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The Town That Dreaded Sundown
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- Published: 09-09-2015, 08:28 AM
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The Town That Dreaded Sundown
Released by: Eureka
Released on: August 24, 2015
Director: Charles B. Pierce
Cast: Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine, Dawn Wells, Jimmy Clem, Jim City, Charlies B. Pierce, Cindy Butler
Year: 1976
The Movie:
Between February and May of 1946, Texarkana, Texas was terrorized by a phantom killer who struck only at night approximately once every three weeks. Among his eight victims were six teenagers and young twentysomethings, as well as an adult married couple. Two victims (the first) were savagely beaten but lived, five were murdered, and one was shot twice in the face but also survived. The first assault targeted a 25-year-old man and his 19-year-old girlfriend in a remote lover's lane long considered safe. The attacks continued throughout the spring, escalating in brutality and culminating with a home invasion on a farm couple. They were never solved, despite a number of suspects, and they abruptly ended three months after they began. (Some historians believe that the final attack—on Virgil and Katie Starks—may have been committed by a different perpetrator than in the other cases.) Though the media portrayed the Phantom Killer as a sex fiend, there's little evidence that he raped his victims. Rather, he chose male/female couples, and the attacks on each victim, regardless of gender, suggest that he was motivated more by deep-seated anger issues than by sexual ones.
Right from the outset, The Town That Dreaded Sundown sets its tone with a gruesome attack on a young couple necking in an obscure lover's lane. But rather than focusing on the killer himself, director Charles B. Pierce chose instead to revolve his cinematic adaptation around the investigating officers, played by Ben Johnson and Andrew Prine. The names of the historical persons were changed, not so much to protect their identities (which were well known) but to avoid possible defamation suits. Pierce shot parts of the film in and around Texarkana; though he was born in Hammond, Indiana, he spent most of his life in the Arkansas area, where he also shot several of his films, including his “masterpiece†(to use the term loosely), The Legend of Boggy Creek, four years earlier. Though Town frequently veers from the truth, the final murder sequence is the closest to reality (and portrays the only murders to take place on the Arkansas side of Texarkana).
The murders themselves are terrifically staged and carry real frisson. Johnson is good, Prine not so much, but Cindy Butler (to whom the director was married for a short time) and Dawn Wells (Mary Ann of TV's Gilligan's Island) are equally good, if not better. Too bad the rest of the film is so laughably bad. The trombone sequence may be the most horrifying in the film, and its sadistic depravity easily holds its own against similar scenes in films far superior. (It's basically what modern critics would call “torture porn†but with a degree of 1970s grit lacking in current cinema.) Whereas films of the Friday the 13th ilk tend to show us the aftermath, The Town That Dreaded Sundown savors the nasty foreplay to its murders, carrying us through the violence, and then wallowing in its aftermath. Unfortunately, the climax clumsily provided an out for filmmakers wary of identifying the unknown killer but desperate to provide a sense of closure for viewers. It seems something of a misstep; had the director pursued an ambiguous route similar to the one used by David Fincher in Zodiac (2007), the film would have ended on a much more satisfactory note.
The Town That Dreaded Sundown is ultimately a confounding film. It veers between the extraordinary and the ridiculous, while performances range from laughable to superb. The direction is amazing while the editing is terrible. The horror sequences are terrifying while the police procedurals are hysterical—sometimes intentionally (Pierce himself stars in a minor comic relief role relief), though most of the time not. The script is equal mixture Dario Argento and Ed D. Wood, Jr., but despite its many problems—historically inaccurate much of the time, sublimely ridiculous at others—there's not a dull moment to be found between its credit sequences.
It should be noted that the killer's hooded look was a fictional twist added by Pierce, one that has become fairly iconic—and influenced the appearance of serial murderer Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981), along with any number of killer scarecrows and mask-wearers of various sorts.
Audio/Video/Extras:
The Town That Dreaded Sundown has been released in a dual-format edition containing both a Blu-ray and a DVD by British label Eureka as part of its Classics line rather than its Masters of Cinema line. This review is concerned only with the Blu-ray presentation. The film features an MPEG-4 AVC encode in 1080p with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. And what a transfer it is! Fine detail is resplendent. Much of the film, particularly the murder sequences, takes place at night in the dark, where the trees and foliage benefit from a sharp transfer. It's true that shadows are deep and dark, but wherever light falls, there is a crystal clarity to the detail. Daylight scenes are even sharper, leaving little to complain about in terms of sharpness. (Check out the bricks of various buildings and the threads in people's clothes, or even the wrinkles on Johnson's face.) Colors suffer from very slight fade (reds tend toward pink), yet there's still a great deal of color to be seen, thanks to the richness of Pierce's palette. In some ways, with its emphasis on red and green, the film has a very Christmas-like look. Better yet, grain is entirely natural, providing the foundation for the image without ever obscuring it, and never appears blown out. There's little speckling, and print damage has been cleaned up nicely. All in all, the transfer is pristine and gorgeous, looking exactly the way a '70s film should look.
Eureka has opted for an English LPCM 2.0 track to carry the film's primary audio; the sound is actually recorded in mono and streamed through both channels. No doubt due to the film's original recording equipment, the sound is slightly boxy at times, but dialogue is never difficult to make out, and there's no problem with hiss or other audio defects. Subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired have been included. Eureka has also included a secondary track, which contains the film's musical score and sound effects in isolation.
As usual with Eureka, there are a number of interesting extras that fans of the film will want to immerse themselves in, beginning with an audio commentary from writer/filmmaker/film historian Justin Beahm and Phantom Killer historian Jim Presley. The track is highly informative. Though it does discuss the director's background and filmography, as well as offering minor asides about various participants, it is primarily concerned with the film itself and the facts in the real-life case of the Phantom killer. Beahm does a terrific job of moderating the track, while Presley, author of The Phantom Killer: Unlocking the Mystery of the Texarkana Serial Murders: The Story of a Town in Terror (Pegasus Books, 2014), helps fill in the blank spots. The commentators take great care to debunk various myths associated with the real-life case and the film, and dissect the film's historicity as well as taking a closer look at the actual incident. It's a fascinating track that never fails to inform; there are no empty lapses, and it lasts right up until the final words of the closing credits.
The film's original trailer is included in anamorphic widescreen and lasts two minutes and twenty-one seconds. There's also a trailer for the remake (which, despite its title, is actually more of a modern-day, non-historical sequel). It runs two minutes and twenty-two seconds.
The extras, including the aforementioned commentary track, are ported over from Shout!/Scream's stateside Blu-ray release. These include interviews with actor Andrew Prine (9:41), in which he discusses the film's good and bad aspects, as well as making the silly claim that there were no children in the town of Texarkana for two years following the Moonlight Murders (as they became commonly known); actress Dawn Wells (5:17), in which she discusses her day-and-a-half shooting schedule, her relationship with Pierce, and the perils she faced on set (including an errant bulldog); and cinematographer James Roberson (12:33), in which he discusses Pierce's directorial vision, the film's historical background, the townspeople of Texarkana, and the issues he faced on set. The interviews are interesting enough and don't overstay their welcome. Wells is charming and sweet natured, and her recollections of the shoot are fascinating; it's too bad her segment is the shortest.
The Final Word:
The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a wonderful evocation of post-war true-crime viewed through a '70s horror lens. It waxes between gritty horror and inept police procedural punctuated by unbearable moments of silly comedy relief. It's not Pierce's best film, but it is fun and, at times, uncomfortable, a slice of rural Grand Guignol that has aged fairly well over the years. Eureka's Blu-ray release mirrors Scream's, though minus the inclusion of Pierce's feature-length film The Evictors (1979). It's a nice release, with plenty of educational extras produced by Michael Felsher's Red Shirt Pictures, the most striking of which is the commentary from Beahm and Presley.
Christopher Workman is a freelance writer, film critic, and co-author (with Troy Howarth) of the Tome of Terror horror film review series. Volume 2 of that series, which covers the 1930s, is currently available from Midnight Marquee Press, Inc., with Volume 1, covering the 1920s, due out later this year.
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