The Town That Dreaded Sundown

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

I didn't think too much of the original film, obviously a very low budget affair. I needn't have worried about watching it though, because this new film is set in a present day where the original film exists and the town still watches it every year. Hence we see a great deal of it in this new film.

So this kind of meta sequel plays more like an old school slasher rather than the docudrama of the original but for some reason they decide to keep the convention of not using any music during the kills. That coupled with the film never giving us more than a few shots of the characters before they become victims makes it feel strangely objective and removed from the action. It's not really heightened or thrilling and it's also not sympathetic because we don't know any of these people. The film has no trouble jumping right into the kills with little preamble or mucking around with chases or taunts or tourture. It's all very cold. That certainly can be effective but I found it really hard to engage in at all. It didn't help that our final girl had the personality of a wet blanket.

The cinematography is pretty interesting. Though the majority of the film takes place at night, they manage to work in a lot of bright colour. They have a lot of that diffused glowing light filters that I'm really not fond of though. And a few too many extreme split diopter lens shots.

It's an interesting way to do a sequel. And the kills are somewhat effective. The rest of the film is a bit of a bore. But it also looks pretty cool. A mixed bag.