October 13, 2015

To me, the key to a truly great “remake” of a pre-existing horror film is simple. Would the new update make a good double feature with the original movie? When it comes to programming a double feature, the goal is to find two movies with a similar theme that would complement each other. And there’s no better test to see if a remake works than by watching it back to back with its inspiration and seeing if it respects its source material and tells a similar enough story, yet does its own new thing. Each week, we’re going to pair up two horror films – its original and its remake as a double feature and see if it makes for a great double bill. Welcome to Double Take!

This week’s selections are both the 1976 and 2014 versions of THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN! The original film is something of an anomaly in the horror genre. Based upon the true story of the Phantom Killer and the events of the Texarkana Moonlight Murders from the 40s, this “true crime” case is very reminiscent of the Zodiac Killer case that would happen some 30 odd years later. The actual murders are horrific, and are portrayed as such in the actual movie. The Phantom wears a plain white sack over his head (yes, ala Jason Voorhees in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2), which obscures his entire face minus for his beady little blue eyes. He shoots at couples, terrorizes them & even concocts a trombone with a knife at the end of it to stab to death a young teen in one of the films more disturbing sequences. The weird thing about the movie is the very odd tonal shift to some goofball humor from the cops, one of which is actually played by the director Charles B. Pierce! (He’s patrolman A.C. Benson)

Regardless of the offbeat scenes sprinkled throughout the picture, (along with the opening documentary style narration on the true events), some of the set pieces and sequences are amazing, in particular the finale chase, which features a tremendously suspenseful slow motion bit. Over all, the biggest appeal of this movie was how difficult it was to find for all these years. Those with a vague memory of it would have to trek to horror conventions just to snag an old, fuzzy version of it. That is, until Scream Factory released a stellar, fully restored Blu-Ray/DVD version of it. It’s definitely an interesting watch. But how’s it hold up with the “reboot?”

The 2014 version of THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN is equally as bizarre in that it acts as a meta-sequel. It takes place in the town of Texarkana where every year, the townspeople gather for drive-in screenings of the 1976 movie THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN, something that apparently actually happens there. It’s become a strange yearly tradition. But this new movie asks the question, what if someone resumes the M.O. of the Phantom Killer, dons the old sack mask and starts killing people again. This version is more straight forward “slasher” pic. An extremely glossy, impressively stylistic one at that, mainly because director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is carting over what he’s been doing on episodes of AMERICAN HORROR STORY. I always like when “sequels/remakes” acknowledge the original film, or what we know about the original movie, and take the story forward from there. It takes that SCREAM-esque who-done-it style approach to revealing who the killer may be; offering red herrings along the way and all. Is this the work of a copycat? Will the truth about the original murders finally come out?

Well, not the truth about the actual real-life murders which to this day remain unsolved, but being that this is the movies, the backstory for the original film’s killer is in fact fully fleshed out and fictionalized for the sake of the storytelling. It gets a little too stylistic at points with non-stop intricate camera moves, but regardless it’s an admirable attempt at updating and giving us a modern “slasher” movie.

Does it work as a double feature with the original? Yes. Absolutely. And in fact, since so many people have probably never heard of or seen the original film, I recommend strongly watching it as a double bill. What do you guys think?

Which Do You Like Better?