The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)

Directed by: Charles B. Pierce

Written by: Earl E. Smith

Year Released: 2014

Sub Genre: Slasher

Cast: Addison Timlin, Veronica Carthwright, Gary Cole, Anthony Anderson

The year is 1946 and the town of Texarkana is in shambles.

There is a killer among them stalking and murdering young couples who are looking for privacy in secluded areas.

After many arrest attempts and investigations, the killer, better known around Texarkana as the phantom, had evaded police and lived free among the townsfolk.

The phantom has since become something of a legend, even inspiring a film under the title of "The town that dreaded sundown" which is played at a drive in once a year for Halloween. That is until, the phantom strikes again.

I'm going to start off by saying that the idea of this film is seems somewhat exciting on paper but is a little too close to a Scream sequel for my liking. This comes from the use of a film being one of the main focuses inside the actually movie.

Now, if you don't understand what I mean, here is a quick, possibly confusing look at what they did: Take a film from back in the day. Use said film as if it was created specifically for use in this movie and then proceed to build a new story around it using the same kills as displayed in the original.

Sounds like it could be interesting right?

Well think again!

The use of the original film in this movie ruins a lot of scenes that had the potential to be enjoyable but ultimately lost all it's effects thanks to the scenes of the original film being shown before hand.

The biggest issues I had were the miss use of the excellent supporting cast they had available to them including Anthony Anderson, who's role could have easily been thrown out as it did not have an actual affect in the narrative in any way.

And of course, I can not forget to mention the unfortunate use of bad special effects throughout the movie.

A portion of the time a very obvious display of CGI was used in a car murder scene to show off blood spatter on the windows. The effect was done so poorly that even in darkness you could tell it was added in.

This was not my only gripe with special effects.

A good portion of the film had use your usual practical effects for the bloody murder scenes which looked good. However, in a flash back scene where the lead characters parents die in a car crash the blood effects look ridiculous and absolutely fake. Basically looked like someone came up with a paint brush and put a few lines of bright red paint on their bodies and figured nobody would notice.

Hell, they way they placed the bodies on the outside of a rolled over vehicle (one laying on the top of the car and the other next to / half under the vehicle) made no sense on it's own. How poor of a driver do you have to be in order to not only flip a vehicle on it's side, and have every passenger tossed outside the vehicle without even smashing a window?

Moving on!

Easy to watch but even easier to stop paying attention to at most times. This would make it very difficult to follow had the story had any complexity to it at all.

Conclusion:

This is something good to watch if you are bored or need something playing in the back ground while you're busy doing other things. It could also be good a starter horror film for someone above the age of majority but I would not suggest it for anything more than that.

2 out of 10

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Memorial To Wes Craven

Sadly, today we have lost one of the biggest icons and contributors ever to be part of the horror genre.

Wes Craven has always been the main reason why I fell in love with this industry and I will forever be grateful for it.

I have to start with his biggest accomplishment, contribution and the one thing that had keep me scared for my life as a youngster.

Freddy Krueger not only was the first horror icon I knew about but he was the first to scare the living day lights out of me. What could be scarier to a four year old than a man who could attack and kill you in your sleep? In my opinion and from my experience, nothing else could top it.

I recall several nights as a child running downstairs in tears looking for my dad because Freddy had made an appearance in my dreams and sure enough, my father was laying on the floor watching one of the Nightmare films. Needless to say I was continuously terrified thanks to seeing him paused on that screen.

Years later, my mother introduced me back into the horror genre with The People Under the Stairs, another brilliant film made by Craven. With a nice dose of comedy inserted, I was able to begin getting over my fear of the horror genre and started appreciating everything it had to offer.

This opened the door to all the classics and forced me to face my nightmares and watch all the Nightmare on Elm Street films. This forced viewing made me fall in love with the character of Freddy. A love that would never die out!

I soon got caught up in the Scream phenomenon and knew I had to watch the movie. Upon my first viewing of the film with my sister, our mother decided to run into the room with a butcher knife to scare the life out of us.

The thrill of the scare made me laugh but also opened up a door for me to find more thrills in order to feed myself the adrenaline.

And after that I was hooked to horror for life and it all stemmed from films and characters that Wes Craven had created and I must thank him for that. Something most horror fans can relate to and something that none of us will ever be able to properly thank him for.

So for everything you've done for all your fans, all the film makers, screen writers, special effects people, reviewers and beyond, we thank you Mr. Craven.

You will be miss by everyone. Rest in peace.

Twitter: @horrorshoot                                                                                     

Email:horrorshootreviews@gmail.com

It's been a while but we're coming back!

Hello once again old friends!

It has been a while since we've been up and running as this review blog is usually seasonal, typically coinciding with the fall season.

Last season I tried to keep the reviews coming year round but alas we were unable to continue due to various reasons. The main one being I had to disband my office and lost my computer to my wife for her Netflix addiction.

Among other reasons were failing health ( no need to worry we are all safe and back in good health ), the joys of a job change and the time it takes to settle into place ( my old job was a horrible place to work in general so this was a welcome change ) and the hardship of finding the  time to read and review books which are much more time consuming.

After careful consideration, we here at Horror Shoot have decided to make a few changes to how we do things around here and figured we should share them with you!

-  We are officially removing ourselves from book reviews. If someone if interested in starting them up again for us you are more than welcome to send us an email for details.
(Heads up: we this wouldn't be for monetary gain just for the love of the genre.)

- Instead of going full spoiler free, we have decided to delve into some of the finer details of the films in order to keep the reviews from sounding repetitive, which has been a complaint in the past.

- And finally, just for the love of nostalgia and greatness, we will occasionally have  an "old school" review. Maybe we will make it a weekly event, maybe it will fall by the wayside. We will figure that out once we get to that point, but until then here's how it will work.

Any thowback film we review will have to be a minimum of 20 years old and possess either a blockbuster status or have to be considered to have a large cult following.

Now that our new rules and regulations have been set up, I can give you the fine details.

We will be starting up, at the latest, on September 10th. Reason behind this is that our seasons typically start after the yearly release of everyone's favorite drink, the Pumpkin Spice Latte. (Yes, I'm one of those people. But let me assure you, I was doing pumpkin spice everything, before it was cool!)

With everything settled, I have to say thank you for your continued support even after we go on hiatus.

Talk to you all again soon!

- Kyle
  Owner / Writer - Horroshoot

If you have any questions regarding our review blog please message us on Twitter @horrorshoot or email us at horrorshootreviews@gmail.com