The Town That Dreaded Sundown

Since early childhood, amidst all the Horror movies I had seen one of them seemed to stick out as being truly terrifying. My recollection of it was fuzzy at best, but the ending had embedded itself in my mind like a bad memory. I also recalled the name of the movie, and it's Berkowitz-esque plot, but try as I did, I couldn't seem to find it in any video stores around where I live. So many years after I had initially seen the move The Town That Dreaded Sundown it stayed with me, and I wanted to badly to come across it again so that I could relive the horror of it all over again. On one of the luckiest days of my life (well, to a lame ass Gore Fiend like me, it was lucky) I found brand new copies of not only Evil Dead 2 but this movie as well. It wasn't even a video store, but a discount department store (I think I was looking for a CD tower or something) and I decided to check out their movie section just for fun. When I saw this movie, I clutched my heart and just stood there, thinking it must have been some kind of omen. Of course, I did a lot more than that when I saw Evil Dead 2 (I came sooooo close to peeing my pants right there in the store) as I had been searching for a purchase copy of it for so long. But I was excited to find this one nonetheless...

The movie takes place in the late 40's in the town of Texarkana, Texas (everything fucked up seems to happen in Texas) and is based on a true story of the serial killings that happened there. Back in those days, people didn't have to carry mace or guns with them, and sometimes didn't even think to lock their doors at night. The modern day fears of madmen lurking around corners in the dark hours of night weren't fears those people had, and for the most part they were able to live their lives without even having to question their safety. Something terrible happened in Texarkana however, something that made it's residents start to think twice about how safe they were in their quiet little town.

Two young lovers encountered terror like they had never known it before when they parked their car on "Lovers Lane" to make out. Shot right where they sat by a man dressed in dirty blue jeans and wearing a white hood, likely constructed of a pillow case with holes cut out for his eyes. Police immediately began investigating the case, but could find virtually no evidence and could only come up with dead end answers to the townspeople's questions about what had happed that night, and why. Most importantly however, everyone was at a loss as to who had committed the heinous crime.

As time went by, people started taking more precautions regarding their safety. As more time went by, two more young people were attacked just like the first two had been on Lovers Lane. Coincidentally, this second episode had occurred a month after the first one, one month exactly to the day. Police caught on to this, and increased surveillance of the area in question when the next month anniversary was to take place. They found that their efforts proved to be futile however, for when the madman struck again, in the same place, he barely managed to get away after nearby officers heard the shooting pierce through the quiet night.

Texarkana became a virtual ghost town during the night. Nobody walked the streets, or drove anywhere, or even left their houses. Terrified to the point of hysteria, Texarkanans were at a loss in regards of what to do. Then the pattern the killer had clung to changed, and he took to more unpredictable methods to further baffle police. Killing a family in their home by firing at them through the living room's picture window, he not only succeeded in increasing his body count, but in increasing the sense of doom which every resident of the small town felt growing inside of them, and the futility the law officials felt because they were no closer to catching the killer than they had been months ago.

The movie ends in a heart-stopping climax involving a dramatic chase scene between the killer and the police which leads right into the path of an oncoming train. Now I'm not going to give away the ending of the movie, but I do want to reinforce the fact that this movie is based directly on the story of true events which occurred. This is no made up bullshit from some writer's mind, it's the real deal, which makes it even more harrowing. So, if you get a chance, look for this movie. I promise, if you like being scared, you wont be disappointed.

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