Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions has been ridiculously busy of late, so much so that it’s almost impossible to keep track of all its upcoming projects. And you’ll be forgiven if Blumhouse’s take on The Town that Dreaded Sundown slipped through the cracks for you – the horror redo has been flying very much under the radar. That’s changing today, however, with the unveiling of two official images from the flick.
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (American Horror Story) makes his directorial debut on the movie, a “reinvention” of the 1976 independent horror cult film. The Town that Dreaded Sundown isn’t a remake in the traditional sense – it’s set in a world in which the original film exists and is on the minds of townspeople in Texarkana. This time around, a maniac who bears a striking resemblance to the figure from the 1976 film is slaughtering people on the town’s streets. It falls to high school girl Jami (Addison Timlin), who harbors dark secrets of her own, to solve the mystery of the so-called Phantom Killer before she becomes one of his victims.
The Town that Dreaded Sundown definitely has my attention. Its somewhat meta premise, ’70s vibe and cast (which also includes the late Ed Lauter, Denis O’Hare, Joshua Leonard, Spencer Treat Clark, Gary Cole and Veronica Cartwright) all appeal, so I’ll be on the lookout for it when the movie bows presumably sometime this fall. It will premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on October 14th and 18th, but no word yet on a stateside release.
65 years after a masked serial killer terrorized the small town of Texarkana, the so-called “moonlight murders” begin again. Is it a copycat or something even more sinister? A lonely high school girl, with dark secrets of her own, may be the key to catching him.
