This remake of the minor 1976 cult item – which was about a Zodiac-like series of real-life unsolved murders on the Texas-Arkansas border in the 1940s – takes a Scream approach as a contemporary series of killings echo the film and the original crimes. It restages key scenes from the first film, including the notorious knife-attached-to-a-trombone-slide stabbing, and makes its cult status part of the ongoing whodunit.
Addison Timlin is an appealing heroine, who mostly wants to get out of town but has to cope with the celebrity of surviving the attack that kicks off the new crime cycle first. Smart, fun, mid-list horror.
