THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN

As archive footage plays out, a male narrator reminds us of the real-life slayings that shocked the quiet town of Texakarna in 1946. The murderer - an ominous figure with a hood over his head, known as the Phantom Killer - was never caught. Curiously, however, the killings suddenly stopped, which led many to believe he'd died.

Thirty years later, we're told, Charles B Pierce's original film THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN was released. It became a staple of Halloween screenings in Texakarna, where the residents still spoke in hushed tones about the unsolved murders that had forever tainted the history of their town.

"The following," the narration concludes, "happened last year"...

And so, we're transported to Texarkana's Twin Star Drive-In theatre, on Halloween night 2013. Cars are lines up in their droves to watch the annual screening of Pierce's vintage shocker. In one car, pretty Jami (Addison Timlin) is getting uneasy watching the film and has her beau Corey (Spencer Treat Clark) drive her home. En route, they stop at a quiet off-road spot formerly known as "Lover's Lane" to chat and more ... until their petting is curtailed by a pistol being rammed through their car window.

The hooded figure before them orders them out of the vehicle, ultimately slaying Corey and leaving Jami for dead - telling her in a deep Southern drawl "This is for Mary ... make them listen".

When Jami next wakes she's in a hospital bed, surrounded by three local lawmen: Sheriff Underwood (Ed Lauter) and his two deputies, Foster (Joshua Leonard) and Tillman (the brilliant Gary Cole sporting unsightly facial hair). They take details of the attack from her and then ask that she refrains from discussing the matter with the press until they've apprehended the killer. The local media, however, are quick to pick up on the similarities between the attack and those from 67 years earlier.

Suddenly, everyone suspects a copycat killer is at large.

Jami is sent home to recover a short while later. As both of her parents are dead, she lives with grandmother Lillian (Veronica Cartwright) - who is just about old enough to remember the fear brought about locally by the real-life killer all those decades ago.

Three weeks later, returning squaddie Danny (Wes Chatham) takes his girl Kendra (Morgana May) to a motel overnight where they enjoy an energetic bout of sex. All ends gruesomely when the hooded assailant appears, of course. Shortly afterwards, Jami receives a call from Corey's old mobile 'phone - it's that deep Southern drawl again, this time warning her that he will continue killing until she "makes them listen".

By now, Texakarna is in a state of panic. People are buying guns, learning how to defend themselves and the mayor calls for a town meeting where he asks Reverend Cartwright (Edward Herrmann) to bless each of the locals.

Just like in Pierce's film, the Texas Rangers get involved - and outsider Lone Wolf Morales (Anthony Anderson) is called in to take over the investigation. Naturally, this doesn't sit well with Underwood and his men - not least of all, I suspect, because Morales also happens to be black.

Pretty soon, the town's paranoia is met with hysteria and - of course - more brutal murders which closely echo those from the past. But, more than this, Jami's own investigations reveal a deeper mystery at hand, one with possible supernatural connotations...

A meta-remake, a slasher film, a whodunit ... director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's 2014 revamping of THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN's lore is an enjoyably smart, polished and fast-moving affair. It looks very slick indeed, benefits from unusually solid performances and is very careful to build enough quirks into each character to keep the viewer guessing throughout.

Although there are light touches of humour here and there (mainly from the deputies), the town in these scenes is thankfully far less comedic than those in Pierce's progenitor. If one thing spoiled the latter, it was the uneven tone and the heavy-handed comedy: no such worries here.

Even better, Gomez-Rejon handles the terror scenes extremely well. Dark, serious, brutal without ever being needlessly explicit - there is real tension elicited here. The set-pieces cannily update the original's kills too, even including the infamous trombone murder...

There is a vague sense of by-the-numbers when it comes to the plot that holds the spiffing set-pieces together, admittedly. It's all very proficiently done, but the slick veneer it's all given is more reminiscent of SCREAM or I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER than, say, FRIDAY THE 13TH or THE BURNING. Which is odd, because it clearly aims to evoke - like so many films do nowadays - the bodycount flicks of the early 80s.

Still, Gomez-Rejon's film is never dull, has some great moments of suspense, the killer is scary (always a plus - more modern filmmakers should take note!), and has fun cleverly playing with its links to Pierce's original movie. I liked it.

THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN comes to UK DVD fully uncut, courtesy of our friends at Metrodome. It's presented in its original 2.35:1 ratio and is enhanced for 16x9 TVs. Of course, it looks superb in this sharp, bright and natural transfer. Clean, clear and vibrant - it's everything you'd expect a decently budgeted modern horror film to be looks-wise.

English audio is given the benefit of 2.0 and 5.1 mixes. While both are full of life and acutely channelled, the latter is most definitely the more robust, more striking of the two.

A nice animated main menu page is bright and colourful. From there, a static scene selection menu allows access to the film via 12 chapters.

Extras come in the form of eight EPK-style interviews. We're given the option of watching them individually, or choosing a "Play All" function which runs for the course of 17 minutes.

The interviewees are Timlin, Cartwright, Cole (in his Deputy uniform), Leonard, Anderson, Clark, Gomez-Rejon and producer Blum. Over the course of 17 minutes the actors speak about their characters, what it was like working with their director and their own views on scary movies. Gomez-Rejon and Blum speak a little more of the links to the original film and this remake's "meta aspect", as well doffing their caps to the "true story" origins. Questions are presented onscreen; answers are rushed out bullet point-style in this slick, sharp but ultimately unrewarding vanity project.

The disc is defaulted to open with trailers for ODD THOMAS, STAGE FRIGHT and the original THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (coming to blu-ray and DVD from Eureka).

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's film is a well-oiled, good-looking and fast-paced remake-of-sorts that dares to refer directly back to its 1976 inspiration. I'm not a fan of modern remakes as a rule, but I will say that this holds up very well as a film in its own right - and would make for a great double bill alongside Charles B Pierce's 1976 predecessor.

Review by Stuart Willis