Skip to main content

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) - Charles B. Pierce

The Town That Dreaded Sundown isn't bad, but it isn't amazing either. It's presented as a quasi-documentary with a narrator describing key events as they happen in the film. The soundtrack and the narration really throw off the creepy vibe. However, the fact that this is based on a true story is really interesting and makes this worth the watch. 

A hooded brute is stalking the young people in a small Texas town and savagely murdering them. The film revolves around the efforts of the police in the area and an expert ranger to apprehend this serial killer. As they begin the largest manhunt in Texas history. Their suspect alludes them at every turn. Becoming an enigma and earning the title of the Phantom Slayer.

Made in 1976, Sundown was a big influence on the slasher genre. Stupid teens in love, necking over at "The Point" The Phantom Slayer looked to be a big part of who Jason Voorhees was supposed to look like in Friday the 13th: Part 2. I feel like this movie had a huge impact on the horror society and it was vastly overlooked. Yeah the movie is dated but things were scarier back then. Aside form the soundtrack and narration you have a really solid horror movie here. That is, all the way up until the end. What a cop-out.

I liked the movie and I can't wait for the remake to come out. If anything it will be a nice upgrade to a movie that needs it. This one was really well paced, but the ending and the overall vibe killed the creepy qualities. The scenes with the Phantom are great. Really suspenseful. Then it's killed with narration that's too loud or a soundtrack that doesn't make sense. I recommend this movie for Halloween playlists all around. It's perfect to play in the background while beer pong is going on.

"Texarkana looked normal during the daylight hours. But everyone dreaded sundown..."
  • Based on the real-life string of mysterious killings that terrorized the people of Texarkana, Texas, in 1946. The murder spree became known as the "Texarkana Moonlight Murders" and ultimately would claim five lives and injure many others. The only description of the killer ever obtained was of a hooded man. To this day no one has been convicted and these murders remain unsolved.
  • A remake is being developed by Ryan Murphy and Jason Blum. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is to direct from a script by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Addison Timlin will play the lead role.
  • According to the interview with Andrew Prine on the Region 1 Shout! Factory release, Prine had to write the ending for the movie because the script didn't have an ending.   
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t...
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »

Le Diable au Convent (1899) - George Melies

Le Diable au Convent is longer than the two previous Georges Méliès ventures into short form horror. This particular French short shows the Devil himself running a convent and terrorizing the poor old nuns that live there. However he is finally vanquished by the good of Faith. This is yet another Méliès classic, showcasing the art work that really goes into his short film-making. This is one of the earliest examples of a horror movie that could rely on its elaborate set design and artistic design. Everything in this film, although horribly aged, has been packaged extremely well. If you are a fan of production and set design then I would highly recommend just about anything that Melies has his name on. Though nothing that is considered too extreme actually happens, Satan does have his way with a convent. The satanic imagery itself must have kept this film on the traveling carnival circuit. It certainly wouldn’t fit into the good moral bag that society shoved i...
1 comment
Not scared yet? »

Spookies (1986) - Genie Joseph, Thomas Doran, and Brendan Faulkner

It's impossible to get a decent movie when you take two films and just squash them together. That is essentially the story of how this movie came together. The film started as Twisted Souls. However, according to the financial backer they didn't have enough horror. So they ended up hiring another guy to come in and add a monster in virtually every scene.  This movie started out being directed by Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran. It basically is the tale of two sets of teenagers that arrive to a strange building surrounded by a strange cemetery. It was your usual tale of teenagers in a big hows with a few monsters. Then they brought in Genie Joseph and added even more. Like a haunted birthday party, a murderous cat-man, zombies, and an old wizard. It really became a smorgasbord of horror with a very thin plot-line leading it around. This movie is hard to summarize in a conventional way. It just packs so much.  The most interesting part of this movie are ...
2 comments
Not scared yet? »