The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

(In French, On Cable TV, November 2022) Seemingly custom-made to annoy me, The Town That Dreaded Sundown combines nearly everything that I dislike in cinema—a slasher, a New Hollywood muddle, a wide-open ending that eschews conclusion, a dirty neo-realistic (read: low-budget) approach, a script that’s less of a story than a string of death sequences, bland actors and a faux-historical approach that can’t disguise its exploitative intent. Director Charles B. Pierce’s film is not strictly unwatchable, but it’s not pleasant either: while it’s historically noteworthy as a minor horror classic, there’s very little here that hasn’t already been remade much better by other movies. Some moments are downright awkward, with ill-placed comedy grotesquely out-of-place—tell-tale signs of an independent low-budget production that wasn’t really working with the best talent in the industry. All in all, you probably know if you’re going to like this from the description alone; grimy low-end 1970s proto-slasher set in Texarkana. Some viewers live for this stuff; I can live perfectly well without it.