The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) on Netflix
R19761h 26mCrimeHorrorMysteryThriller
In 1946 Texarkana, a hooded attacker ambushes couples parked on lovers' lanes. Deputy Norman Ramsey and Texas Ranger Captain J.D. Morales lead the hunt for the man called the Phantom.
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- Netflix2.6/5
- IMDb6.0/1011,475 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes42%
Trailer
Plot summary
Texarkana, 1946. The town is settling into peacetime when a hooded man begins attacking couples parked on lovers' lanes. Deputy Norman Ramsey works the crime scenes, and Sheriff Barker calls in Captain J.D. Morales, a Texas Rangers investigator known as the Lone Wolf, to take charge of the case. Morales names the unknown attacker the Phantom, and Ramsey is assigned to assist him with Patrolman A.C. Benson as his driver. Ramsey's theory holds that the attacks come on a fixed cycle, and the next is expected around the night of a high school prom. Stores sell out of guns and locks as the town panics.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film's poster was painted by graphic illustrator Ralph McQuarrie, then unknown; he went on to paint posters for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Battlestar Galactica, Back to the Future and the original Star Wars trilogy, and his concept art helped convince 20th Century Fox to fund Star Wars.
- While filming the cornfield scene in The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Dawn Wells was nearly attacked by a bulldog; the crew drove it off by shooting at it.
- Andrew Prine, who played Deputy Norman Ramsey, wrote the last fifth of the film himself because it had no ending; he and Ben Johnson were hung over while filming the train scene after partying the night before.
- In March 1978 a teenager who shot and killed his high school friend told a court he had thought of a plan to be an "outlaw" like Jesse James while watching The Town That Dreaded Sundown.
- Being shot at was new to Dawn Wells: for a scene in which she holds a telephone, the crew planted a charge in the receiver, and she stood there shaking, expecting it to blow up in her face.
- Texarkana has shown the film for free at Spring Lake Park near Halloween since 2003, as the last film of the town's "Movies in the Park" series.
