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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»1970s Movies»Movies 1976
    Movies 1976 Movies T 3 Mins Read

    Town That Dreaded Sundown, The (1976)

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    “The incredible story you are about to see is true. Where it happened and how it happened. Only the names have been changed”

    Eight months after the end of World War II, on the night of Sunday 3 March 1946, in the town of Texarkana, Sammy Fuller (Mike Hackworth) and Linda Mae Jenkins (Christine Ellsworth) – a courting couple out for a drive – are savagely attacked by a gun-toting maniac wearing a bag over his head.

    Deputy Norman Ramsey (Andrew Prine) finds them bloodied but still feebly alive, the woman with bite marks all over her body.

    Twenty-one days later the psycho strikes again, this time torturing then shooting a young couple dead after binding Emma Lou Cook (Misty West) to a tree.

    As panicked townsfolk board up their windows, stock up on guns and (as the title suggests) dread sundown, authorities welcome the arrival of Captain J.D. Morales (Ben Johnson), legendary “lone wolf” of the Texas Rangers, who aims to catch the killer dead or alive.

    Yet even with hard-bitten Morales dogging his trail, the masked maniac continues his murder spree. With a creepy mask and crazy eyes, the wheezing killer cuts a frightening figure and his murders prove genuinely unsettling.

    It is not an especially gory film yet the intensity of the murder scenes are disturbing as victims sob, squeal and beg for mercy while they are beaten to death.

    In the film’s most infamous scene, the killer ties a knife onto a trombone and repeatedly stabs Peggy Loomis (Cindy Butler) to death in a manner both ridiculous and horrifying.

    The killer’s gruelling pursuit of Helen Reed (the lovely Dawn Wells from Gilligan’s Island), is another taut suspense sequence.

    The film has proven somewhat influential, inspiring a like-named meta-horror sequel in 2014 while in a strange (and slightly unsettling) twist of fate, it has been fondly embraced by residents of the real Texarkana.

    Screenings of the film have become a Halloween tradition at Spring Lake Park near the town in a free event sponsored by the Texas Department of Parks and Recreation.

    Captain J.D. Morales
    Ben Johnson
    Deputy Norman Ramsey
    Andrew Prine
    Helen Reed
    Dawn Wells
    Sgt. Mal Griffin
    Jimmy Clem
    Police Chief R.J. Sullivan
    Jim Citty
    Patrolman A.C. “Sparkplug” Benson
    Charles B. Pierce
    Sheriff Otis Barker
    Robert Aquino
    Peggy Loomis
    Cindy Butler
    Dr Kress
    Earl E. Smith
    Roy Allen
    Steve Lyons
    Eddie LeDoux
    Joe Catalanotto
    Rainbow Johnson
    Roy Lee Brown
    Sammy Fuller
    Mike Hackworth
    Linda Mae Jenkins
    Christine Ellsworth
    Emma Lou Cook
    Misty West
    Buddy Turner
    Rick Hildreth
    Captain Gus Wells
    Jason Darnell
    FBI Agent
    Woody Woodman
    Dr Preston Hickson
    John Stroud
    Reverend Harden
    Mason Andres
    High School Principal
    Richard Green
    Suspect
    Don Adkins
    Phantom Killer
    Bud Davis
    Narrator (voice)
    Vern Stierman

    Director
    Charles B. Pierce

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