Wow! Such a good movie.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN is an amazing movie. It's a horror film, a police procedural, and a documentary, all in one. In 1946, a hooded figure known only as "The Phantom", stalked the town of Texarcana, killing the unwary. The movie strays somewhat from the facts of the actual case, but not enough to make it unbelievable. The only scene that is truly "out there", and plays loose w/ the facts, is the notorious "trombone scene", where a woman is killed, using her own "re-purposed" trombone against her. In reality, it was a sax. Other than a few other, minor details, the story is solid enough. This is also a very good film for fans of Andrew Prine and / or Ben Johnson, each of whom put in excellent performances here. Of special note is Dawn Wells, who certainly proves there's more to her than "Mary Ann"! Her harrowing scene near the end is the best of the movie! It's also the most accurate. Frightening, informative, and entertaining, TTTDS remains a unique and influential film...

Texarkana, 1946 a year that changed it forever. Things were going fine. Soldiers coming back from the war, work is booming, going to college,production is happening there. Texarkana was being like any other small American town. But all of a sudden, things get scary. When the sun goes down. When young people go out to lovers' lane, it ends up being a nightmare. A man in a white hood, terrorizes young lovers. The first victims survive the heinous attacks. But there were others who weren't so fortunate. This acts prompts the local law enforcement to build up the security of the town. Making the citizens very vigilant. The individual is known as "The Phantom" wreaked havoc. No one knows the true identity of him. Many have claimed to be "The Phantom", but they all seem to want the attention for their confessions. So what has become of "The Phantom"? He was shot. Some say that he was doing time. Others claims that the swamps have claimed him. Whatever happened back then, I hope he's gone for good. This is a movie that can be used for crime history. Because it's based on actual events, one much learn. Highly recommended. 4 out of 5 stars.

I'd never even heard of this case until seeing this film, and from viewing the Wikipedia article they pretty much got the facts straight, down to the name of the legendary Texas Ranger who came in to head the investigation after the local Texarkana police realized they had a serial killer with no motive on their hands.I like how the film in the beginning takes the time to set up the atmosphere in Texarkana - heck, all across America - immediately postwar. There were plenty of jobs, people were optimistic, there was great growth in the need for houses and a marriage boom following the men coming back from overseas, yet Texarkana retained its small town charm.The killer escalates in violence and bravado with each attack until he is almost caught, and then disappears as suddenly as he appeared. When the killer is attacking, you just see a homemade mask made from a sack over his head, and he never speaks, but his heavy breathing is scarier than anything he could say. When the film is insinuating that the killer is around town, hiding in plain sight, just a pair of shoes are shown. He carried a blunt instrument because he seemed to enjoy the act of bludgeoning and causing pain, but he also carried a gun in case he had to kill quickly.Ben Johnson does a great job of portraying legendary Texas Ranger J.D. Morales, but I imagine law enforcement even in a big city would be hard pressed to solve what at that time was such an uncommon crime - a man who killed complete strangers just for the joy of inflicting pain. There were no FBI profilers, no DNA, criminal forensics was in its infancy. Thus nobody knows if the killer died, went to prison, or just "stopped".The one thing I DID notice - and that is completely forgivable given the film's B pedigree - is that the women's hairstyles were often very 70s for this to be 1946. Part documentary, part suspense film, I'd recommend this one.

"The Town That Dreaded Sundown" has amassed a sizable cult over the years. To some degree, I can understand that; there is some genuine merit to be found in this low budget independently made movie. Despite those circumstances the film was made in, the movie generally looks very good, from the cinematography to the production values. The movie is also often directed in a very interesting quasi-documentary style, which gives the package some credibility. The best thing about the movie, however, are the scenes where the phantom killer strikes. These scenes are surprisingly creepy even by today's horror standards.But as I hinted in my summary line, the movie is not perfect. There is some obvious padding throughout, though that may have been inevitable since the real life phantom killer only attacked eight people. Also on occasion, the musical score is both strident and annoying. But the biggest problem in the movie is the comic relief. The comic relief is not only unfunny, but it's heavy-handed and embarrassing.Despite flaws such as those I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I think the movie is worth a look. It's never boring, and it is an interesting precursor to what was to come just a few years later: The slasher genre. I know of at least one 1980s slasher movie that was heavily influenced by this movie. See if you can figure out which one that was.