{ "id": "epsfw9fwm3", "slug": "the-town-that-dreaded-sundown-1976-film", "title": "The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror", "label": "Horror films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.slasher-films", "label": "Slasher films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.slasher-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000: Horror films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror", "label": "Horror films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) is Charles B. Pierce's proto-slasher horror film loosely based on the unsolved 1946 Texarkana Moonlight Murders by the Phantom Killer, starring Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine, and Dawn Wells; it cost about $400,000, earned around $5 million, and was remade in 2014.", "snippet": "The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) is Charles B. Pierce's proto-slasher horror film loosely based on the unsolved 1946 Texarkana Moonlight Murders by the Phantom Killer, starring Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine, and Dawn Wells; it cost about $400,000, earned around $5 million, and was remade in 2014.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.slasher-films", "markdown": "# The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976 film)\n\n**The Town That Dreaded Sundown** is a 1976 American horror film produced and directed by Charles B. Pierce, loosely based on the unsolved 1946 [Texarkana Moonlight Murders](https://www.edgepedia.org/texarkana-moonlight-murders) committed by an assailant the *Texarkana Gazette* dubbed the \"Phantom Killer\". It starred the Academy Award-winning actor Ben Johnson alongside television stars [Andrew Prine](https://www.edgepedia.org/andrew-prine) and [Dawn Wells](https://www.edgepedia.org/dawn-wells), and it is considered one of the first films in the slasher genre, released two years before John Carpenter's *Halloween* (1978).[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / writer | Charles B. Pierce; screenplay by Earl E. Smith; distributed by American International Pictures[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55936-THE-TOWN-THAT-DREADED-SUNDOWN) |\n| Basis | The 1946 Texarkana Moonlight Murders, in which a hooded attacker killed five people and wounded three; the killer was never identified[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) • [3](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Texarkana-Moonlight-Murders-4478/) |\n| Cast | Ben Johnson (Captain J. D. Morales), Andrew Prine (Deputy Norman Ramsey), Dawn Wells (Helen Reed); Bud Davis played the Phantom Killer[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55936-THE-TOWN-THAT-DREADED-SUNDOWN) • [4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/449586/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown) |\n| Production | Principal photography 21 June to 15 August 1976 in Texarkana, Texas and Arkansas[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55936-THE-TOWN-THAT-DREADED-SUNDOWN) |\n| Release | World premiere in Texarkana on December 17, 1976; theatrical run from December 24; 90 minutes, rated R[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55936-THE-TOWN-THAT-DREADED-SUNDOWN) |\n| Finances | Production cost about $400,000; earnings around $5 million[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) |\n| Legacy | Regarded as a proto-slasher whose structure influenced later films, including the sack-masked Jason Voorhees in *Friday the 13th Part 2*; remade as a metafictional sequel in 2014[5](https://www.filmcomment.com/tcm-diary-the-town-that-dreaded-sundown/) • [1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and style\n\nThe film opens on the night of March 3, 1946, when a man wearing a cloth sack over his head attacks a young couple on a lovers' lane outside Texarkana, and follows the police investigation as further attacks spread fear through the town.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55936-THE-TOWN-THAT-DREADED-SUNDOWN) Its structure mixes a documentary-style narrator and deadpan police procedural with sudden, graphic attacks, a combination critics have compared to [David Fincher](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-fincher)'s *Zodiac* (2007).[7](https://bostonhassle.com/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown-1976-dir-by-charles-b-pierce/) The most infamous scene shows the masked killer murdering a teenage girl with a knife rigged to the slide of a trombone.[8](https://www.splittoothmedia.com/town-that-dreaded-sundown/)\n\nThe ending departs from the record: officers chase \"The Phantom,\" who escapes, though in real life the killer was neither chased nor identified. In a movie-within-a-movie touch, the killer's shoes are later seen in a line of people at a Texarkana theater waiting to see the film itself.[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/)\n\n## The real crimes behind the film\n\nBetween February 22 and May 3, 1946, an unidentified assailant attacked young couples and a married couple in and around Texarkana, which straddles the Arkansas–Texas border. The attacker's face was hidden by a burlap sack with two slits for eyes. Five people were killed and three wounded; the killer was never identified or apprehended, and the case is now considered cold.[3](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Texarkana-Moonlight-Murders-4478/) • [1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) The murders took place primarily in [Texarkana, Texas](https://www.edgepedia.org/texarkana-texas), though the film represents them as occurring on the Arkansas side of the city.[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/)\n\nThe film's narrator states, \"The incredible story you are about to see is true, where it happened and how it happened; only the names have been changed.\"[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) The names were indeed changed, and many people dispute the film's accuracy, but the factual basis allowed graphic violence to be portrayed on screen at a time when true crime was re-entering American popular culture through works such as [Truman Capote](https://www.edgepedia.org/truman-capote)'s *In Cold Blood*.[3](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Texarkana-Moonlight-Murders-4478/) • [5](https://www.filmcomment.com/tcm-diary-the-town-that-dreaded-sundown/)\n\n## Production\n\nPierce was an Arkansas-based independent filmmaker whose semi-documentary *[The Legend of Boggy Creek](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-legend-of-boggy-creek)* (1972), made for about $160,000, had grossed more than $22 million; he used that success to fund later films, including *The Town That Dreaded Sundown*, his fifth.[6](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Movies-3513/) • [1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) [Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) began on June 21, 1976, in Texarkana, Texas, and ran through August 15 in Texarkana, Texas and Arkansas.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55936-THE-TOWN-THAT-DREADED-SUNDOWN) The Encyclopedia of Arkansas describes the shoot as four weeks during June and July 1976.[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) Locations included Texarkana itself, Garland and Scott in Arkansas, and [Shreveport, Louisiana](https://www.edgepedia.org/shreveport-louisiana), where a scene was shot in front of Pierce's home; a number of local residents appeared as actors and extras.[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/)\n\nJohnson played Captain J. D. Morales, a fictional version of the Texas Ranger who investigated the crimes; the character was patterned on Texas Ranger Manuel T. \"Lone Wolf\" Gonzaullas, who actually worked the case.[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55936-THE-TOWN-THAT-DREADED-SUNDOWN) Wells, known for playing Mary Ann on *Gilligan's Island*, portrayed one of the victims, and Prine played a sheriff's deputy. According to Prine, he wrote the last part of the movie himself because the script did not yet have an ending.[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) Pierce himself appears as Patrolman A. C. \"Sparkplug\" Benson, and Vern Stierman, who had narrated *The Legend of Boggy Creek*, provided the narration.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55936-THE-TOWN-THAT-DREADED-SUNDOWN) • [4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/449586/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown)\n\n## Release and reception\n\nThe ninety-minute film premiered in Texarkana on December 17, 1976, ahead of a theatrical run beginning December 24.[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) The American Film Institute catalog dates the general release to January 1977, with a New York opening on February 18, 1977 and a Los Angeles opening on March 2, 1977.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55936-THE-TOWN-THAT-DREADED-SUNDOWN) *Variety* reported in January 1977 that the film was \"doing hot\" box office in the South, and it was popular at drive-in theaters throughout 1977 before moving to television in 1978.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55936-THE-TOWN-THAT-DREADED-SUNDOWN) • [1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/)\n\n**The tagline dispute.** The poster tagline read, \"In 1946 this man killed five people….Today he still lurks the streets of Texarkana, Ark.\" City officials threatened a lawsuit to remove the line, and the Texarkana, Arkansas city council voted to sue Pierce; Pierce responded that he had already asked his distributor, [American International Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-international-pictures), to delete the wording, but the line remained on the posters.[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55936-THE-TOWN-THAT-DREADED-SUNDOWN) In December 1977, Mark Moore, brother of Polly Ann Moore, the killer's first real-life victim, sued Pierce and the distributor for $1.3 million, claiming the film's depiction of his sister's death intruded on his life; the outcome of the case could not be determined by the AFI catalog's account.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55936-THE-TOWN-THAT-DREADED-SUNDOWN)\n\nReviews were mixed. Vincent Canby of *The New York Times* wrote that although Ben Johnson and Andrew Prine headed the cast, \"the film looks nonprofessional in every other respect\"; the film holds a Metascore of 52 on Metacritic, labeled mixed or average.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/449586/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown) • [9](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown-1976/critic-reviews/) Later assessments have been warmer: *The A.V. Club* called it \"an overlooked gem in the annals of low-budget horror,\" and it is widely described as a cult classic.[9](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown-1976/critic-reviews/) • [1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/)\n\n## Influence and afterlife\n\nReleased two years before *Halloween*, the film is considered one of the earliest slasher movies, and Film Comment describes it as providing \"the basic structural DNA\" for countless imitators, including the sack-clad appearance of [Jason Voorhees](https://www.edgepedia.org/jason-voorhees) in *Friday the 13th Part 2* (1981).[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) • [5](https://www.filmcomment.com/tcm-diary-the-town-that-dreaded-sundown/)\n\nIn a tradition begun in 2003, a free screening is held each October near [Halloween](https://www.edgepedia.org/halloween) at Spring Lake Park in Texarkana, Texas.[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) A 2014 film of the same name, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, served as both a loose remake and a sequel, set sixty-five years after the original murders when killings begin again at screenings of the 1976 film; it was not widely released.[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) • [10](https://watch.afi.com/movie/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Town That Dreaded Sundown, The, Encyclopedia of Arkansas](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/)\n2. [The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1977), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55936-THE-TOWN-THAT-DREADED-SUNDOWN)\n3. [Texarkana Moonlight Murders, Encyclopedia of Arkansas](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Texarkana-Moonlight-Murders-4478/)\n4. [The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/449586/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown)\n5. [TCM Diary: The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Film Comment](https://www.filmcomment.com/tcm-diary-the-town-that-dreaded-sundown/)\n6. [Movies, Encyclopedia of Arkansas](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Movies-3513/)\n7. [The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) dir. by Charles B. Pierce, Boston Hassle](https://bostonhassle.com/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown-1976-dir-by-charles-b-pierce/)\n8. [The Phantom Sound of Terror: 'The Town That Dreaded Sundown' (1976), Split Tooth Media](https://www.splittoothmedia.com/town-that-dreaded-sundown/)\n9. [The Town That Dreaded Sundown critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown-1976/critic-reviews/)\n10. [The Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014), American Film Institute](https://watch.afi.com/movie/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Slasher films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown-1976-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown-1976-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown-1976-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown-1976-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown-1976-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown-1976-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown-1976-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Town That Dreaded Sundown is Charles B." }