Despite its flaws, The Town That Dreaded Sundown is undeniably suspenseful when night falls and the Phantom Killer strikes.
Despite its name rarely being mentioned outside horror fan circles, Charles B. Pierce’s The Town That Dreaded Sundown is arguably responsible for more 1980s slasher film tropes than Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre combined.
In a docu-drama style, the movie tells a fictionalized version of the Texarkana Moonlight Murders that took place in 1946. Following World War II, the town of Texarkana, which straddles the border of northeastern Texas and southwestern Arkansas, was just starting to return to normal. One night in March, a couple was assaulted by a masked assailant at a popular lover’s lane. Both survived but couldn’t identify their attacker other than to say he wore a bag-like mask over his face.
The sheriff’s deputy (Andrew Prine) and the Texarkana Police Department begin an investigation but, without any evidence, they can do little other than keep an eye on the isolated places where young lovers park at night. Even with the enhanced police awareness, the attacker strikes again. This time, killing a young couple mere minutes before the deputy arrives at the scene.
Still with no real evidence to go on, the authorities bring in Captain J. D. “Lone Wolf” Morales (Ben Johnson), a Texas Ranger famous for his crime-solving savvy. Morales is expected to make quick work of the case. Yet, the killer continues to elude the police and claims victims in a brutal fashion without witnesses or leaving behind evidence. Texarkana quickly becomes paralyzed with fear as well as a target of media eager to cover the story of the “Phantom Killer.”
Director Charles B. Pierce was also responsible for 1972’s The Legend of Boggy Creek, a drive-in staple that was told in a similar documentary-like style. With an obviously limited budget, Pierce is able to construct an effective thriller using what little resources were available to him. (Extras appear in different roles throughout the film, for example.) But what Pierce lacked in money, he made up for in technique. Many aspects of The Town That Dreaded Sundown may now seem clichéd but the things that many horror fans currently view as well-worn tropes had their origins here. In particular, the Friday the 13th series took a number of elements from this film and recycled them, including (but not limited to) the hooded killer motif and the victim stalking sequences.
But for all of its genre influence, there are a few things that don’t work. The most glaring issue is that Pierce cast himself as the bumbling patrolman Benson. Inexplicably nicknamed “Sparkplug”, he is supposed to provide comic relief. Unfortunately, these attempts at comedy would be more at home in an episode of Dukes of Hazzard than an otherwise serious crime drama/mystery.
The acting is, for the most part, wooden at best. Ben Johnson does little more than read his lines and manages to run circles around the majority of the cast. Dawn Wells, best known as Mary Ann on TV’s Gilligan’s Island, has a small role as one of the killer’s potential targets. Even though she does little more than scream, her performance is impressive.
Despite its flaws, The Town That Dreaded Sundown is undeniably suspenseful when night falls and the Phantom Killer strikes. The sequences involving the killer stalking his victims are well-staged and genuinely creepy. If the rest of the film worked as well, it would be regarded as a proto-slasher classic.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
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