The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

Director: Charles B. Pierce

Starring: Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine, Dawn Wells

The story of a hooded, berserk killer who terrorized the border town of Texarkana, Arkansas in 1946–leaving no fewer than five murder victims in his wake. He was never caught. Based on one of America’s most baffling murder cases.

No, this is not a vampire movie. ‘The Town that dreaded sundown’ is based on the Texarcana Moonlight Murders that occurred in 1946.

The war is finally over, when a serial killer terrorizes Texarcana. When two young lovers are viciously attacked at Lover’s Lane by a man wearing a hood, Deputy Norman Ramsey (Andrew Prine) investigates. When there are more attacks, and people start getting killed, Captain Morales (Ben Johnson) – the most famous Texas ranger – is sent to Texarcana to investigate.

The film has a very unusual narration. It is based on actual events, but there’s quite a bit of humour – and I’m not talking mere funny moments or dialogue here and there; some scenes are pure comedy. And then some scenes are pure horror. At first I thought they presented the film in a lighthearted comedy horror, but the attack scenes were so brutal that they belonged in a full-on horror movie. The humour/comedic characters mostly came in the form of the detectives and police force, but due to the nature of the film I actually found it a bit annoying – as if it didn’t belong in this movie.

Having said that, ‘The Town that dreaded sundown’ still remained an interesting whodunit murder mystery, but this is where I’m going to do spoilers, so stop reading if you don’t want to know. The real-life killer was never found, so the film has a cliffhanger ending with no conclusion. It not only left me hanging, but it also left me with a feeling the movie was a waste of time…although it wasn’t. I suppose one can’t argue with fact…

Would I watch it again? No, I don’t think so.