This is the movie that Rolling Stone magazine dismissed in 14 words: Do you really need me to tell you how scary this horror show isnt? Its a riff on A Nightmare On Elm Street, with a suspected child killer returning from the grave to wreak vengeance on the inhabitants of the eponymous town, but the movies too bland to provide much in the way of entertainment. All the adult characters, particularly the cops, act like frightened children, so its up to The Hunky Guy and The Blonde Hottie to save the day which spoiler alert they do, but the final scene suggests the monster isnt dead. All the usual clichés are present and correct: when people start to disappear, suspicion falls on the hero. The power goes out during a storm. Characters die in reversing billing order, with the dumb rednecks getting their just desserts first. The director later made the American classics The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
