"The Town that Dreaded Sundown" (1977)
http://www.beardyfreak.com/rvsundown.php
The sadly late Charles B. Pierce will always be best known for two films (both semi-documentary style with delightfully earnest narration by Vern Stierman) the long time drive-in favourite “The Legend of Boggy Creek” and “The Town that Dreaded Sundown”.
The look of ‘The Phantom’ killer with his dirty sackcloth mask (a sadly forgotten, pre-Slasher movie, slasher performance by stuntman Bud Davis), is delightfully sinister and brutally simplistic and to say that “Friday the 13th part 2” owes as much to “Sundown” as it does to Bava’s “Bay of Blood” is an understatement.
And the attack scenes are just as brutally straight to the point as the killer and Pierce never pulls back from the sadistic, drawn out, violence of them.
Despite the ‘good ol’ boy’ energy and comedic styling of the rest of the film the attacks are full on horror movie creations and very cruel.
A guy gets shot in the head twice but still manages to gurgle and writhe around before dying, a woman gets shot twice as well (once in the face no less) but agonisingly tries to drag her blood caked body to safety.
In the film’s most infamous moment of warped sadism a woman is tied to a tree, her face to the trunk, and is repeatedly, slowly, stabbed with a knife that's tied to her dead boyfriend’s trombone!
It’s a truly bizarre and twisted sequence that will stay with you forever.
The comedic aspects sometimes sit a bit uncertainly with such scenes of pain and death but when added to the great location cinematography, sunny small-town hokum, drive-in aesthetics and energetic performances they do manage to blend together most of the time.
And hell, they just make the film more fun in that 70’s drive-in way that you simply don’t get today.
Performances are all good, with versatile 70’s favourite Andrew Prine giving the only fully serious turn in the movie (away from the victims) as even the mighty and stoic Ben Johnson yuks it up on a couple of occasions when he comes off worst at the fully comedic hands of his designated dangerous driver "Sparkplug" Benson (Charles B. Pierce himself).
The comedy and low brow slapstick never (crucially) water down the horrific aspects of the plot though.
So not without its flaws (although how much those flaws annoy are purely down to how you react to the comedy) but generally “The Town that Dreaded Sundown” has remained a firm favourite for over three decades for very good reasons and is essential viewing for any fan of bygone era, low budget, drive-in movie making and the violence still manages to pack a punch even today.
Rip Mr Pierce, may your celestial boggy creek never get drained to make way for Angel-designated condos.