22 December 2024
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976)
90 min.
Directed by Charles B. Pierce.
With Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine, Dawn Wells, Jimmy Clem, Cindy Butler, Charles B. Pierce.
This superior thriller/slasher is based on a true unsolved case of a killer in Texarkana, Texas who donned a hood and went on a killing rampage in the 1940s.

The low budget grittiness seems to serve the docudrama format nicely here, as does its period piece backdrop.

Features a fine turn by likable Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island), her assault scene is particularly harrowing and effective.

Some nice touches of workable humor. Vet actor Johnson (and sometime horror regular, as in Roger Spottiswoode's Terror Train) is always reliable and here is no exception. A surprise little sleeper that most definitely deserves a watch.

From the director of 1973's similarly low budget, rural flavored The Legend of Boggy Creek.

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