The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)

Going into this, I was expecting a remake, but it actually plays out as more of a sequel/follow-up to the 1976 original. I'm getting kinda tired of non-remakes being given the same title as their predecessor just because some time has gone by - i.e. "The Thing" prequel from a few years back. It's just a confusing and stupid way to cash in. Anyways... This flick is just heap of wasted potential - dragged down by the 'modern' teen-horror influence.

According to this movie, the small town of Texarkana - famous for the real-life unsolved series of slayings from 1946, known as The Texarkana Moonlight Murders - has since embraced the legendary case of the Phantom Killer. They even have an annual screening of the original film, which, after 66 years, sparks a presumed copycat killer who is taking to lover's lanes and brutally killing local teens. One girl survives her attack and decides to investigate the mysterious Phantom Killer and the main suspects, as well as certain information that was apparently dug up for the making of the '76 film...

Early on, it looked like this one was gonna be decent enough with some pretty strong kill scenes and creative camera work. Also, the whole set-up showed some promise - particularly, the movie-within-a-movie angle, which was somewhat interesting. These 'positives' are virtually obliterated by the exhausting abundance of cliches and painfully boring characters. Seriously, the male and female leads seemed to purposely be cast for their ungodly deadpan demeanor's and inability/refusal to captivate an audience. And the icing on the cake of shit that killed this flick was the piss-poor conclusion that goes out of it's way to be a random, over-explained 'whodunnit' reveal. The dreaded "Scream"-influence rears it's ugly head again and really just extinguished any flicker of aptitude this movie had going for it, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not even a huge fan of the original "Town That Dreaded Sundown", but you should definitely stick with that film (cuz Mary Ann is in it, of course...) and don't bother with this.