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 Based on a true story, "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" is about the hooded Phantom Killer who terrorized Texarkana in 1946. Like the Zodiac Killer, who also reportedly wears a hood, the whereabouts of this murderer remain unknown. Since the information on the killer is sketchy at best, the movie tries to pad itself with slice-of-life-in-Texarkana scenes and policemen trying to figure out how to catch the killer. The result is a rather talky hybrid of 35% horror, 35% crime-drama, 15% documentary, and 15% comedy. The comedy is mostly derived from idiot cop humor since one cop is always screwing up and there is a scene where the cops doll themselves like girls to lure the killer. Judging by the unsettling androgyny of heavily-rouged policemen with asymmetrical breasts, it would probably be safe to say this is some artistic licensing going on here. Even so, the movie has several good points. It replicates the late 40's era so nicely that you tend to forget that the movie is made in 1976. The acting is generally good, and the cast sounds like they come from the South. Best of all, the killer is genuinely scary. He seems inhuman with that hood tightly wound to his head. There is an eerie blue glint behind those eyeholes, and his heavy breathing causes the mask to puff & pucker like a frog's throat. Sometimes the camera does not show enough of what he is doing exactly, but what you do see is some scary stuff. In one particularly disturbing scene, he just creeps up and shoots somebody through a window while nobody is watching. Just imagine, while you're sound asleep, someone blows your brains out through the bedroom window! It's too bad that there isn't more of the killer and less of the policemen in this picture. The bottom line: "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" is a decent, if talky, film, and is probably one of the best among the countless examples of horror movies that start off with a couple being attacked in their car at night. |
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QUARTER BY QUARTER ANALYSIS OF MOVIE
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OVERALL RATING
** NOTE: The more dots, the higher the rating. A dozen dots mean that the movie is a masterpiece while one or no dots means that the movie is about as much fun as kissing an electric fence. ** |
    
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The Worm-Hole Reviews are written by Matt Barnes.