As Good As It Gets

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

"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.

What would you get if you took John Carpenter's classic HALLOWEEN and removed any and all suggestion(s) of the supernatural? That's right: THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN. The fact that this one's based on facts (to a degree) is all the more terrifying. While I'm no fan of slasher films (much less GORY slasher films), movies like this one- based on Real Life incidents- hold a morbid fascination. The almost palpable TENSION in THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN stems directly from the fact that it's "based on a true story." Filmmaker Pierce quite naturally takes some artistic liberties with the story, but the overall effect is still downright chilling. In this one, we find the template for most of the slasher films that would follow in the wake of HALLOWEEN (including, to a degree, HALLOWEEN itself). The idea that they never really nailed this guy is all the more frightening- even in retrospect.

"The Town That Dreaded Sundown" focuses on the small community of Texarkana, Texas, which was plagued by a series of gruesome murders in the 1940s that are to this day unsolved. Charles B. Pierce's cult classic is an interesting and everlasting piece of cinematic history for two reasons: firstly, it is based on a real life series of crimes; and secondly, the film itself presents the events in a clinical, detached, straightforward manner in the semblance of a true-crime documentary, yet without actually being a true-crime documentary. This unusual narrative approach really sets "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" apart from its peers, and its release in 1976 marks it as one of the prototypes for the slasher film as it's come to be known.The criminal investigation aspect is heavy-handed in the film, which is another unique nuance, as the film manages to balance the investigative side of the story with the outright horror of the crimes committed. On an aesthetic level, the film feels as though it were made in the late 1950s-early 1960s, partly because it's a period piece, but also partly just because of its visual elements, which recall the grit of that era's B-movies. It is stark and colorful, and at times reminded me of a more serious Herschell Gordon Lewis picture, especially with the hackneyed comedy elements that bubble to the surface at times.Overall, it is not hard to see why "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" entered the lexicon of horror, because it is truly a unique piece of film history, bolstered by the meta-fact that it was a film based on history. The clinical documentarian approach is chilling in all the right ways, and the film is engaging in spite of some dragging of its feet. Not a flawless film, but certainly one to be remembered. 7/10.

****SPOILERS**** True story of the notorious "Phantom Killer" who stalked the lovers lanes as well as homes of Texarkana Arkensas who ended up murdering five and wounding six, mostly teenagers, people in the late winter and early spring of 1946. Desperate to catch the elusive killer the town's sheriff office hired top Texas Ranger investigator Captain J.D "Lone Wolf" Morales, Ben Johnson, to track the "Phantom Killer" down. The killer dressed in baggy pants and wearing a burlap sack over his head seemed to have trouble breathing, he may have been suffering from asthma, but had no trouble out running the police or sheriff deputies! As well as him surviving getting shot and crawling into the nearby snake and alligator infested swamps or bayous where he was never seen or heard from again!In fact the truth of the matter is that the "Phantom Killer" was never shot or even seen, with his burlap shack off, by anyone and just disappeared, after his last shooting spree on May 3 1946, off the face of the earth. The movie has its share of suspense as well as terror as the hooded killer stalks the night and keeps the people in the town of Texarkana behind locked doors too terrified to wounder out, even to buy groceries, when the sun goes down. Capt. Morales together with Deputy Norman Ramsey, Andrew Prine, finally track the killer down walking , with his burlap sack on, down the road in broad daylight without a care in the world until he spots them and makes a run for it. Having no difficulty outrunning the pair, even after being shot, the "Phantom Killer" slips into the nearby swamps and, without any scuba equipment, goes underwater and makes his getaway!****SPOILERS**** The very unconvincing ending spoiled everything that was positive about the movie in turning the "Phantom Killer" into another, some four years before he made his film debut, Jason of "Friday the 13th" fame. In not being able to come up with a good ending it had to be fictionalized by the script writers to make it work. The film in fact ends some 30 years later in 1976 where we see the premier of the film "The Town that Dreaded Sundown" in the town of Texarkana and guess who's waiting in line to see it? The "Phantom Killer" himself, as we only see his well polished shoes or loafers, as he's limping on his way to buy his ticket at the box-office to see, I would assume, just how accurate the movie is about his exploits back in 1946!