The Town That Dreaded Sundown

Director: Charles B. Pierce

1976 / 90min / 35mm

Texarkana Tornado Pierce (The Legend of Boggy Creek) used the real-life events of the 1946 Texarkana Moonlight Murders as the basis for his sui generis semi-documentary horror/thriller, shot on location in Texas-Arkansas border towns and largely cast with local nonprofessionals. The spell of postwar optimism and Rockwellian smalltown civic pride is shattered when a hooded serial killer decides to make the local lover’s lane his hunting ground, and Texas Ranger Captain J.D. Morales (Ben Johnson, in a great late role) is tasked with bringing the varmint in before the body count climbs any higher. A wonderfully resourceful, unclassifiable proto-slasher full of corncobby local color, predicting both Halloween’s “Stalker P.O.V.” shot and aspects of the “found footage” horror movie.