THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (#TADFF Review)

THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN

Starring Addison Tamlin, Veronica Cartwright and Travis Tope

Ok, so I’ll admit it; I’ve never seen Charles B. Pierce’s 1976 mockumentary slasher film, THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN. Well, I’ve seen 20 minutes of it, then shut it off and went to bed. It’s not often that I turn a movie off like that. This film apparently has a cult following too, but then again, so many horror fans have remarkably low standards sometimes. Having never seen the original in its entirety, I could go into the remake with neither high nor low expectations and I’m glad I did. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s updated tale of a masked killer is bloody, surprising and ridiculously fun.

Taking place in the small Texas town of Texarkana, where numerous violent killings took place some 60 years earlier, this film is neither a remake nor a direct sequel. On a night when the original film is playing at a drive-in (fun fact, the town screens the original movie every year for free), a killer is on the loose and has attacked Jami (Addison Tamilin) and left her date for dead. Struggling to know the identity of her attacker, she takes it upon herself to find out just who is stalking the town, masked just like the original killer.

While there are a few moments of tension through the film, THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN is a fun slasher flick through and through. The kill scenes are quite bloody; in fact some of them literally splatter blood everywhere you could imagine. There is even a trombone kill that will satisfy fans of the original. The script is well written and seemed to take a page out of the SCREAM handbook; it will keep you guessing who the killer is right until the very end too. It’s meta references to the 1976 film actually keep things interesting, and the stylistic single frame images of scenes form the original help to give the film a context for viewers.

If you are able to catch this film soon, it’s a perfect film for a late night with a group of friends who love a fun slasher story. Even though I can’t say how it compares, I liked this one enough to not want to go back and revisit the original.

Your turn!

How many sheep would you give The Town That Dreaded Sundown?

[kkstarratings]