The Town That Dreaded Sundown
2/4
Starring: Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine
Rated R (probably for Graphic Violence)
Chalk this one up with "Hollow Man" in the list of movies that should have been a lot better than they actually were. I mean, what is scarier than living in a small town with a masked killer on the loose and police who are unable to catch him?
1946. Texarkana, Arkansas is a small town on the border of Texas and Arkansas. The majority of the town's young men have returned from fighting in World War II, and everyone seems to be looking forward to peace and rebuilding. One night, two young people seeking some private time in one of the town's many "Lover's Lanes" are viciously attacked by a man in a mask. The police are on the case, but there's very little evidence to go on. Shortly thereafter, two other people are attacked, but they don't come out of it alive. Now the town is gripped with fear as a local cop named Norman Ramsey (Prine) and a legendary detective named J.D. Morales (Johnson) are hunting a killer with no mercy.
Despite its reputation and being referenced in the popular horror movie "Scream," "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" is less of a scarefest than a mystery. It bears a closer resemblance to something like "Zodiac" than, say, your average slasher movie. While the attack scenes are violent for a movie that looks so old (surprisingly, it was made only two years before "Halloween," the godfather of the slasher movie as we know it today), it's light on gore and director Charles B. Pierce is more interested in following Ramsey and Morales track down The Phantom, as he is eventually called. Unfortunately, the film is so feebly scripted that it's impossible to care about them, or anyone else in the film. The dialogue is consistently bland; characters talk only to explain what they are doing and why. The only personality that these characters have is because of the work by the actors themselves, and it's nowhere near enough to make them interesting.
On a technical level, the film is on more solid ground. Specifically, the kill scenes (I'm just going to ignore the ridiculous and out of place car chase scene, which belongs in something like "The Love Bug"). Pierce and his cinematographer Jim Roberson have constructed them with great care. They chose their shots carefully for maximum intensity. They're good at making jump scenes, and it's hard not to get creeped out when you can hear the killer's heavy breathing. John Carpenter did the same thing to much better effect two years later, but it's nevertheless effective.
Sadly, the film can't sustain the tension when The Phantom isn't around. The narrator (which is voiced by Vern Stierman), goes on and on about how the town is gripped in fear, but it's not convincing. We see people boarding up their windows, empty streets, and lots of cops, that's it. A good thriller will get us to feel the fear. That doesn't come close to happening.
Like seemingly every movie ever made, "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" is getting a remake. Actually, it's going to be released this Thursday, so we will have to see if it's an improvement. To be honest, it wouldn't take much for that to happen.
Starring: Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine
Rated R (probably for Graphic Violence)
Chalk this one up with "Hollow Man" in the list of movies that should have been a lot better than they actually were. I mean, what is scarier than living in a small town with a masked killer on the loose and police who are unable to catch him?
1946. Texarkana, Arkansas is a small town on the border of Texas and Arkansas. The majority of the town's young men have returned from fighting in World War II, and everyone seems to be looking forward to peace and rebuilding. One night, two young people seeking some private time in one of the town's many "Lover's Lanes" are viciously attacked by a man in a mask. The police are on the case, but there's very little evidence to go on. Shortly thereafter, two other people are attacked, but they don't come out of it alive. Now the town is gripped with fear as a local cop named Norman Ramsey (Prine) and a legendary detective named J.D. Morales (Johnson) are hunting a killer with no mercy.
Despite its reputation and being referenced in the popular horror movie "Scream," "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" is less of a scarefest than a mystery. It bears a closer resemblance to something like "Zodiac" than, say, your average slasher movie. While the attack scenes are violent for a movie that looks so old (surprisingly, it was made only two years before "Halloween," the godfather of the slasher movie as we know it today), it's light on gore and director Charles B. Pierce is more interested in following Ramsey and Morales track down The Phantom, as he is eventually called. Unfortunately, the film is so feebly scripted that it's impossible to care about them, or anyone else in the film. The dialogue is consistently bland; characters talk only to explain what they are doing and why. The only personality that these characters have is because of the work by the actors themselves, and it's nowhere near enough to make them interesting.
On a technical level, the film is on more solid ground. Specifically, the kill scenes (I'm just going to ignore the ridiculous and out of place car chase scene, which belongs in something like "The Love Bug"). Pierce and his cinematographer Jim Roberson have constructed them with great care. They chose their shots carefully for maximum intensity. They're good at making jump scenes, and it's hard not to get creeped out when you can hear the killer's heavy breathing. John Carpenter did the same thing to much better effect two years later, but it's nevertheless effective.
Sadly, the film can't sustain the tension when The Phantom isn't around. The narrator (which is voiced by Vern Stierman), goes on and on about how the town is gripped in fear, but it's not convincing. We see people boarding up their windows, empty streets, and lots of cops, that's it. A good thriller will get us to feel the fear. That doesn't come close to happening.
Like seemingly every movie ever made, "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" is getting a remake. Actually, it's going to be released this Thursday, so we will have to see if it's an improvement. To be honest, it wouldn't take much for that to happen.
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