The Town That Dreaded Sundown is by far the best horror film I have seen all year. Finally someone got it right and gave us a story that not only has great kills, but an actual plot with substance.
The film's opening with throw you for a curve. It opens with a narration about the real life phantom killer mixed with scenes from the 1976 film of the same name. From there we get our introduction to the main cast as the camera does a beautiful crane shot from behind a screen showing 'Town 76'. Not five minutes after that we get our first kill of the film and meet our main girl Jami, played by Addison Timlin.
The cast for this semi-sequel is, in a word, perfect. You have Veronica Cartwright (The Birds,Alien) as the grandmother, Gary Cole (The Brady Bunch Movie, Office Space), Anthony Anderson (Scary Movie and Scream 4), Edward Hermann (The Lost Boys, Voice of the History Channel) and topped of with Ed Lauter (Shameless, The Artist). Each one brings their years of experience to the screen and play their given role with outstanding believability.
What really seals the deal on this film is the intercutting of the original film scenes to show the parallels of the film to the new copycat killer. The film really owes most of its greatness to Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and his Director of Photography Michael Goi. These two together have created some beautiful and iconic perfect shots. The use of the split diopter is, again, perfect.
The kills and effects are a thing of Beauty, almost everything seen happens in camera the practical way. I think I caught one scene with a digital touch and in my book that is a win for the practical FX community.
The story here is solid and the plot movies at a steady pace, no drawn out or unnecessary scenes to be found here. If you are a fan of horror this is one that will draw you in and have you guessing till the last reel.
Final Word: The Town That Dreaded Sundown is not a remake, but a perfect companion piece to the 1976 film. It has a solid plot, great FX and shots that make the film look as though it had a unlimited budget. Don't wait to see this, watch it now as it is a perfect film for this, the perfect month of October.
Rating: 10/10 stars The best slasher film of 2014