# The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976 film)
**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/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| 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) |
| 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/) |
| 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) |
| 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) |
| 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) |
| Finances | Production cost about $400,000; earnings around $5 million[1](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/) |
| 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/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and style
The 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/)
The 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/)
## The real crimes behind the film
Between 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/)
The 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/)
## Production
Pierce 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/)
Johnson 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)
## Release and reception
The 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/)
**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)
Reviews 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/)
## Influence and afterlife
Released 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/)
In 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)
## References
1. [Town That Dreaded Sundown, The, Encyclopedia of Arkansas](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/town-that-dreaded-sundown-the-movies-7819/)
2. [The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1977), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/55936-THE-TOWN-THAT-DREADED-SUNDOWN)
3. [Texarkana Moonlight Murders, Encyclopedia of Arkansas](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Texarkana-Moonlight-Murders-4478/)
4. [The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/449586/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown)
5. [TCM Diary: The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Film Comment](https://www.filmcomment.com/tcm-diary-the-town-that-dreaded-sundown/)
6. [Movies, Encyclopedia of Arkansas](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Movies-3513/)
7. [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/)
8. [The Phantom Sound of Terror: 'The Town That Dreaded Sundown' (1976), Split Tooth Media](https://www.splittoothmedia.com/town-that-dreaded-sundown/)
9. [The Town That Dreaded Sundown critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown-1976/critic-reviews/)
10. [The Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014), American Film Institute](https://watch.afi.com/movie/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown)
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*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*
*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*
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