The Town That Dreaded Sundown [Blu-ray]

Pretty good movie. The Phantoms breathing is a bit ridiculous. Gave me the chuckles. I just wish I knew why the actual killer used a trombone. What in the world was running through that guys mind at that moment.

(One of my favorite pre slasher era films)This original is a hidden gem among horror/true crime movies!I enjoy this movie for a number of reasons. Mainly because the charecters are flawed and make mistakes like real people, and the gritty feel of the movie. Based on true events makes this movie even creepier. After watching the movie you can research the actual case then it really gets crazy. One of my favorite movies in my collection now.

If you love old killer movies you’ll love this one

This has been so long neglected and so long overdue for a DVD/Blu-Ray release. It is finally going to become reality on May 21, 2013. Thank you so much Shout Factory. Also, included will be a bonus film of the director Charles B. Pierce's "The Evictors" from 1979, a lesser known film that is also "based on a true story". Being originally from rural, small-town, Georgia, U.S.A., I can easily relate to the similar, real-life setting of Texarkana, Arkansas. Anyone looking for a high-quality, gripping, intense and suspenseful story, need look no further. It's made all the more horrific because it is based on real-life, unsolved serial killings in 1946 Texarkana. It is maybe somewhat deceptive and misleading to those viewers who are looking for horror films to rent or to buy. It's packaging may give the appearance of being just another cheap slasher or stalker film. The real surprise awaiting many unwary viewers may come when they discover that it is not just another cheap Friday the 13th or Halloween imitation, but in fact, actually pre-dates both films and their countless sequels. Ben Johnson, as he always did, made acting look easy, was such a wonderful and fine, natural, vastly underrated actor and gives an impressive performance here as Texas Ranger, Captain "Lone Wolf" J.D. Morales. Andrew Prine, as Miller County, Arkansas Deputy Sheriff Norman Ramsey, is great in a key supporting role. Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island) is very lovely and is also excellent in all too brief role, as a would-be victim of The Phantom Killer, Mrs. Helen Reed. The violence, although while it is quite jarring and effective, is generally low-key and takes place, thankfully, mostly off-camera. The main exception is the infamous "trombone" scene, while it is maybe not as graphically bloody and explicit by today's gorehound's highly questionable standards, it is always very hard to watch and is much more disturbing than the goriest scenes in the Friday the 13th films. Perhaps this particular scene is made all the more unpleasant and is much more difficult to watch because it is shown from The Phantom Killer's sadistic point-of-view, as well as from the victim's. This film always makes me feel just a little bit uneasy about walking or sitting in front of the windows in my house at night, even to this very day. Perhaps the most unsettling thing of all is the knowledge that the film's basis is all too factual and quite chillingly, that The Phantom Killer was never caught and the most frightening thing of all is the undeniable knowledge that something similar could still happen today, anywhere, at anytime. The extremely unlikely and sometimes even surprisingly slapstick humor and comedy relief are both somewhat out-of-place for a film of this kind, are also inappropriate and overdone and are quite often too much, almost to the point of giving you the feeling that you are watching two different films at the same time, but maybe they do give the film a much-needed break and some pleasant and comforting relief from the otherwise, unrelenting and almost documentary-like, grim storyline. Not a huge budget or great production values (not unlike the original Night Of The Living Dead), except for a quite surprisingly authentic 1940's feel and excellent use of on-location filming. The acting (except for director Charles B. Pierce's own portrayal of a Barney Fife-like police officer, Patrolman A.C. "Sparkplug" Benson), is more than adequate and is generally, well-cast. Director Pierce did a mostly acceptable job behind the camera, but it would have been an even better film if he had been content with staying there, as he quite obviously should have done. Well worth a look just as it is, though, far from perfect it may be. Hopefully, it will also be made available on DVD someday, complete with some extras, such as the original film trailer and maybe some behind-the-scenes features. All-in-all, one of the very best adaptations of a fact-based story that has ever been done on film. As the film's narrator says early-on, "The story you are about to see is true, only the names have been changed........" (Maybe someone was a big fan of Dragnet!) My most hearty recommendation is a quite definite BUY IT NOW!!

It's cool to finally have The Town That Dreaded Sundown arrive on video in such nice shape (and on Blu-ray, to boot!), and getting The Evictors included as a bonus was icing on the cake. Each film is on its own disc too, rather than crammed together onto one, which is nice. TTTDS has some decent shocks and moments of genuine tension that make it quite watchable. Too bad that director Pierce didn't fire actor Pierce. He's just not that good and honestly isn't at all funny. His shtick might have been easier to take IF this film were a light-hearted southern comedy like Smokey & The Bandit or something. But it's not. It's a true story based on a string of grisly unsolved post-WWII murders. Perhaps director Pierce wanted to keep the movie from being too grim or was trying to pad out the running time. Whatever his reasons, it doesn't work. He pretty much brings the movie to a screeching halt whenever he's on screen doing his decidedly UNfunny 'Sparkplug' character shenanigans. Stick to directing, Charley. Apparently he couldn't resist doing double duty in his later films, because he also takes center stage in his third "Boggy Creek" film which, for reasons unknown, is entitled "The Barbaric Beast of Boggy Creek II"?? He's actually not too bad in that one, but then that whole film is pretty much a mess. I don't know if Pierce decided to try his hand at acting because he's a self-absorbed ham (possible), or if he was just too cheap to hire a real actor (more likely).The Blu-ray presentation of these two films looks very nice considering their history which, unfortunately, is the same for most of Pierce's work. (Try finding a quality copy of the original Boggy Creek! That film is, in its own small way, a very important piece of celluloid history that truly deserves a frame-by-frame, 1080p/hi-def, digital restoration Blu-ray release. Sadly, every copy I've ever watched is murky, grainy junk that reeks to high heaven of Public Domain-level "mastering" probably sourced from an old VHS tape or duped straight off a TV broadcast, with the commercials edited out.) Luckily for us, the video & audio quality of both The Town That Dreaded Sundown & The Evictors are strong here. Audio is loud & clean and the picture is, for the most part, crisp and free of dirt & scratches. Please keep in mind however that this is NOT a re-mastered film along the lines of BenHur or Gone With The Wind. It is what it is. I'm more interested in having them for completist's sake, and I'd still like to find a good-looking copies of both "Boggy Creek II" (the one with a young, pre-"Diff'rent Strokes" Dana Plato) and his "Barbaric Beast of Boggy Creek" film as well, but so far I've come up empty-handed. :-(The Evictors is an uneven film, like most of Pierce's stuff, but does manage to be entertaining most of the time. It's not your typical Hollywood film, but then again that's one of the reasons why I enjoy the Pierce's work; he isn't a Hollywood player and he does his own thing, convention be damned. My only real gripe with The Evictors is the unsatisfactory ending. It works, but it could have been better. It plays sort of like a cross between a ghost story and a murder mystery. It requires patience when watching, like all of Pierce's movies. They are slow and take their time, like an old-man speaking with a southern drawl. It's sad that Charles B. Pierce didn't have a more prolific career, but I'm glad that a lot of his work it is at least available in some form or other. Buy this Blu-ray set if you can get it cheap. I think both features here are decent enough to warrant an occasional repeat viewing.

Scan looks beautiful and love the extra features!

Briliant

Buena película basada en echos reales imagen buena sonido mano aceptable

I love this movie and I enjoying watching it

The movie itself is okay but it's not scary at all I've seen scarier movies than this one.

A very good movie.