The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a 1976 American slasher filmdirected and co-produced by Charles B. Pierce and written by Earl E. Smith. The film stars Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine, and Dawn Wells. It is loosely based on the 1946 Texarkana Moonlight Murders, crimes attributed to an unidentified serial killer known as the Phantom Killer.
The Town That Dreaded Sundown premiered in Texarkana on December 17, 1976 before receiving a nationwide theatrical release on December 24 by American International Pictures. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, but was a box-office hit, grossing between $4 million and $5 million against a production budget of $400,000.
A metasequel of the same name was released in October 2014.
Plot Before the "Phantom-attacks", which occurred about eight months after World War II, Texarkana was pleasant and citizens were preparing for a good future. On the night of Sunday, March 3, 1946, Sammy Fuller and Linda Mae Jenkins park on a lovers' lane. Soon, the hood of the car opens and closes and a man with a bag over his head with holes cut out for his eyes is seen holding wires he had yanked from the engine. While Sammy tries starting the car, the man breaks his window and pulls him out, cutting him on the broken glass. The man then gets inside the car with Linda.
The next morning, Linda is found on the side of the road barely alive. While at the crime scene, Deputy Norman Ramsey reports that both victims are still alive. He leaves a message for Sheriff Barker to meet him at Michael-Meagher Hospital. At the hospital, a doctor tells Sheriff Barker that Linda was not raped but that her back, stomach, and breasts were "heavily bitten; literally chewed." At the police station, Barker suggests to Police Chief Sullivan to warn teens and college students from parking on lonely roads.
On March 24, while investigating a lovers' lane in heavy rain, Ramsey hears gunshots and finds Howard W. "Buddy" Turner dead in a ditch and the corpse of his girlfriend, Emma Lou Cook, tied to a tree. Ramsey spots the hooded man escaping in a car. Panicked, the town sells out of guns and other home safety equipment. Sheriff Barker calls in help and tells Ramsey they are getting the most famous criminal investigator in the country, the "Lone Wolf" of the Texas Rangers, Captain J.D. Morales. After arriving, Morales explains he will be in charge of the investigation and calls the unidentified attacker a Phantom. Ramsey is assigned to assist Morales, and Patrolman A.C. "Sparkplug" Benson is to be his driver.
At the barber shop, Ramsey explains to Morales his theory that the Phantom attacks every 21 days. The next attack falls on the day of a high school prom, and decoys are set up on the edges of town. After the dance, on April 14, trombone player Peggy Loomis leaves with her boyfriend Roy Allen. Despite her worries, they go to Spring Lake Park in the middle of town. When they leave, the Phantom jumps on the driver's door and pulls Roy out of the car, causing Peggy to crash. She flees as the Phantom beats Roy, but he catches her and ties her hands around a tree. Roy awakens, but is shot to death while attempting to escape. The Phantom attaches a pocket knife to the distal end of the slide of Peggy's trombone and kills her while "playing" the instrument by repeatedly projecting the slide-with-knife forward into her back while she is tied to the tree.
Morales and other officers meet with psychiatrist Dr. Kress at a restaurant, where he explains that the Phantom is a highly intelligent sadist with a strong sex drive, between the ages of 35 and 40. As Kress expresses his doubts about their chances of capturing the Phantom, the Phantom's shoes are shown, revealing that he had heard the entire conversation. At the station, a man named Johnson says that he was robbed and forced to drive a man to Lufkin at gunpoint. While on the road, Ramsey receives a report about an armed suspect, and a brief chase ensues. The suspect, Eddie LeDoux, at first denies everything, then confesses to being the Phantom, but Morales is unconvinced. Johnson identifies him as his robber.
On May 3, Helen Reed is seen by the Phantom leaving a grocery store. At home that night, Helen asks her husband Floyd, who is sitting in front of a window in his armchair, if he hears somebody walking outside. After he replies that he does not, the Phantom shoots him through their window. Helen inspects and sees Floyd dying. As she uses the telephone to call police, the Phantom breaks through the screen door and shoots her twice in the face. Despite her wounds, she drags herself out of the house and into a cornfield while the Phantom inspects Floyd's body. The Phantom stalks her with a pickaxe, but leaves when she gets help at a nearby house. News of this attack causes the town to panic, and people begin boarding up their windows.
Morales and Ramsey receive a report about a stolen car that matches the one from the Turner and Cook murders. While investigating a sand pit, they encounter the Phantom. Morales shoots at him but misses, causing him to run into the woods. The Phantom escapes by jumping past a moving train, but is shot in the leg. While the officers are waiting for the train to pass, the Phantom escapes. They continue their search, but never find him.
Years later, "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" is being shown at a local theater in Texarkana, and the killer's boots are shown as he gets in line to see the film.
Cast
Ben Johnson as Captain J.D. Morales, based on the lead investigator, Texas Rangers Company B Captain M. T. "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas Andrew Prine as Deputy Norman Ramsey, a fictional character slightly based on Bowie County Sheriff Bill Presley Dawn Wells as Helen Reed, based on Katie Starks, from the final pair of actual victims Jimmy Clem as Sgt. Mal Griffin Jim Citty as Police Chief R.J. Sullivan Charles B. Pierce as Patrolman A.C. Benson, a fictional comic-relief character Robert Aquino as Sheriff Otis Barker Cindy Butler as Peggy Loomis, based on victim Betty Jo Booker, from the third pair of actual victims Christine Ellsworth as Linda Mae Jenkins, based on Mary Jeanne Larey, from the first pair of actual victims
In addition, other victims are played by: Mike Hackworth as Sammy Fuller, based on Jimmy Hollis, from the first pair of actual victims; Misty West and Rick Hildreth as murdered couple Emma Lou Cook and Buddy Turner, respectively, based on the second pair of actual victims, Richard L. Griffin and Polly Ann Moore; and Steve Lyons as Roy Allen, based on Paul Martin, from the third pair of actual victims. Bud Davis plays Phantom Killer, whose face is never seen. Narration throughout the film was provided by Vern Stierman.
Production Principal photography began on Monday, June 21, in the very hot summer of 1976 for about four weeks. Locations included Scott, Arkansas, Shreveport, Louisiana, Garland City, Arkansas, and Texarkana, Texas. The last scene filmed was the first attack, which was shot in front of Pierce's home in Shreveport. About 19 Texarkana locals starred in the film along with several extras.
Pierce called Dawn Wells on July 8, 1976, to star in his film. She arrived by plane in Texarkana before noon the next day. She stayed in Texarkana for six days, but completed her scenes in the first two. While filming the cornfield scene, Wells was almost attacked by a bulldog, but the crew scared it away by shooting at it. Wells wanted to talk to the real-life survivor of her role, Katie Starks, but Katie refused. The Town That Dreaded Sundown was Wells' fourth film and her second time working with Pierce. During her stay, she did not read the script; she relied on the director, instead. She said that was the way she wanted it. Wells explained, "Acting-wise, it's an extremely emotional role. I didn't want to pattern my interpretation after anything. I wanted to go on my own feelings." Being shot at was a new experience for the actress. "They planted a charge in the receiver, so I was standing there holding the phone, shaking, expecting the receiver to blow up in my face."
Andrew Prine, who played Norman Ramsey, wrote the last fifth of the film because it had no ending. Both Ben Johnson and he were hung over while filming the train scene after partying the night before. During the rain scene with Ramsey, a snake made its way on the set. Crew members were yelling at Andrew that it was a moccasin, but Prine wanted to finish his scene without reshooting, so the crew killed the snake afterwards.
Release Marketing The film's poster art was painted with acrylic by graphic illustrator Ralph McQuarrie, then an unknown. McQuarrie had painted the poster for Pierce's The Legend of Boggy Creek, then later for his films Bootleggers (1974), Winterhawk (1975), and Winds of Autumn (1976). McQuarrie became recognized for his talent and went on to paint posters for Creature from Black Lake (1976), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Battlestar Galactica (1978), Back to the Future (1985), and the original Star Wars trilogy. His concept art was used to help convince 20th Century Fox to fund Star Wars. The advertising department placed the controversial phrase, "In 1946, this man killed five people...today he still lurks the streets of Texarkana, Ark." on the poster. After Texarkana city officials threatened to sue, Pierce tried having the statement removed. The last part of the phrase was censored or removed in advertisements, but it remained on several posters.
Theatrical run The film was released theatrically in the United States by American International Pictures, premiering in Texarkana on December 17, 1976, before receiving a national release on Christmas Eve 1976.
The film was released internationally in Sweden (1977), West Germany (1978), and the Philippines (1979). It was played at drive-ins until the end of 1977 and made its television on HBO on June 30, 1978.
Home media The film was released on VHS in 1983 by Warner Home Video, who reissued it in 1988. Good Times Video also released it on VHS on May 15, 2001. The Turner Classic Movies cable channel occasionally airs widescreen versions of the film. It had a digital release on May 21, 2013, when Shout! Factory released it on a Blu-ray/DVD combo with Pierce's 1979 film The Evictors.
Reception Contemporaneous Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "A couple of professional actors, Ben Johnson and Andrew Prine, head the cast, but the film looks nonprofessional in every other respect." Variety declared that "Pierce inserts bloody murders into the pic like clockwork, and that's about all there is to it. Film never reaches the truly frightening level of Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a much more stylish exploitation pic with a similar theme. And on a more serious dramatic level, it doesn't really delve into the hysteria such killings cause among the police and the citizenry, the way Dirty Harry did." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "this week's trash picture," writing that the film had "no discernible point except to depict a series of particularly grisly killings with a lingering, graphic morbidity." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave it half a star out of four, calling it "a dumb film" that "ends unsatisfactorily without our knowing who the killer is, his motive, or whether he is now dead or alive."
Larry Fisher, a film critic for the Delta Democrat-Times, gave the film a three-star rating out of five. He said Ben Johnson gave a superb performance as Captain J.D. Morales, and, "Although the picture lacks a strong ending, Pierce does one of the most credible jobs of engineering the tense, horrifying murder scenes." Mark Melson, Shreveport Times Amusement editor, opined that it "may prove interesting to some viewers for one reason or another," but was "ultimately unsatisfying."