Much like the monsters and serial killers at their cores, horror movies never die. The genre is mined again and again for low-budget source material that can get a glossy new coat of buzz and blood but attaching some new horror luminary to its remake. And this is precisely what is happening to the lesser-known tale of terror The Town That Dreaded Sundown.
Said to be inspired by a real rash of killings that plagued the residents of Texarkana in the 1940s, the film played out in a documentary style that is credited as a precursor to horror's found footage movement. The movie was a personal favorite of American Horror Story co-creator Ryan Murphy growing up, and now he and Jason Blum, the prolific producer behind horror flicks like Paranormal Activity, Insidious and Sinister, are in preproduction on a remake with MGM.
THR reports that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who penned Kimberly Peirce's upcoming Carrie remake, scripted the new The Town That Dreaded Sundown, which will aim to keep true to the original's gritty aesthetic by means of a low budget and cinema verite style, while adding a dash of procedural drama in the vein of David Fincher's Zodiac. Murphy revealed at a recent press screening for American Horror Story's second season, "I went to (Blum) with this and MGM was gracious enough to let us do it with them. So we're doing a modern-day version remake, weird meta thing with (it).”
Check out the trailer for the original below:
With Murphy prepping to helm Normal Heart, he and Blum have entered into talks with Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, who has helmed several episodes of American Horror Story, to direct. With The Town That Dreaded Sundown expected to go into production this spring, this would mark Gomez-Rejon's feature directorial debut should he sign on.
