The Towns that Dreaded Sundown
By Jedd Birkner
The films “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” (1976) and “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” (2014) are an interesting case. The first is a B movie sensationalized docudrama based on a
real life unsolved series of random murders committed in the Texarkana area in 1946 dubbed by the press the “Texarkana Moonlight Murders.“ The second is not, as one might expect, a
remake, but a fiction meta-sequel about a series of copycat murders approximately thirty years after the release of the first film. And is also one of those rare exceptions in which the sequel is
far superior.
Texarkana is actually two cities that straddle the Texas-Arkansas stateline, but are united as a community. They have separate mayors but a single post office. Between February and May of
1946 there were four attacks on couples; three couples in lovers’ lanes on the Texas side and one couple in a farmhouse on the Arkansas side. The final toll was five dead and three injured.
The killer, originally locally dubbed the Phantom Killer, had an M.O. and appearance eerily similar to the Zodiac Killer of Northern California some twenty years later. He was described by
two of the survivors as wearing a white mask over his head like a pillow case with holes cut out for his eyes and mouth and carrying a flashlight and a gun. And, like the Zodiac Killer, the
Phantom Killer was never found.
This was before serial killers became a household word. This was the boogeyman. Texarkana was a Southern town where people were not in the habit of locking their doors. That all
changed during those three months in 1946. The director of the original 1976 feature, Charles B. Pierce, had grown up in the Texarkana area
hearing stories about the Phantom Killer. He later worked as a weatherman and on and off as a set decorator on films and television series (including The Outlaw Josie Wales, MacGyver and
Remington Steele). But he wanted to direct. His debut feature was the cult classic “The Legend of Boggy Creek” which was based on a local legend in a small town 15 miles from Texarkana.
(A side note: Charles B. Pierce later moved to Carmel, California and met and worked with Clint Eastwood. Pierce co-wrote the story for Eastwood’s “Sudden Impact” and Pierce claims to have
come up with Eastwood’s iconic line “Go ahead, make my day.”)
“The Town That Dreaded Sundown” (1976) was what we now call a grindhouse movie, but back then was more often called a drive-in movie, back in the day when there were drive-ins.. A
drive-in movie was often an exploitation picture (horror, tittilation, action). The 1970s version of the earlier Hollywood B movie. Cheap, entertaining and something to watch on the screen
when there wasn’t any action going on in the backseat. This film is an uneven mash up of docudrama, slasher-horror film and odd comedic bits. There
is true crime style narration and wooden delivery of dialogue. The director, Pierce, cast himself as the comic relief: an inept new hire deputy nicknamed “Spark Plug” who threatens to shoot
people over the phone and drives police cars into swamps. The cast includes Western character actor stalwart Ben Johnson (“The Outlaw,” “Shane,” “Hang ‘Em High,” “The Wild
Bunch”) as a Texas Ranger brought in to lead the manhunt, supporting actor Andrew Prine as the hunky local lawman and Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from “Gilligan’s Island”) as a woman in peril.
Personally, you had me at “Mary Ann.” The actual murder segments are disturbing, but resort to slasher tropes of women running through the woods screaming and the killer himself never rises above a Jason-type masked
man. The film stays accurate to body counts, time frames and general locations of each crime, but takes certain dramatic liberties, including a grotesque method of musically murdering a
bound victim as well as liberal use of knives and blunt instruments.
This film was not Oscar bound, but it delivers as solid, low budget, grindhouse entertainment. Its biggest strength perhaps is its sympathetic depiction of the actual victims.
Then there’s the 2014 sequel. Actually a meta-sequel, not unlike the Scream franchise sequels. In fact, the plotting is not unlike the Scream sequels. It acknowledges the original film (and, in
this case, the original true life crimes) and depicts a series of copycat assaults and murders, throws in numerous red herrings (think poor unjustly accused Jerry O’Connell in “Scream 2”!), a
spunky survivor (think Neve Campbell in pretty much every Scream pic) and a twist ending which honestly you don’t see coming.
If it’s guilty of using the deranged killer meta-sequel tropes, it’s also guilty of being slick, well written and well made…in a good way. The film focuses on a graduating high school senior,
Jami (played by Addison Timlin, who also played another spunky survivor, Coleen Stan, the eponymous “Girl in the Box”), a shy, troubled teen still dealing with mental health issues after
the loss of both her parents. But, when Corey (played by Spencer Treat Clark who you may emember as Bruce Willis’s son in M. Night Shyamalan’s excellent “Unbreakable” as well
appearances in “Gladiator,” “Mystic River,” the series “Animal Kingdom” and the series “Angents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”), the town’s handsome, disarmingly considerate and caring football star asks
shy Jami out on a date, how can the besotted teen refuse? Corey takes her to the town’s annual outdoor screening of the original 1976 “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” (an actual
annual event in Texarkana) and then to a local lovers lane. What, people, could possibly go wrong? So, after Corey is killed the deranged copycat killer whispers to Jami, “This is for Mary.
Make them remember.” Okay. We are off and running. Who is Mary? Who’s the killer? And what the hell are we supposed to remember?
The supporting actors more than pull their weight with appearances by Anthony Anderson in a modern twist on Ben Johnson’s Texas Ranger character in the original, veteran actor Veronica
Cartwright as Jami’s grandmother, Edward Herrman as a morally-challenged preacher and character actor Ed Lauter well cast as a deputy. Denis OHare (who you may remember from
several seasons of “American Horror Story” and numerous films) does a marvelous, edgy performance playing the alcoholic and possibly dangerous son of the original film’s director,
Charles B. Pierce and Gary Cole…who doesn’t like an appearance by Gary Cole? Cole plays a deputy and the movie is worth seeing just to see Gary Cole getting a blow job.
This clever updated slasher stays true to the tropes of the sub-genre, the original film and also the true life crimes. It is an underrated little gem well worth at least an hour and twenty-six minutes of your time.
Jedd Birkner – A Classics scholar, Ivy League wrestler and former A.F.I. screenwriting fellow, Jedd spent over forty years in the entertainment industry including a thirty year stint at 20th Century Fox. Now, when he’s not summiting peaks or doing photography, he does what he does best: watch a shitload of films. His preferred watches are dark, transgressive and often don’t have subtitles…but should (his knowledge of Japanese and Mandarin are very limited).
