Four years after The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972), director Charles B. Pierce made another movie claiming to be a true story: The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976). Both were advertised as true stories, not “based on” true stories. In the case of the latter, a little research shows that there was actually a series of murders in and around Texarkana (Arkansas and Texas) in 1946. However, lawsuits from surviving family members following the movie’s release indicate it probably played a little free and loose with the facts. There’s nothing wrong with that; in order for actual events to successfully translate to a fictional medium, creative license must be taken.
Whether it’s fact or fiction, or something in between, The Town That Dreaded Sundown makes great effort in its opening moments to set the story in fact. Deep-voiced narration by Vern Stierman (you probably recognize his voice from any number of other movies or TV shows) tells us about the post-World War II economy of the small town that straddles the border of Arkansas and Texas. The G.I. Bill of Rights has provided new opportunity and the townsfolk are on waiting lists to buy new cars. Young couples drive to Lovers lane late at night for a little romance.
On Sunday, March 3, 1946, though, a hooded figure interrupts one such couple by literally pulling them out of the car and brutally attacking them. Discovered along the road the next morning, the girl’s back, neck and breasts have been “heavily chewed.” The police know only two things: “We have a strange person here” and “We need to warn the college students to stay out of Lovers Lane.” 21 days later, Deputy Sheriff Norman Ramsey (Andrew Prine) barely misses an encounter with the hooded figure. Another man is shot dead and a woman is found bound to a tree.
Following this murder, fear sweeps across the town as guns sell out and new locks are installed. In Texarkana, Stierman tells us, the daylight hours are fine, but the town dreads sundown. Enter the “Lone Wolf” from the Texas Rangers, living legend Captain J.D. Morales (Ben Johnson) who plans on “catching him… or killing him.” Although not very scary or suspenseful, The Town That Dreaded Sundown had me in its grip until this point. After Morales’s arrival, the filmmakers must have thought audiences needed some comic relief, which comes in the form of Patrolman A.C. “Spark Plug” Benson, played by Pierce himself.
Throughout the rest of the movie, Spark Plug loses keys, drives erratically and takes a police cruiser for a Dukes of Hazard plunge into a swamp. Comic relief can be a great way to release stress during a terrifying movie… in small doses. It’s extremely problematic here, though. First of all, The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a little proud of itself to believe we would need the stress relief. Second, even if we did, we don’t need this level of outright slapstick. Rather than complement or contribute to the story, it distracts. I wonder how different the movie would have been without these scenes.
Anyway, the police realize a possible pattern when the next 21 days pass. Cross-dressing as decoys for a potential attack, the police seem to ignore the fact that the Junior-Senior Prom might provide a good supply for the “Phantom’s” next victims. Sure enough, another couple is attacked, not on Lovers Lane, but in a park in the middle of town. This is the movie’s most creative and twisted scene as the Phantom attaches a knife to the girl’s trombone and stabs her to death. Later, as police hold the murder weapon in hand, they complain of having no evidence. I guess detective work was very primitive in 1946.
Following each murder, Stierman’s voice returns to get us up-to-date about how the town reacts. After the trombone killing, the national news appears in town and an $8,000 reward is offered for any information about the Phantom. Even though “odds are two to one he won’t be caught,” police continue to sit at restaurants and talk about him. On Friday, May 3, the Phantom follows home Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island, Dawn Wells. He shoots her husband through the window, rips through the screen door and chases her through a cornfield with a pickax.
After this incident, the townsfolk board their windows, no papers are delivered in the early morning and Western Union doesn’t deliver at night. The town is swarming with police. But it’s Deputy Ramsey who overhears a report about a stolen car and recognizes it from his near-miss with the Phantom on March 24. He and Captain Morales finally track the suspect and have a shootout on either side of a moving train. After that, the suspect disappears in a giant sand pit between there and the river. Or does he? Was he really the Phantom? The movie poster tells us that, “Today he still lurks the streets of Texarkana.”
Make some big edits to The Town That Dreaded Sundown and you’d have a better movie. As it is, it plays like a bad television crime reenactment, albeit not one that’s without its small pleasures. Technically, my biggest problem with it is that not for one minute do I believe it takes place in 1946; it reeks of the 1970s. A few vintage cars and giving all the girls two first names (Linda Mae, Emma Lou) can’t quite sustain a period feel. Nevertheless, you do see moments (POV shots, creative killings) that will in the future become staples of the Slasher genre.
The remake/sequel/reboot of The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) takes the bare bones of the original movie and turns it into a surprisingly strong exercise in self-aware meta film making. After watching it, I truly wonder why it didn’t get a theatrical release; it’s far better than other movies of its kind. Under the banner of Blumhouse Productions (Paranormal Activity, Insidious) and Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story), with a script by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (the Carrie remake) and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, The Town That Dreaded Sundown is intricately clever, while being remarkable effective.
The movie opens in similar fashion to the original as a narrator tells the history of the “true” murders. In short fashion, though, we learn it’s not going to be the same old story. He adds to it the fact that the movie was released in 1976 and every year after that, the people of Texarkana screen it on Halloween. (This story “happened in Texarkana last year.”) Immediately, this movie takes a more brutal approach with its murders. The first attack also takes place in a Lovers Lane-like area, but is far more graphic and mean. The surviving woman, Jami (Addison Timlin) becomes our heroine, something missing from the first movie, which, with its matter-of-fact storytellling, did not have a central character with whom to sympathize.
Sort of a movie within a movie, The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) is largely about a killer inspired not necessarily by the 1946 murders, but by the 1976 movie itself. At times, this movie imitates the other one. At other times, it merely uses it for reference. However, it also references other Slasher movies. Jami’s grandmother, Lillian (Veronica Cartwright) tells her “you can’t catch the Boogeyman… you can’t kill the Boogeyman.” That reminds me of Halloween. She also says that the killer’s father was a devil and his mother a whore. That reminds me of A Nightmare on Elm Street. I would mention that the Phantom’s hood reminds me of Jason’s in Friday the 13th Part 2; however, the hood in the original movie actually predates Jason. This movie is meta upon meta upon meta.
The next murder takes place at a motel when a man returns home from the military and makes up for lost time with his girlfriend. Whereas the original movie’s murders were slow, static scenes of mostly bloodless mayhem, the new one’s are fast, dynamic scenes of bloody gore. In fact, the camera in The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) rarely stops moving. It’s almost constantly swooping in or pulling away or poised at interesting angles. Add to that the flashbacks from both the movie and the characters’ back stories, and you have one of the most creatively-filmed movies of any genre. Calling it the Birdman of horror would be a slight exaggeration, but helps make my point.
The new movie stops short of repeating exact murder patterns from the original; the Phantom doesn’t follow the 21-day rule. However, in a turn of events that I find puzzling, yet simultaneously satisfying, Texas Ranger “Lone Wolf” Morales (Anthony Anderson) arrives from Austin to lead the investigation. (He also briefly encounters a Spark Plug character.) Sitting at the station watching the original movie for clues, there’s no acknowledgment of his namesake. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) then drifts into remake territory, particularly when the trombone murder is repeated, of course, more graphically… and with one half of a gay couple. This sure isn’t the 70s, much less the 40s.
Back in meta territory, Jami and newly-found soul mate Nick (Travis Tope) locate Charles B. Pierce, Jr.(Denis O’Hare), son of the director of The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976). He claims to know the identity of the killer and reveals a final, previously unknown murder that took place across the tracks. He believes the grandson of this victim is seeking acknowledgment of this forgotten incident. Well, that certainly coincides with the messages and phone calls Jami has been receiving from the first new fatality Corey’s (Spencer Treat Clark) mobile phone. That is, unless, Reverend Cartwright (Edward Herrmann) has been sending Jami emails because a murder spree is good business for his church.
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) has a less ambiguous ending than The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976). In this movie, we learn the specific identity of the killer. And the reveal of said killer in the new movie also offers something the old one doesn’t: a twist. Let’s say this twist is 50% predictable, but also 50% surprising, and it pays tribute to another horror classic. It’s just one of many features that the original movie does not have, such as fully-formed characters and relationships, true thrills and chills, and a distinct style. Seamlessly weaving in and out of history and fiction, it’s a horror fan’s horror movie, with an awareness and appreciation for the genre.
In the new The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014), Charles B. Pierce, Jr. says his father was a visionary who would have been the next Orson Welles if he had moved to California. Watching the original The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976), you know that nothing could be further than the truth. There’s not much visionary film making, but there is a certain charm to the faux documentary feel of many movies of the era, not only Pierce’s. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, though? There’s probably a bright future for him in Hollywood as his second feature, Me & Earl & the Dying Girl, currently gathers rave reviews. This reminds me of how many artists get their starts in horror movies.
This fact allows horror fans to experience talent and creativity on its way up, rather than on its way down. We have to sit through some unbearable stuff, but when we’re treated to something like The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014), it makes our passion worth it. The movie is satisfying on so many levels: as a tribute to a horror classic, as a remake of that horror classic, as recognition of the horror genre in general, and as a spoof of the sequel/remake/reboot phenomenon. Oh, and if anyone cares about this, it also satisfies as pure, simple entertainment.
