“The Town That Dreaded Sundown” cult horror pic remake in works

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ryan Murphy and Jason Blum are teaming up for the remake of MGM’s cult-classic horror pic The Town That Dreaded Sundown, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is in negotiations to direct the movie, which already has a script by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the playwright who wrote MGM’s upcoming remake of Carrie.

Sundown, released in 1976, was in many ways a precursor to the found-footage phenomenon that stalks the horror genre today. The movie, directed by Charles B. Pierce, fictionally tells in documentary style, complete with a voice-over, "true events" that occurred in and around Texarkana in 1946.

Over a period of months, a serial killer dubbed the Phantom Killer murdered several people, throwing communities into fear. He was never caught.

Gomez-Rejon is an in-demand second unit director who has worked on movies such as Babel and Argo. He did second unit on Murphy’s feature Eat Pray Love, which led to him working as a director on Murphy’s Glee TV show. That put him on the path to direct episodes of American Horror Story.