1970s Slasher Based On Real Serial Killer That Never Got Caught, Stream Now Without Netflix

The Town That Dreaded Sundown opens with narration from Vern Stierman, who lays out the horrible scenario that is about to unfold on the screen. Two young residents, Sammy Fuller and Linda Mae Jenkins are parked along a lover’s lane when a hooded man suddenly appears and frightens them.

Sammy tries in vain to drive away, only to have the masked man smash the driver’s side window and pull him from the vehicle.

Days later, The Town That Dreaded Sundown sees its next victims as a local couple’s corpses are found dead along the side of a quiet road.

As the film’s body count begins to rise, the locals in the adjacent community begin to grow paranoid, believing that the unmasked killer could very well be one of their own.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown was loosely based on the Texarkana Moonlight Murders, a series of slayings in the aforementioned region in the southern United States in 1946.

The unnamed assailant, known as the Phantom of Texarkana and the Phantom Slayer, stalked and attacked eight people during the first three months of the year, succeeding in killing five of them. Between February 22 and May third, attacks on couples parked along local “lover’s lane” areas were reported to police in a case that still baffles authorities.

The killer would approach the parked cars wearing a white hood with slits cut for eye holes and shine a flashlight in the eyes of his prey. His victims would be dragged from their vehicles and beaten with blunt instruments before being sexually assaulted and later either beaten, strangled, or shot to death.

Just like in The Town That Dreaded Sundown, the real-life people in the area were sent into a panic, arming themselves and locking their doors and windows at night.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a great example of a low budget horror film that raises chills without the need for high-dollar Hollywood special effects or A-list acting.

The film’s antagonist is terrifying enough in his appearance, the slitted white hood doing a ghastly job in making the unidentified serial killer just as frightening as a Jason Vorhees or a Michael Myers.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown was primarily filmed on location in and around Texarkana, Texas and used a good number of the local people as extras and small roles.

Shooting the production in the area where the real killings took place gives the movie an added sense of authenticity, even though the screenwriters took a good amount of creative liberties when adapting the actual crimes to the big screen.

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Fans will also get a rare look at Dawn Wells in a role outside of her typecast Gilligan’s Island role of Mary Ann Summers. Wells does a great job in her role as Helen Reed, giving horror fans a glimpse of a scream queen that was never meant to be.

You can catch The Town That Dreaded Sundown streaming for free on Tubi.