Ending almost ruined it for me *SPOILERS*

When I was in early high school, I asked my parents, "did you ever seen a movie that really scared you growing up?" My mom said "Legend of Boggy Creek" and my dad said "The Town That Dreaded Sundown." I immediately bought them on eBay and watched them; they really have stuck with me years later. Despite their low budgets, they are effectively creepy and unsettling in their own ways and I have watched both of them several times since then.

My roommate and I watched the 2014 TTDS last night and we were both pretty impressed by it... until the ending. I thought the film was effectively frightening and suspenseful and paid ample respect to the original film (and also to the actual events, though to a much lesser degree), but the build-up the whole film was working towards was (almost) ruined by the ending. The reveal of the second Phantom being the guy killed at the beginning shattered my suspension of disbelief; I simply cannot believe that he faked his death, and his reasoning for doing so ("I don't want to play football in college and come back here"? seriously?) was dumb. Obviously, a twist ending should be something you didn't see coming, NOT something you didn't see coming because it's totally implausible. I think that the Phantom shouldn't have been unmasked at all (its identity remaining a secret) or the reveal should've been the Phantom being someone that the characters in the film (and therefore the audience) didn't know; therefore, with either scenario, the killings would be even more disturbing, a stranger brutally murdering people for no known reason. Going the route they did with the ending was just too much. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed the film and would recommend it to others, but the ending I really loathed.