder weapon in about 45 years) out of five.  In the mean time I have asked Gary Cole to keep his eye on you.  Happy first day of October!