The Town That Dreaded Sundown

This movie opens with a fantastic kill scene rendered here by a hooded maniac. Then the backwoods, Smokey and the Bandit minus the wit humor starts and it is just painful to sit through. You can't take the killings seriously, even though they seriously happened. The opening is almost, ALMOST worth making it a recommended watch, but I'd have to lean towards saving your time.

I think The Documentary Commentary Took Me Out And The Killer Looking Like Jason From Friday 2 WOW ! Oh And Not Too Mention Seeing Dawn Wells Playing Something Besides Mary Ann Overall The Whole Movie Tripped Me Out

Features a promising opening, and a few other tense, nasty scenes, but is stifled by some near slapstick antics amidst some rather dull police procedural stuff. I wonder if the maker had seen A Bay of Blood before he made this? This is alright, but I wouldn't rush to recommend it.

Let's present this in a real true way to scare people and then .... MUHAHAHA TRICKED YOU ALL YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAW SPARKPLUG

I wonder what this film would have looked like if it were released a few years later, after the onslaught of the more traditional slasher? This film has an oddball 70s charm; it feels like grimy true crime.

There are some glimpses of a real effective early slasher, but these are mixed in with some bizarre humor. The good ol' boy humor aspects are frighteningly bad, which tend to totally derail the tension built up by some otherwise good horror.

There are some real comic relief moments, and I can't say they're very funny. And that's unfortunate, because it creates a tonal shift that just doesn't work. The story is very simplistic, and so are the characters, and I can't say I really connected with either. The slasher elements range from kinda creepy to perfunctory to absolutely bizarre. The film tries to walk the line between slasher, police procedural, true crime and buddy cop movie and it's all very uneven because of it.

The weird reconstruction narrative gives it a weird mood, almost documentary, and tension; said tension is squandered by the out of place hijinks and corny slapstick. It's still an interesting piece of slasher history, whenever the killer is on screen is when the movie shines.

It's like they watched The Last House on the Left and based the entire style/tone on the absolute worst part of that film: the dopey comic relief slapstick cops that nearly ruin the whole thing

You just leave this feeling like it could've been one of the best slasher flicks ever. It's still great and filled with a lot of cool sequences but squandered potential. Still the cover calls to you. Haunts your thoughts. Cute ending

because this film is only shown after dark

Reminds me of a sort of proto-Zodiac, an almost documentarian approach to telling the story of an unrevealed serial killer. Such real life mysteries are difficult to adapt into film because they naturally lack a resolution. Whereas Zodiac overcomes this hurdle by shifting the narrative to focus on the murderer's investigators, The Town That Dreaded Sundown just fizzles out. Add in to that the awful, tonally-inconsistent comedy scenes that litter this film, and it makes for an unsatisfying watch.

I found this film to be somewhat underwhelming the idea and "true story" angle were interesting but it also kept me from becoming invested in any of the characters including the villain. The comedy scene served to further lower my rating. It was still entertaining and it did get me interested in watching the sequel/remake.

The title and poster are the best part of this movie. Narration is different, combined with the bonkers humor makes the movie wacky and wonky. Scenes with the killer are good, and the abrupt ending and the fact this guy was never caught, or at least not caught for these crimes give it an extra bit of lasting appeal.

Interesting proto-slasher with a strong 70's feel and focus on police procedural that is not quite the hidden gem that many reviews make it out to be. The period setting and southern scenery are definitely a plus, and the based-on-a-true-story background and documentary style make it an eerie watch. That's why it's a real pity that the director decided to include so much goofy, Smokey & the Bandit humor into it.

This movie is an extremely weird proto-slasher, a mashup of '70's grime with '40's-style police procedural scenes. I had a good time with it, but wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone.

The Texarkana Tramboner

What might have been a moderately enjoyable, if somewhat plodding and lifeless little proto-slasher is hamstringed by the worst attempts at humor in the horror genre. Not "some of the worst", but the actual worst. It makes the mother-in-law-level jokes of the Troma films seem like Bill Hicks routines in comparison, and it's plastered all over this low-budget mess resulting in a movie that is wretched and as close to unwatchable as anything the genre has spewed forth.

This is terrible - the humor is even worse than in the Smokey and the Bandit sequels - but of minor interest to genre fans for presaging slasher films.

A weird mix of tone throughout this movie makes for an oddball experience. it wasn't as shlocky as I expected but its definitely got moments of being over the top, the out of place comedy is a good example of that however its still got alot of charm some great shots and the more serious moments are awesome, despite being dated it stands out

It has a couple memorable moments, the Trombone scene being the most notable, & the comedy is shockingly funny given how weirdly out of place most of it is. Beyond that, though, this is an average-at-best crime thriller with a lot of screaming & dumb characters & comical zooms on the killer's potato-sack face. It meanders along at a decent pace, but still feels a bit overlong, & ends super abruptly- the climax comes about five minutes before the credits. Worth seeing once, but that's about it.

A legendary poster and the killers look is one of the best ever. Too bad this is kind of just a mediocre police procedural. The lame voice over certainly doesn't help its case. If this was made like 5 years later it could be amazing.

Really weird mashup of reenactment style documentary, proto-slasher, and sitcom style comedy. Kind of reminiscent of Fincher's 'Zodiac'.

Bad acting, bad directing, bad everything... and no resolution

Interesting in-between of the B-horror and the slashers of the 80s, but not as well done as TCM. Attempts at comedy really drag the whole thing down

This movie has been made to seem like warm beer by much better serial-killer movies like _The Silence of the Lambs_ and _Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer_