Review for The Town That Dreaded Sundown

‘The Town that Dreaded Sundown’ (the 1976 version that ‘inspired’ the 2015 remake) is an unusual choice of release from Eureka. Probably eyeing up the incredible commercial success of Arrow’s focus on low-budget, inexpensively licenced horror films (which they then issue with all the love and attention normally attributed to classics), this is one of a spate of forthcoming horror releases from the distributor.



Of course, Eureka have earned a well-deserved reputation as Europe’s ‘Criterion’ equivalent, focusing on classic films in their lavishly re-mastered ‘Masters of Cinema’ catalogue. For a few fleeting moments I thought this was an addition to that catalogue but it’s not. To have suggested that the film was in any way a beacon of great film-making would have been something of an exaggeration. Which is not to say it’s a bad film because it’s not that either.

The film has a ‘made for TV’ vibe to it (although its violence would have ruled out that possibility at the time of its release) and is a semi-documentary based on a horrific real-life string of sadistic killings in Texarkana, Texas, in 1946. The murder spree became known as the "Texarkana Moonlight Murders" and claimed five lives as well as injuring many others. The only description of the killer ever obtained was of a hooded man. To this day no one has been convicted and the murders remain unsolved. At the time, the concept of ‘serial killer’ was relatively unknown and many of the forensic sciences that are utilised as a matter of course today would have been unknown at the time.


The film starts with the kind of narration that would have you believe that you were about to see a documentary. What you get is a rather exploitative thriller full of so-called ‘accurate reconstructions’ although much of the killing scenes must have been little more than conjecture based on the horrific aftermath of the killings. The executive producer’s name, Samuel Z. Arkoff, is associated with exactly the kind of low-budget exploitation film that this pretty much is, though to be fair, it is a cut above the worst of these. .

Two young lovers are savagely beaten and tortured on a back country road by demnted hooded killer, coming out if the dark of remote forest to attack their car. Three weeks later, two more people are killed in a similar way. So when Deputy Norman Ramsey fears a pattern is developing he calls upon the help of Texas Ranger J.D. Morales (Academy Award Winner Ben Johnson from The Wild Bunch) to find “The Phantom Killer" before he can kill again. Also starring Andrew Prine and Dawn Wells, and directed by Charles B. Pierce (The Legend Of Boggy Creek), what follows are a series of further attacks which escalate from the remote outskirts of the town to people’s homes.


 Despite some horribly memorable scenes (like the killer strapping his knife to a found trombone and using that to repeatedly stab his victim to death, a young girl tied to a tree) the tension never really rises too much and the entire chase turns out to be a huge narrative disappointment as the film lacks any conclusion. Indeed, realising during shooting that the film needed some sort of an ending, a final chase scene was added where the hooded man was shot but got away, never to terrorise the town again, having presumably died somewhere in the forest. That never happened. What actually happened was that the case went nowhere and the killings stopped but why that should be the case, no one really knows.

Andrew Prine, a good jobbing actor best known perhaps for his role in sci-fi classic ‘V’, is convincing enough as a legendary FBI agent but the narrative, with its built-in failure to conclude, lets him down. Dawn Wells (Gilligan’s Island) does an admirable job as the scream-queen when attacked in her own home, perhaps the best performance in the film.


 
The image quality on the Blu-Ray is exceptionally good for so slight a film with lovely bold colouring (during daylight hours) and good detail in the black of night.

There are a few quite interesting extra features including a full-length audio commentary from Justin Beahm (Halloweenmovies.com) and Jim Presley, something of an historic expert on the Texarcana Moonlight Murders where they compare the movie to real-life events, noting the accuracy of many of the sequences.

‘Small Town Lawman’ is a relatively recent ten minute HD interview with Andrew Prine about his career and his thoughts about this film in particular.




‘Survivor Stories’ (5 mins) features Dawn Wells in surprisingly fine fettle discussing her role and het memories of the production

‘Eye of the Beholder’ (13 mins) is an interview with the director of photography, James Roberson, who discusses aspects of filming and time and budget constraints in particular.

You also get a stills gallery, an original trailer and one for the 2015 re-make. Apparently it ships with a limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by critic Mike Sutton, reproductions of original Sundown ephemera, illustrated throughout with production stills though I haven’t seen this myself.

It may not be a genre classic like ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ but ‘The Town That Feared Sundown’ can at least boast that its reflecting a grim reality rather than something entirely fictional. It’s a relatively easy to watch TV –Movie style thriller with some scenes that are not for the faint-hearted. This edition is probably the best you’ll ever get to see it so if it sounds like your kind of movie, this will be the edition to get.