I had actually seen the original film on Netflix not that long ago and I had wanted to watch it. Unfortunately, it was taken off of Netflix I don't even know when honestly. I wouldn't even call this a remake, it's definitely more like a self-referential sequel. You see the original movie exists in this movie's "universe", if you will. In many ways it is a love tribute to that film, but it's certainly not needed. The murders in the sequel are directly taken from the original film as the murderer wants to bring up dark memories of the past. Essentially, the motivation for the murderer is the fact that his grandfather was the original Phantom's last victim, and he's carrying out this revenge, of sorts, in order to make sure that his grandfather is remembered as the victim, as they sort of push him under the rug and not a lot is known about him in the media or Texarkana. So I thought, in a way, that the film's story, while not great, is a little more thoughtful than your typical slasher. This isn't a mindless, brainless movie at all. And how it combines the first film's kills with its own story is done in a pretty unique way. So even if the kills here are almost exactly the same as the ones in the original, I still think this film manages to stand out on its own. You don't need the original to enjoy this, though I'm sure it doesn't hurt. I love me a good slasher and this one, while average, is certainly more than good enough to recommend if you've got Netflix. It's got some really nasty kills. While I wouldn't say that any of them are totally realistic, there's something more menacing about this villain than what you normally see in slasher films. Usually they're so bad that they're laughable or they're purposely goofy, like some of the later Jason, Freddy, Michael Myers sequels. Slashers have been a joke genre for years now, even with the advent of a series like Saw, which got more preposterous and convoluted with each passing sequel. But this villain is more grounded to the real world and I think it works for the best. The problem, however, comes in the fact that, at the climax, they reveal the villain's motivations to do what he did, which I already outlined. That took it a bit away from the movie, to be perfectly honest. I just think the idea of a guy going out and recreating the murders just because he can is a little more disturbing than finding out that he had a reason for it. The fact that he outlined his reasons for doing it really took me out of the film. You can still give us theories about why the guy did what he did, which Jami did, just don't actually reveal those reasons. Just leave it as a guy committing senseless acts of violence because he happened to admire a particular serial killer. I honestly think that would've been a better choice than what we got. And there's some really weird cuts and edits in this film, some of it was just really poorly edited. I like the film's cinematography, it felt very retro, like one of those old 70s slashers used to look. It was dirty and grimy, perhaps not as grimy as it could've looked, but I still liked the film's visual approach. I can't complain much about the acting at all, it's got a good cast and the acting is better than your regular horror film because of it. If it wasn't for the issues I mentioned, I would've had no problem giving this film 3 stars. I really do think it was held back by the issues. But we don't get many good slashers per year so, when you have an average one, that's pretty much the same thing as saying that it's good. A solid Netflix watch.