Retro Review: The Town that Dreaded Sundown

As I pointed out in my earlier post that there aren’t too many flicks that scare me.

I also spoke in my article when I reviewed the Beast of Boggy Creek I mentioned the Town That Dreaded Sundown.

I actually have referenced this flick quite a few times. I know that I mentioned it back in 2010 When Charles B. Pierce passed away.

The truth is that this flick scarred the hell out of me when I was young. I have noticed that I really am not afraid of some flicks. I love seeing monsters because I find them entertaining. Some movies I get scared because It can actually happen but when I was a child the scariest thing on Television was the Nightly News.

Therefore the movies that gave me fear was the movies that were based on a True Story.

Now I know that the first movie that comes to mind with that tagline is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Which is one of my favorites but the real story that TCM is based on is far closer to the other flick it inspired Psycho.

However The Town that Dreaded Sundown is almost the exact story that inspired it and is more of a documentary film and the perfect companion film to The Legend of Boggy Creek.

The Town that Dreaded Sundown is based on what is known as The Moonlight Murders of Texarkana committed by a man known as the Phantom Killer. In which a masked man attacks young couples parking on Lover’s Lanes.

The Phantom’s first couple of victims survived their attacks, However He killed four others and also shot a man reading the newspaper and severely wounded his wife.

Legendary Texas Ranger Manuel T. Gonzaullas aka The Lone Wolf was sent to Texarkana to hunt down the killer but was unable to find him.

There is a small section of the Texas Ranger Museum dedicated to the cases that involved the Rangers worked including the case of the Phantom.

The case is intriguing because like Jack the Ripper the killer was never caught. However the Ripper has far more publicity.

Now The Town that Dreaded Sundown does take a few creative liberties. The first is like Dragnet despite the fact that the story is true; the names have been changed to protect the victims. Other names have been changes as well such as the character clearly based on “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas is changed to Captain JD Morales; He does keep the “Lone Wolf” nickname.

This film is super creepy in particular in scenes where we see the killer on the streets. One scene in particular we see the police talk about the killer in a restaurant with a psychologist giving them a profile and then the camera tilts down to the floor and then moves across the floor showing the killer’s shoes revealing that the killer has been sitting next to them the whole time. All of this happens without revealing the killer’s identity.

As a matter of fact the killer’s identity is never revealed and the scenes where he is seen without the mask he is shown wearing the black shoes that he wore when he committed his crimes and they are accentuated by a music motif to further show that he is there. There is one other scene where his elbow is seen sitting in a car.

I want to talk about the killer’s outfit with the mask. First off someone from Friday the 13^th part 2 had seen this flick. That is because it is basically the same mask used in the flick. What I find the most interesting about the mask is the basicness of it. It isn’t a hockey mask or a repainted Captain Kirk mask it is just a white bag with holes cut into it, but it is still a super creepy mask and that combined with the dark cinematography, the music and the editing you have some scary scenes that will make you want to check the doors before you go to bed at night.

Ben Johnson plays the starring role Captan Morales with Dawn Wells as the much hyped role of one of the victims, and Andrew Prine as the role of Deputy Norman Ramsey. 

Director Charles B. Pierce plays a supporting role as Patrolman “Spark Plug” Benson.  Spark Plug provides some much needed comic relief in the film some would say that it hurts the flick and makes the cops look inept. However I feel that Pierce’s portrayal of Spark Plug grows on you after the first couple of scenes. Some of you may not agree with me but that is my opinion.

The Town that Dreaded Sundown has received much attention especially when it was mentioned in Scream in the scene where it the characters look at the town and Sidney says that this looks like the Town that Dreaded Sundown and Dewey replies that he saw that movie “It’s about a killer in Texas”.

Now I have some fun Trivia for all of you.

The film that the citizens of the town are seeing at the end of the film is The Town that Dreaded Sundown

Also in the big chase scene at the end of the film there is a cameraman sitting on the train filming the movie.

Finally in 2013 The Town that Dreaded Sundown has receved the Full DVD and Blu-Ray Treatment by my friend Michael Felcher and the good people over at Shout factory.

The DVD comes with a Double Feature of both The Town that Dreaded Sundown as well as Charles B. Pierce’s The Evictors and both the Blu-Ray and DVD contain a fascinating Audio Commentary with Historian Jim Presley speaking of the real crimes of the Phantom Killer and the events of the film that aren’t accurate.

There are also some exclusive interviews with both Andrew Prine and Dawn Wells speaking about their experiences on the film and an interesting Essay by writer Brian Albright about the history of the film.

5 Dead Bodies

0 Breasts

1 Beast

1 Car Chase with Crash but no burn

2 Smashed Cigars

Gratitus Stock Footage

Charles Pierce in Drag

Trombone Fu

Mary Ann Fu

Phantom Fu

4 Stars Check it Out

5 Dead Bodies

0 Breasts

1 Beast

1 Car Chase with Crash but no burn

Gratitus Stock Footage

Death by Trombone

Stabbings

Shootings

Compliance

There are some flicks that I feel the need to review after I hear about them.  Now I am fortunate in the fact of where I live and my access to different events and such.

The truth is that I had heard about Compliance this past January after Sundance. There often is a film there that gets under the audience’s skin and they reach accordingly. In 2011 an acquaintance of mine screened a flick there and one person reacted to his film so angrily that he had to be removed by security and was filmed, the video went viral and the flick was given publicity that you could not buy.

Compliance had a similar situation where the QnA after the screening and you can download it on YouTube where the cast and filmmakers are standing in the front of the screen and the QnA begins and a man harshly berates both Dreama Walker and Director Craig Zobel for the use of nudity which I will rant about a little later in this article.

The film is heavily based on the true events that took place in 2004 at a Kentucky McDonalds where a man called a manager pretending to be a police officer and convinced the manager to perform a strip search of a young female employee. The situation escalated to a sexual assault by the manager’s fiancée.

Compliance follows the story very closely so close in fact that those of you that are familiar with the incident know what is going to happen before it happens. Many will complain about this fact but the real events are so unbelievable that no one would be able to embellish the story because it is unnecessary to the film.

The movie plays in real time with many continuous takes and following shots such as following the manager to her car in real time and following the lead investigator in his trip from the police station to the restaurant showing how far it was from the station. Even pointing out that he is there in less time than it takes him to finish his cigarette. That along with the use of symbolism in this film is amazing. The cinematography is also outstanding and works extremely well with both the music and lack of music in certain scenes.

All in all this flick is what it is it is an Art-house film that has the potential to go mainstream. In the QnA there is a woman that says that many young people need to see this flick to keep this from happening to someone else.

The film and the incident that inspired it brings attention to the infamous Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures. Which featured a test subject that had to shock another test subject if they answered a question wrong? The subjects were told that they must continue by an authority figure and a frightening amount chose to continue with the experiment despite the amount of pain that they thought that they were inflicting to the other test subject.

The truth is most people will listen to authority even as audacious as it sounds especially if the authority is the police.

Being that I am someone that does often question the authority the film was hard to watch In particular times. When the subject of Strip Searches came up and the fact that some refused and then walked away and stayed quiet to what was going on. However the caller even at times threatens harsher punishments to the victims as well as praises to others that are complying to his requests. The Caller, whom is given a super creepy performance by Pat Healy, even maintains his confidence and role as a police officer right until he is discovered as a hoax. Now the characters in the restaurant all think that he is the real thing but the viewers are shown pretty early on that Officer Daniels is nothing but a man at his home taking notes and getting off on what is happening. As soon as he knows that he has them where he wants them he ups the stakes and then escalates the situation.

Now on to what I was saying earlier about the man that reacted during the QnA about the nudity in the film. I feel that the film shares some commons with other flicks of the same nature. Films like I spit on your Grave, and the Woman where there are naked women in the film and the subject matter and the events that the woman are going through aren’t used for titillation but more for discuss where we are seeing how vulnerable the women are in the situation that they are in.

I don’t like the taboo associated with nudity. Now I used to be against nudity in films because of people that run websites that will just post the nude images of the women in the film and not tell anything about the film and just show the scenes or the stills taken from the film.

Now as a filmmaker myself I have seen situations in movies where it both adds to the film and takes away form the film. I can even pinpoint when nudity is used to add income to the film because the actress is willing to go the full monty and then there are times where the image of a naked woman is worth a thousand words.

Now I have also seen the negative reaction that people have against the actresses that make the choice to appear naked on film and it angers me to a point that I feel the need to speak out.

I even had an agent tell a room full of filmmakers that if you can’t make a film without nudity that you have no business being a filmmaker saying that you are being exploitive and that the actresses will regret it later on. I feel that the actress regrets it after the negative reaction from judgmental people that just can’t handle their reactions that seeing a pair of breasts on a screen makes them react and they have to get those feelings out of their heads and they feel the need to lash out at the woman that bared their breasts in the first place.

Now I am not going to say that there are some filmmakers that aren’t being exploitive with putting nudity in their films but at least most of them are being honest about it.

Now all of that aside I feel the need to point all of the creative directions that Compliance took to avoid the nudity in particular in the scenes where the sexual assault takes place and the girl is forced to perform oral sex on the man trusted to watch her. The filmmakers use different angles such as the girl’s feet and hands reacting to what she is being forced to do and I really liked the use of the footage of the straw for symbolism which makes me feel the need to point out that this actually happened.

I agree that Compliance should receive a mainstream release and should also be available on Netflix because of the subject matter. Stressing the fact that this flick is not for everyone as walkouts have happened before and they will continue but that is our privilege as the ticket buyer.

Now for those of you that go and are bothered by the content please don’t spoil it for the others that are in the theater.

V/H/S

 

Okay We have another winner here. I just checked out V/H/S On Demand and DAMN!

Now I don’t know if everyone will be into this flick but I definitely am. I had heard of this flick because it premiered this past January at Sundance and it had a small buzz surrounding it when It screened there and then I had seen the trailer on AOTS and I knew that I had to check out this flick and then review it and here it is and I am not disappointed .

 

Now first off I am not going to focus on the Found Footage genre because if you are familiar with my reviews you will know that I am a fan of that particular genre because it happens to be one of my lines of work as I track down lost tapes for people as well as I convert them to a digital media so naturally this flick would catch my attention.

 

Now the plot is pretty hard to follow because of the editing but here is how it goes.

From the beginning of the movie we are introduced to some not so pleasant characters as they are running around an unnamed town stalking people with a video camera and at some points they attack people and rip the women’s clothes off and film the whole thing and then they sell the videos in the underground market where they make $50 a tape.

The guys are then informed that the will make much more money if they break into a man’s home and steal a VHS tape that a particular person wants.

Upon arrival they find the owner dead in front of multiple television sets and VCRs and they don’t know which one is what they are looking for so they decide to play them all.

What they are shown are five stories in the found footage format that tell some pretty gruesome short films that leave you saying WTF.

The first tale is a trio of college kids who decide to take a try at amateur porn with a hidden camera in a pair of glasses where they go out and find two girls to go back to their hotel room. That is all that I am going to give you there. Because you have to see this flick.

 

The second story follows a couple on their second honeymoon that has a stalker with a twist that you will not see coming.

The next is a group of college kids taking a trip to a lake to help one of their friends deal with a trauma that she suffered a year earlier. This one is also pretty creepy.

The next story follows a couple communicating through webcams while they are investigating if the girl’s apartment is haunted. This one also goes into a new direction of creepy.

The final story is an outing of a group of friends on Halloween night in 1998 where they arrive at a party only to find out that they are in the wrong house.

 

All of this with a wraparound where the thugs try to find out what is happening in this house that they found these tapes in.

Now I have to say that this movie is not for the weak at heart and it is definitely recommended for the Hardcore Horror fan.

Most anthology horror films follow a certain narrative and the Found Footage area is an original idea to go.

Also in most anthology films the first story and the final story are the standouts while the ones in the middle strain to keep you interested the whole time. However this movie all of the stories keep you interested and the climax doesn’t let you down in the end.

Some of the movie makes you wonder why this is on VHS especially the webcam chapter because it makes the movie clearly taking place in the present day and it makes me ask why the thugs in the movie are using VHS tapes when everyone else is using DVDs. That is really my only issue with this flick and that is good thing.

The movie is shot with many different types of cameras and you are then shown the deterioration of VHS in the VHS chapters and the downgrade of Digital to Analog conversions.  

The editing is done masterfully however like I said earlier you need to pay close attention to see when you are in another flick or when something else has cut in to the video that you are watching.

18 Dead Bodies

12 Breasts with full frontal

11 Beasts

1 Knife to the eye

1 Disemboweling

1 Compound fracture

Throat Stabbing

Throat Slashing

Head Stabbing

Throat Ripping

Flesh Eating

Genital Ripping

Heads Rolling

4 Stars

Check it out.

 

The Poughkeepsie Tapes

You know there just aren’t that many things that frighten me.  I mean that I have seen plenty of horror flicks in my lifetime. Actually I have seen enough for my lifetime and a few others lifetimes but that is because I am a fan.

I have however seen plenty of flicks that will give you that uneasy feeling that tells you not to go somewhere alone but yet I still go there alone.

The truth is that your average person needs to feel fear. As a matter of fact some people do it just for the rush and the adrenaline. 

In the days before the silver screen people would sit around the campfire and spin yarns about a ghostly local legend or young girls would dare each other to go into the restroom and repeat the name of spirit hoping to see her in the mirror. Mothers would tell their children tales of a roaming spirit that takes young children to make sure that they would not stay out after dark.

That Ladies and Gentlemen is why most people go to horror movies is simply because they want the rush of being afraid. Some people go to give the fear to the one they are with to make them get closer.

Now in recent years there have been some major changes in the movies that I have heard mixed reactions about. The two biggest trends other than remakes are the “Torture Porn” movies that I feel are getting the bum rap and I feel that they should not be labeled with such a name.

 The other trend is the dominance of the Found Footage genre. We are seeing a slew of these flicks at this time. Some of them are even cross genre in the past few years we have seen footage a monster attacking New York and of sisters being haunted by a family entity as well as a showman priest performing his final exorcism. One of my more favorites is Chronicle showing the creation of both a superhero and a supervillian.

 

In 1999 we saw the Release of the Blair Witch Project that to many is the standard found footage but I honestly felt that Curse of the Blair Witch a documentary about the Blair Witch that was released on the Sci-Fi Channel to promote the movie was far more creepier than the movie itself and I am not the only one as it is included on the DVD releases of the film. However that same year I saw a movie that was made in 1997 but wasn’t released until after what was known as The Blair Witch Phenomenon.

 

That film was called The Last Broadcast.

The primary difference between the two films is the fact that while Blair Witch is followed in the footage alone Last Broadcast is shown in Mockumantry format following the investigation of the murder of two internet hosts doing a documentary about the Jersey Devil in the Pine Barrens.

The Last Broadcast keeps you on the edge of your seat with its creepy atmosphere and footage until the ending when it abandons the subgenre all together which I feel is where the movie is hurt.

Well I have just finished screening The Poughkeepsie Tapes and we now have a new winner in the Creepy Found Footage Subgenre.

Now for the record The Poughkeepsie Tapes has yet to receive a wide release so this flick you need to seriously look for  which should not be too hard for those of you that like searching for these films.

I am not going to refer to The Poughkeepsie Tapes as an underground film as the Filmmaker John Erick Dowdle with his brother in the role as producer has gone on to other films that have received a wide release such as Quarantine and Devil.

This movie goes into a new level of creepy. Shot in a documentary format This flick follows the “Water Street Butcher” who after police raid his home they find that he had fled however he had left behind a large collection of tapes documenting his crimes.

 

The crimes follow both his stalking of his victims but also his torment, torture and finally the murder of the victims.

This footage is intercut with FBI and the Police as well as profilers and the victim’s families speaking about the crimes and their reactions as well as documenting the type of killer that he is in the fact that he has no fear and can even manipulate his prey. At some points in the film the authorities even show footage of the killer as he looks at security cameras and gives them deliberate clues to where his victims can be found.

One of the Killer’s Victim’s in particular is his “slave” Cheryl Dempsay  who he stalks and kidnaps after murdering her boyfriend when she is 19 and keeps her for 8 years torturing and tormenting her the whole time even making her participate while he kills prostitutes.  

 

The subject matter is chilling because it really can happen today and the footage of some of the kills is haunting as the killer dons several theater costumes while he films himself tormenting his victims. Nothing or no one is sacred to the Water Street Butcher even when you think that he has been caught.

The acting from the “experts” is at times hokey and a little cheesy but to some of us that watch these kind of documentaries sometimes they are hokey so that I am willing to forgive as well as some of the scenes that if this was a real documentary would be regarded as sensationalism but for this movie it works but it hurts the believability giving the film the Faces of Death Feel.

Some scenes you even feel that you are watching a snuff film.

The film is shot I believe by a VHS Camera as it takes place in the 90s and is clearly shot in the SLP mode as the footage is deteriorated which gives the killer an eerie POV shot of his crimes. A move that the DP Shawn Dufraine needs to be commended for.

 

I would definitely recommend this film for both the searchers of Rare Movies as well as the Found Footage fans.

10 Dead Bodies

6 Breasts

1 Beast

Gratuitous Balloon Fetish

Kid Bashing

Severed Head C Section

Creepy Mask wearing from both Killer and Victim

Needles to the Throat

Multiple Throat Slashing

Multiple Beatings

Hooker Fu

Video Fu

5 Stars

Check it out

 

Jaws BluRay

Well it’s finally here. Jaws has finally received the BluRay treatment and it got the works

. Now I love this movie, I used to watch the movie and rewind it and then watch it again as a child. I used to annoy the hell out of my parents and then we would go on Vacation and I would flat out refuse to go swimming because I didn’t want the Shark to get me.

The problem there is we were at a manmade lake and there was no chance in hell that there would be a shark in the water.

That was before I watched the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week and learned about the Bull Shark that can swim in fresh water and despite the fact that it is far smaller than the Great White it is far more vicious.

I actually want to talk about Shark Week which now considered the longest running Cable Television event with 25 years on Cable. That reminds me of how old I am because I remember when Shark Week premiered when I was in the 2^nd Grade and it really sucked. The reason I say that it sucked is because it was a week of all the same programing which was mostly the National Geographic special on the subject and Jaws the True Story which all were available at the local video store.

Well someone at the Discovery Channel agreed with me and now I can’t stop watching it…Actually I DVR it and watch it when I am available. I think that Shark Week improved over the years because of the advances in not only Science, Shark Research, and Technology but also the advances in filmmaking where we get high quality footage of sharks but we get to see Sharks do amazing feats like the infamous Air Jaws footage form the early 2000s.

Shark Week has gained such popularity that I feel that Universal released the BluRay on Shark Week because of the brilliant Marketing as a matter of fact I feel that Jaws’ BluRay was the sponsor of Shark Week because every commercial break after you saw the VW Bug commercial you saw adds for the Jaws BluRay.

Now on to the BluRay

I don’t feel the need to review the movie because I feel that everyone has already seen the flick, what I am here for is to review the special features.

Now for those of us that had Jaws on Laserdisc we have seen the making of Jaws documentary that is featured on the BluRay. There is also a good featurette that follows the restoration and conversion of the feature for the BluRay release and on that note I have to say that the conversion and Restoration is outstanding, The image on the film is crystal clear and you can see things in the background that you could never see before especially in the fact that it is in the anamorphic wide screen ratio.

The restored feature film is clearly the star of this BluRay release but the award for supporting actor goes to the long awaited release of the Shark is Still Working Documentary.

I have been hearing about this documentary for quite a while but it had not received a release yet and now it is released as a special feature on this release of Jaws.

The Shark is Still Working is a in depth documentary of the legacy of Jaws from its inception to the modern day with the fans and the expos as well as trips to Martha’s Vineyard that we all would know as Amity Island doing profiles of the locals who were immortalized as characters in the movie.

The documentary is narrated by Roy Scheider before his death in 2008 and also features interviews with Peter Benchley who also passed away in 2006.

Other interviews featured in the documentary are filmmakers like Kevin Smith and others whose careers were inspired by the film.

This BluRay is definitely a Buy

5 Dead Bodies

2 Breasts

1 Beast

2 Gallons of Blood

1 Shark

Midnight Swimmer Fu

Little Boy Fu

Quint Fu

Jaws Fu

5 Stars

Check it out