The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2015): Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
This story picks up 65 years after a masked serial killer terrorized the small town of Texarkana, when the brutal “Moonlight Murders” suddenly begin again. While on a trip to Lovers’ Lane, 17-year-old Jami (Addison Timlin) watches as her date is brutally slain by a masked serial killer. Barely escaping with her life, Jami becomes obsessed with finding the killer referred to as “The Phantom.” As the body count mounts and the carnage comes closer, Jami delves deeper into the mystery with the help of the town archivist Nick (Travis Tope), following clues that point her toward the killer’s true identity.
We’ve all seen so many remakes of classic horror films and they usually end up less than satisfactory so going into this movie I was already a bit reluctant. What I ended up realizing is that this is more than just a remake. The interesting part is that they acknowledge the original film and mention it as a movie based on a crime from 30 years prior. It had a little bit of a Scream vibe to it as they would refer to the movie that was made, almost using it as a blueprint for where the killer was going to strike next. It even had an ending that was somewhat similar. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen the original film so I can’t entirely recall if Scream took inspiration from it or if this version took inspiration from Scream (probably the former if I had to put my money on it). It was the typical Slasher film formula which I expected but it was the unique kills that I thought really made the movie. There was a trombone kill (yes, you read that right) in there that made me both chuckle and say “Damn, that’s screwed up” at the same time. The film is perfect if you’re looking for a new-ish kind of Slasher movie to check out but just know that if you’ve seen many others before then it’s typically the same thing. 7/10
