We dive into the similarities and differences between the 1976 film and the real life Texarkana crimes. The Phantom haunted the area in 1946 and was never caught. We chat about the true crimes as well as the uneven tone of the film... among other things...
We dive into the similarities and differences between the 1976 film and the real life Texarkana crimes. The Phantom haunted the area in 1946 and was never caught. We chat about the true crimes as well as the uneven tone of the film... among other things...
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The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)
Zach: Hello, and welcome to how I met your monster. The show where we discussed the introductions to your favorite movie monsters. I'm Zach,
Danny: I’m Danny.
And I'm Casey.
Zach: Before we start today's episode, I'd like to take a quick minute, just real quick. One minute, you guys can time this, uh, to thank all of our listeners and support.
For getting us to [00:01:00] 10,000 downloads in less than a year, 10,000. That's right. 10,000 downloads of how I met your monster in less than one year. And that is huge. Yes, we, and we appreciate everyone who listens. We especially love the
Danny: whoever pushed, pushed us over 10,000, everyone else we love, but we loved that person a little bit more.
Zach: That's right. Um, but no, we appreciate each and every one of you for letting us ramble about monsters for hours on end. Um, and as a thank you, we'd like to send each one of you a free, how I met your monster sticker. Um, free sticker. You can put it on anything. You can put it on your notebook. You can put it on your desk.
You can put it onto the man. You can stick it to them. But yeah, just send us, uh, your shipping info via DM on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. We are on Twitter at I'm at your monster and Facebook and Instagram [00:02:00] at how I met your monster. Um, or send us an email@zachathowimetyourmonster.com. And
Danny: unfortunately come to your house at three in the morning, climb up to your bedroom window and just tap kind of like Salem's lot.
And just wait until you wake up
Zach: and we'll throw the we'll throw that we'll get we'll bring cuddles and throw rocks. And then as soon as you open your window, we'll throw a bigger one on the forehead, but
Danny: all the airfare costs are going to put us out of business. So we won't be able to do the podcast.
After that
Zach: you'll have a sticker, we still get a free sticker. Um, anyone who reaches out between now and May 31st, 2022, um, we'll get a free sticker. So don't miss this opportunity. Okay. Now I need to get serious. Now that shit's over now know that, that shit's out of the way I need to get onto some more shit.
If you recall. The ending of our pet cemetery to episode, I went on record and said that I believe the town that dreaded [00:03:00] sundown from 1976 is going to be a shit show. I said, it's not going to be good. Casey said, that's the wrong attitude to have going into it was, I tried to be open
Casey: attitude to have going into it.
Even if
Danny: you were right. Look where it got us, we
Zach: all watched it. We all did. Unfortunately,
Danny: it is now logged in our brain. I
Casey: turned this movie off 20 minutes in the first time I tried to watch it. And then I turned on another movie and guess what? I've sat and watched the whole thing. No
Danny: problem. What was that movie?
American. Psycho.
Zach: Oh wow. That's one. American psycho is one that I tune out of after so long. I get
Danny: bored.
Casey: I hadn't watched it since. Like early high school, probably. So I didn't remember a lot of it. I remembered like the key parts of it, you know, like where he's having sex with prostitutes and he's looking in the mirror, like in the, you know, and the Huey Lewis scene.
And obviously like when I was 14 or 15, I definitely [00:04:00] did not understand that movie. And how, like, I just, I was like laughing hysterically when it showed them all in the conference room together because they all look exactly the same. Like I was crying, laughing. It was so funny. And that's like the business card scene too.
Oh, it's so funny. It's so stupid. And when he goes into like that Ethan guy's house, Jared Lito's character and he's like, I was immediately nauseated because his apartment is nicer than mine. Like stuff that I didn't, when I was younger, I remember watching it and just being like, yeah, it's fine. But I really, really liked
Zach: this time.
Maybe I should watch it again. It has been, it has been quite awhile.
Danny: Yeah. I haven't watched it since like college. I turned off
Casey: the town that dreaded sundown and Matt was like, oh, I want to watch a dark comedy let's watch fight club. And I was like, I don't want to watch fight club fight club is very long, very long, and I just wasn't ready for that.
So we decided on American psycho and I was very happy. They
Danny: kind of have similar vibes in a way they do
Casey: so [00:05:00] American, psycho. Good. I also watched another dark comedy on Hulu
Danny: called villains. Is that the one with, um, it's got a scarf. Yes. Yeah. I heard that was really fun. It
Casey: was it's yeah, it was a lot of fun.
It was. Yeah. Yeah, it was fun. Um, it's about the, one of the scars guard, the one that plays Pennywise. I can't remember which one he is. I'm not going to bill, bill. Good old Billy boy. Uh, him and his girlfriend are like, they Rob like a gas station or something. And then they're trying, they're going to escape.
They run out of gas. So they like break into somebody's house and then they, they broken the wrong
Danny: people's house. Yeah. It seems very twisty. Is it? Yeah. Yeah. So fair to say,
Casey: Zach, are you still watching the Harry Potter
Zach: movies? Yes. Um, yeah, we started part for goblet of fire and right after the [00:06:00] fucking dragon debacle, like this huge dragon chase, Samuel just like tuned out and he was like done with it and I'm like, okay, let's stop it.
And then, uh, then I asked him if he wanted to finish it last night and no, you wanted to play Lego Harry Potter. So, uh, Okay. Why couldn't he have
Casey: played? Oh, nevermind. You mean like Lego Harry Potter? Like on a console, not like put together Legos that are Harry Potter. You
should
Danny: be like, you can play it when you can respect the source material,
Zach: but no, uh, yeah, so I am halfway through Harry Potter for the goblet of fire.
Um, but other than that, I haven't watched anything. It's been exclusively. Harry Potter,
Danny: exclusively. Harry Potter sounds magical. It is. It's a, are you guys
Casey: going to go see the new, the, have you seen the other fantastic
Danny: based movies? No, I gave up on the second one.
Zach: I have not even seen all the Harry Potter movies.
I think part four is the only one that I watched two, and then I was like, these are so bad. [00:07:00] Um, but now that I'm rewatching them years later, they're not as bad as I thought they were.
Danny: No, they're amazing. Yeah, you really do have to separate it from the books.
Zach: I was telling Casey the other week, like I watched the movie.
A day after I finished the series of books. And so I'm like, these are terrible. How did these even get made? But now it's been like four years and I'm like, okay, these are pretty good.
Casey: And the further you get, they get like darker and darker too. Like you're getting into where it gets real dark.
Danny: Yeah. Yeah.
I think my top two favorites are a three and six. Yes, me too. That's what I was going to say. Really. They're just, there's something about them. They're just
Casey: last week we talked about the prisoner vascular man. Cause that's my favorite one. I do like six, two that blueprints, um, the prisoner, like I like werewolves.
So I think
Danny: that that's part of, oh same. Yeah. Three just feels like more Gothic and,
Zach: and, uh, Lupin is kind of like a, he's very like skinny, tall, werewolf. He's [00:08:00] all like hunched over, but his legs are like super long and skinny and he's like, Um, but yeah. What about you, Danny? What have you,
Danny: why? Uh, well, you two would be proud of me, I think.
Yeah. I don't think I definitely told you that I finally started a midnight mass on that.
Casey: You should have finished it by now because it's only like six or seven episodes.
Danny: I'm really slow. I get yelled at at home. Cause Cody wants to just binge, he just wants to sit down and watch the show. And for whatever reason, I don't know if it's because I want to savor it or because I just have like a short attention span.
It takes me a little while. Um,
Zach: this is a, this is a good one to save her. Yeah.
Danny: Again, I either just finished three and started four. That, that seems right. I feel like I'm on episode four. Okay. So.
Casey: I don't remember, I watched it
Danny: all in a night. So, so the last thing that happened, spoiler alert for anyone who has [00:09:00] not seen midnight mass, because I think what I'm about to say is, um, very revealing.
Yes. Yes.
Zach: If you have not seen midnight mass yet either skip forward, I don't know, a minute or pause the show and go watch midnight mass and then come
Danny: back, come back. Yeah. So
Zach: go ahead, Danny. So you've been,
you've
Danny: been warned. Everything was kind of revealed in regard to like the priest went into that tomb.
He got bit by the little like demon vampire thing. We realized that he's actually that priest, but he's younger and he's turning into this thing. This vampire. I do have questions, obviously. I'm sure that it's going to be answered because, so the thing is, is I was spoiled. I had seen a picture that basically was like, oh, this fella has wings.
Clearly. It's like, something's going on? So like when I watched the first episode and you hear like flapping and someone says they saw some like, oh, it's that guy. But now my question is, is that he seems to be [00:10:00] transforming now, but who's flapping their wings or is he flapping wings? And he doesn't know he has, or someone else on the island got wings to flap.
So I'm very curious about that. One of my favorite scene, maybe my favorite scene of the show so far, and one of the coolest scenes I think I've ever seen in any kind of like more show or movie is when the doctor had already taken one of the characters blood, and it's an, a vial. And it just so happens to be in the sun and like the shadow shade moves and you just see it bubbling.
I thought that was one of the, if that I, I almost wish that was the reveal, you know, where, like, you don't see anything prior to that and you just see the blood and then you got the reveal because that shattered my brain. I was like, that is the coolest thing ever.
Casey: Oh yeah. When it's next to the one after they take that woman splits to the
Danny: window.
Yeah,
Zach: yeah. And D and like, wow. [00:11:00] There's so much more.
Danny: Yeah. Yeah. I want to
Casey: watch it again. I'm going to start
Danny: over when we're done. I thought there was going to be something where, um, obviously this is just, this was just me, like, you know, playing along with the show, but I was like, okay. So clearly it seems, at least it did for now.
I'm a little more like, okay. I need to watch more. It seemed as though, like the blood that he was giving during church was like having some effect on everyone. And I was like, oh, cool. Now clearly the main guy is not going to be affected. The friend that is like, X is not going to be fed it. Cause I'm assuming she's not drinking wine.
Cause she's pregnant. And I was like trying to like figure out like who is going to be like the main crew who's unaffected, but now I'm like, oh wait, she drank it. That is out the window. Um, so I I'm, I'm curious to see like kind of where they go with that. Yeah. It's pretty, if I know Mikey Flanagan, it's, it's going to be sad.
Um, oh, you know, funny. I never finished [00:12:00] hush again. I have this thing about, I can't finish, like LED's never completed.
Casey: Yeah. So, uh, so Mike clean again, he wrote hush, the girl who plays Aaron in. Um, and then I've asked, well, isn't hush, right? So she's the deaf writer in the beginning. The woman who plays Bev is also in hush. She comes over to her house and gives her back a book. Wow. This book that you wrote, it's incredible.
It's midnight mass. Yeah. She's like, oh, I love what you did with the characters. And she starts naming like Riley
Danny: set up book though, right? It's just in a written.
Casey: No, but Mike, Mike Flanagan put, you know what I mean? Whatever. He, he wrote this little thing into the script and then decided to make a huge series out
Danny: of it.
That is so fun.
Casey: Do you
Danny: watch anything else? Oh, I did watch a show. Have you guys watched our flag means death on HBO? [00:13:00] No. It's like a pirate comedy from Tyco, ITD and HBO. Oh my God. It's so funny. You guys, the main character is, um, oh my God. I'm doing such a disservice to him. He's he was the guy who was the manager for flight of the Conchords Murray Hewitt, Murray Hewitt.
He looks like.
Zach: Wasn't that his name on the show too?
Casey: Yes. That is his name on the show. I don't know his real name.
Danny: I like that name does sound familiar. So that checks out. Oh, that's funny. And he plays this guy. Who's like, he it's way back during like pirate times. That's I don't know. I don't know what year it was.
Um, and he's super wealthy, super privileged grew up like, like this, just like bougie, aristocrat, and he's bored with his life. So he wants to be a pirate, but he doesn't need to be a pirate, so he doesn't need money and he doesn't want to hurt anyone. [00:14:00] So he calls himself the gentlemen pirate and he pays these real pirates to like join him.
And that's the show and it's so freaking fun. What's it called again? Um, our flag means death. Our flag means death.
Zach: It's on HBO.
Danny: Yeah. And, uh, I think the first season just like wrapped, like finished, um, again, surprise, surprise. I'm not finished with it, but, um, it's good. Yeah. The only reason why I brought that show up, even though it's not horror, the effects like the kills, um, are like surprisingly shocking and really well done and very well.
Zach: She said they are
nice. Well-played Casey well played. Um, that's cool. That's cool.
Danny: Yeah. Highly recommend it.
Zach: Definitely gonna have to check it out for sure. Uh, well with that being said, are you guys ready to meet the monster C [00:15:00] let's
Danny: do it.
Zach: this movie and I don't, I'm not here, like, well, I know we're not here to just bash movies, but my major concern with this movie was that I didn't know if it was like a Barney Fife comedy, or like a Zodiac killer horror film. You use the
Danny: Zodiac. I brought Zodiac up a lot and the Andy Griffith show.
Zach: Oh my
Danny: God.
That's so funny. I just thought
Casey: that it looked like the caliber of film that it was was very much, oh, probably something that I made with my friends when I was through,
Zach: I felt like there should've been a laugh [00:16:00] track on half of
Danny: it. Well, what's funny is when the movie started. I actually thought it looked pretty.
Like I thought, I don't know, like some of those opening shots were just saying it felt polished. Right. And then the narration came in and I was like, okay, I'm gonna let that slide. It was one of those types of movies that was a little difficult to kind of latch onto because there wasn't much to latch onto, you know, there wasn't that one character or that one, like through line.
I mean, there was a through line, the killer, but a story at gate, you know, I
Casey: don't even know a single person's name from this movie except spark plugs because
Danny: it was stark. Can't forget a spark plug. That's
Zach: that's it patrolman AC Benson also known as
Danny: spark
Casey: plug. Yep. I didn't know that his, that it was AC Benson.
I only have
Danny: a spark
Zach: plug, but there was times like when [00:17:00] he was like supposed to be the driver and then they couldn't find the keys. I remember that scene, the Texas ranger and Ramsey were like looking up, like at the looking up, waiting for him out the window, there should have been a laugh track and the wacky driving, but then when the killer comes on, who is known as the Phantom, the Phantom killer, the Phantom Slayer or the Phantom, it's so brutal and there's no music, it's just screaming and begging and basically torture.
Um, and then it jumps to, and then it jumps to the goofy Hogan's heroes type comedy.
Danny: Uh, during this talk, I definitely want to bring up a lot of kind of connections that this movie has to scream. Um, just things that I've noticed, but also things that were just referenced in scream. And it's, it's funny you say that because you could argue that the movie was trying to be assertive, like horror comedy.
[00:18:00] That's maybe a little. Leaning a little closer to horror, but then it's not really, it's sort of just confused, you know, the, the CA the comedic bits don't feel like they're there to lighten the mood. They feel like they're there to fill up time, you know, like we have nothing else to show you. So we're just going to kind of crack some jokes.
Casey: There was so much stuff that was like unnecessary and so many draw it. So many things were drawn out and, yeah,
Danny: well, it felt like the movie was kind of, it starts off literally telling you what's going to happen with the narration to be a documentary. Yeah. But then it doesn't commit to being a documentary.
Right. And then, so, you know, what's going to happen, but then every time something happens, we go to the police or back to the narrator who tells us what just happened and then sets up, what's going to happen next. And then that's the cycle. It just keeps going over [00:19:00] and over. And I'm like, oh, okay. So it's like, what hap, what am I watching then?
Right. It's just stop and go the whole time.
Zach: So the director, Charles Pierce is a native of Texarkana and his first movie was called the legend of boggy Creek, which is like a, it was like a docu-drama kind of thing about this like big foot type creature that still like is out there. Um,
Casey: but I know what the buggy,
Danny: a lots of legends in Texarkana Texarkana
Casey: is all
Danny: real. Yeah.
Zach: So he already had like this kind of, you know, even from his first movie, he had like this documentary style way of storytelling. And, uh, we see that in the town that dreaded sundown for sure. Whether it works or not. I, I, I don't think it has, but
Casey: apparently this movie is
Danny: a cult classic and I can see, I definitely see a lot of, uh, I mean, again, [00:20:00] As we go through this, I'm going to keep jumping into scream.
There's a lot of, uh, I dunno, I guess, like influence that you see in, uh, you know, just like based off of like other slashers that have come out over the past few decades, that I dunno if they, you know, specifically borrowed from this movie, but you just see those little, um, hand prints, I guess, you know, like even down to in scream when, you know, the, you know, the killer has black boots, so you're thinking, oh, who else has black boots?
And the cameras specifically will show people's boots. And then they do that all the time in this movie. And the fact that scream, references the town that dreaded sundown, it's like, oh, well that has to be deliberate. But that also is just something you see in movies. I think scream goes out of its way to make you look at that.
But that's just like one little element that. I can see the influence. I can see like why this has a place, you [00:21:00] know, among like horror
Zach: fans and scream does that in every, in every installment of screen. There's that? The
Danny: boot shot? Yep. Everybody's got, everybody's got doc Martins.
Casey: Boot shot.
Zach: Yeah. Oh, and then you have the sack mask.
The burlaps the burlap sack. I hate burlap
Casey: sack. Wasn't burlap. It looked like a pillowcase.
Zach: You'll have to, um, to reference this. You'll have to listen to our Friday, the 13th part two episode with me
Danny: ticking, where we don't know what this particular sack is. Your last
Zach: talk pillowcase, burlap sack. Potato sack.
Yeah. I guess you had to be there. Casey
Danny: and I
Casey: wasn't
Danny: um, oh yeah, that was pre pre-K city. Got a beer. We were just talking to each [00:22:00] other. Yeah. Bizarre man. So yeah. So this movie we were talking, we already referenced like all of the core, I guess, references, um, whether it was done. Well, this was not done deliberately, but the fact that there is a very similar style and vibe to the Zodiac killer, even going so far as to like opening up on like, you know, a couple parked in the car on lover's lane, you haven't seen Zodiac.
I have not. I feel new. Well, I want to check out. I just
Casey: never like typically in true crime situations anyway, like I'm not typically super into unsolved ones because I like the interviews and stuff with the people. Yeah.
Danny: That sounds too. There's too much fog over it. Well,
Zach: let me, let me step back for a second.
You don't like unsolved, you don't like movies about unsolved. You recommended [00:23:00] the town that dreaded. I did not
Casey: recommend it. You said what out
Danny: of these newbies? You guys,
Casey: you said you sent Danny and I a text message that said, what out of these movies have you not seen Danny answered first and said the town that dreaded sundown.
And I said, I also have not seen the town that dreaded sundown
Danny: committed don't you
Casey: dare put this
Danny: shit on me. That's all, it's all on me. I take full
Zach: responsibility for that. And I was like, for the record, guys, I don't want to watch this.
Danny: I would say that,
Casey: but Hey, we all have to do things we don't want to
Danny: do some times we watch this movie.
Casey: Um, no, I true crime situations. I don't typically like true crime situations that are serial killer cases that are unsolved because I like the, the interviews with the actual serial killer. So the Zodiac story in general, I just never particularly cared for. I barely know anything about it. And so I just never watched the
Danny: movie cause I was like, well,
Zach: yeah, [00:24:00] we have a new segment here on the show and this is a perfect opportunity to introduce you to this segment.
Given the subject matter of this movie, it is time for true crime corner with Casey.
Danny: Well, Pam, which way you go left.
Zach: It's too.
Danny: See, we're both going left, going to just as easily been gone left too. And if that was the case, it would have been a while before you started getting scared. Since you go on the other way, I'm afraid you're going to have to start getting scared, immediate.
Casey: So surprisingly, I think, I think that this, this movie might actually be probably like one of the closest quote unquote based on true story movies compared to a true crime event that I've ever seen. Uh, cause a lot of them like Texas chainsaw was based on true story. That is like almost [00:25:00] nothing like the actual story that it's supposed to be based on.
Yeah. Um, but that's all, a lot of them are, uh, so Texarkana, Texarkana. Um, is part of Arkansas and Texas. Um, it's yeah, it's a town that's like on the border of both. Is it
Zach: kind of like Kansas city, Kansas? City's got, you have Kansas city, Kansas and Kansas city, Missouri. I didn't even
Danny: know that.
Casey: Yeah. 1946, February through may, there was a, um, a mass man that became known as the Phantom killer who killed five people.
They never caught him. When we go through the rest of the movie, we can talk about, uh, compare the events to what, what happened to in real life compared to what happens in the, in the movie. Okay.
Danny: Yeah. Cool. Can we end these segments where we ask. How true was, and you're like 86% true. And that
Casey: no, we have a little roast thing that says true, like a branding thing.[00:26:00]
Zach: And then we can end with Gary Busey saying justice.
Casey: I would say, I would say this is about 90% true.
Danny: You heard it here. Folks. We're watching a 90% true horror movie right now.
Zach: That's right. Danny, just move it to exec Canada.
Casey: The one thing that we'll discuss later that they changed, like you, they changed it to try and make the movie a little bit more exciting,
Danny: but in work.
Yeah,
Casey: it was probably the most exciting part of the movie. So yeah, you'll see.
Zach: We're meeting the Phantom and I do know a little bit of trivia about this. I do know how the Phantom got his name.
Danny: Not from the opera, correct. This is a different Phantom is a, there are multiple Phantoms. This is not the opera.
Zach: No, there is a Phantoms with Ben Affleck. [00:27:00] There is Phantom of the paradise.
Danny: There's the fam uh, Billy Zane. Oh
Zach: yeah. I remember when that came out and there was a, there was a big poster at the Millcreek six and you got like a ring. They're like, oh, that's great. Yeah. Like a ring. Um, yeah, I remember that. I think it's a church now it's called elevate elevate.
Um, but the Phantom also known as the Phantom killer and the Phantom Slayer got his nickname after the third and fourth killing in the April 16th, 1946 edition of the Texarkana daily news, the headline read Phantom killer eludes officers as investigation of slayings. Then it was continued on the second page with the headline that read Phantom Slayer, eludes police.
Um, and it was that copywriter who was like, Hey, can I start calling them this? And they were like, I don't care. [00:28:00] Um, so that's how we got his, uh, his nickname, the Phantom.
Casey: Yeah. And, uh, like in the movie, like it really did like scare these people really, really bad. People were making booby traps and guns were sold out at stores and people didn't go outside anymore and stuff like that.
No,
Danny: what's up with the fellows at lover's lane. Why do they always take naps on their dates?
Zach: Do they all like that's the first, this is the, this was the first for me in this movie. Like why
Danny: the first guy we see lays his head down on his dates. Just cause and just says, he's just like, let me do that
Casey: staring at something.
I couldn't figure out what she was. She was just staring straight
Danny: ahead.
Casey: The acting in this movie, it might be the worst that I have ever. It's
Danny: pretty funny. It's very much, it felt like, like, well, the fact that he's a local kind of like make sense. Cause it felt like he was like, Hey, [00:29:00] can you just act in the scene really quick? And everyone was doing their best job. Like they were putting in like all the effort they could muster.
God bless them. But
Zach: yeah, I noticed that specifically with like the police chief, um, was he the chief of the captain? I don't know. But he was like talking to Benson sparkplug uh, one time at the desk and he just like, I was watching him and I was like, oh man, this is just like somebody's grandpa. Who was.
Hey, we need, we need you, do you think you could read these
Danny: lines? Like what I have in my head? Whether or not you can act like. It's another story. Yeah. I just made a note that just said everyone is all caps, acting everyone's thing in this movie. Yeah, no, one's there. No, one's giving a performance. They're acting like there's that one scene there's well, there's actually one actors who's in two scenes specifically where she is like giving everything [00:30:00] first is in the police station when a spark plug is on the phone and she's doing this thing where like she's reacting to every little, like comment that he has.
And she's like, you know, like pursing her lips and bobbing her shoulders and looking up at the ceiling. And she's just like, almost like a little bit of a, like a dance, like there's music to her. Like, and then later in the, during the prom the dance, uh, she's one of, I thought she was. But she's at least one of the chaperones who's with this other chaperone or they're putting alcohol into their drink and she's doing the same thing.
She's bobbing her shoulders. She's like looking at way like very like obvious.
Zach: Did I have something to say about that? And I know we'll get to it later, but I think pass up this opportunity. She the lady, the lady on the right holes out the alcohol from her bag. Yeah. Very sneakily. Hands it to the lady on the left.
She pours it in the drink and then [00:31:00] hands the drink to the lady on the right report who pulled the alcohol out of her bag to begin with. And then she takes a sip and they're like, Ooh, naughty, why don't you just pour it in there yourself?
Casey: Would you believe it? If I said I missed all of that?
Danny: No, I believe that's what I was doing.
I missed it. Cause that's what I was doing. I was, I was doing, I was sneakingly pouring a drink punch so that I could just kind of take a mental break from the movie. I know there's a lot. Well, that's the thing with this movie is, and I know we, we're not here to criticize or anything, but there's a lot of moments that are just like.
Why is it happening? Because it's just, it, it would help with the runtime. Let's keep it rolling. Let's just make sure we have some footage and then turns out they needed every second of the footage. They probably shot. And to get to that 90 minute, mark, some of
Zach: the footage towards the end, where they're [00:32:00] like in the swamp area with the train and everything, after they get out of the sandpit, some of that footage was apparently recycled from his movie, the legend of boggy Creek.
They just like pulled in shots to get.
Danny: Uh, boggy Creek.
Zach: It was a boggy Creek. Um, okay. But for real, let's get into this movie. We start out Sunday, March 6th, 1946, and right off the bat, we see our killer is like in one of those legs shots that you were talking about with the boots and he's just walking on the sidewalk.
And then we, our first group of teens at, I say teens in air quotes, because teams, we find out that this dude Sammy is supposed to be 24 years old. And I immediately, when I saw that guy, I was like, this is not a teenager. Like he is. Like, okay. So yeah, he's not a teenager. He's 24, but he was way older than that.
I was like, there's no way
Danny: he tucked in [00:33:00] his children before coming out on this lover's lane. D
Zach: yeah, but he's the one, Sammy is the one that lays his head down in her lap.
Danny: Right. For some reason
Zach: she's talking about hearing a noise and he's like, no, there's nothing. And then the hood opens up, like the killer, the Phantom opens the hood just to slam it down again.
He
Danny: cuts the, start the car. So there
Zach: was a reason. Okay.
Danny: Which is another screen reference and screen for the Alison Brie scene. When she's in the parking garage, a ghost Facebook takes out her. I don't know anything about cars. I'm gonna call it a break line. Cause I've heard that in movies.
Casey: Well, that's a great line.
The car wouldn't be able to
Danny: break. She cuts her, uh, cuts her ignition. Pipe, uh, converter closer cuts her, her, probably
Casey: something to do with the battery cars or battery standing. Did you know? [00:34:00] Okay.
Zach: Okay. So he did open it for a reason, my dad, um, but we get a quick snap zoom onto his face with his bags with his sec.
What are we calling it?
Danny: Sick SACS, funnier pillow, sack,
Zach: burlap sack, potato sack.
Casey: It's supposed to be burlap, but it is a
Danny: pillowcase. Okay. It's like dollar store burlap. We'll call it a sack. We'll
Zach: call it. Okay. We get a snap zoom onto his sack.
Danny: That's right. That's why we did that. So yeah. So, so we, so we kick off mood, snap sack,
Zach: um, and he pulls Sami out of the way. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. Like I said, like when it comes to the killer part, like there's
Danny: some brutal all of this for the most part, this whole, uh, attack scene. I thought it was pretty [00:35:00] effective. Yeah. Yeah.
Zach: And you see the blood on the glass, so it's like,
Danny: oh
Zach: God. And then yeah, no music.
And we had talked about this on a previous episode where, um, oh, it was the loved ones where we talked to the loved ones and the village
Danny: and the village village got music village has
Zach: lots of music,
Danny: but when he stabbed, oh, when Noah stabbed Adrian Brody. Yeah.
Zach: It's true. Um, but yeah, especially when there's like a struggle because you hear all the, like the real sounds that you would hear and, um, it gives you a new.
Thank you feeling music kind of softens it a little bit whenever you're watching a movie, but when you don't have music, it's just yep. And then we get our title.
Danny: Yeah.
Zach: But he does do something with the woman before we kind of kind of cuts away. Casey, do you have any details on the real crime that occurred [00:36:00] there?
Yeah, he,
Casey: uh, approached the, uh, two young adults at a lover's lane. Um, he didn't actually pull them out of the car. He just pointed a gun at them and told them to get out. He actually made the man take his pants off and then he like pistol whipped him twice and, and fractured his skull. And then he attempted to rape the woman, but she was able to escape and she started running and he tackled her and started beating her.
But the man actually got up and like waved down a car and. The Phantom right away.
Danny: Okay.
Zach: And that was their real names were Jimmy Hollis and Mary Jean Larry. Um, yeah. And when we cut back to where she's on the side of the road, um, just like in a ditch and it's just a very icky kind of scene. Yeah.
Danny: Well, like you said, whenever it's those moments, it gets very raw and in very bad, dirty, rough, and painful to
Zach: walk.
Yeah. Um, and then a car pulls over and he calls for help [00:37:00] when the were first introduced to deputy Ramsey when they're on the scene of the crime and the ambulance is coming down and he likes, stops the ambulance to yell, to like tell them where to go, but then he doesn't even give him a second. Like the second that he's done talking, he like slams on the slams on the side of the door and he's like, come on, get going.
And I was like, wait a second. I used spoiler alert.
Danny: I'm going to bring this whole scene up again later in this episode. But if you watch that whole scene, it's literally him like constantly waving them down and like, they're right there. They're like literally driving toward him. And he's like, and he's like wave it's like, and he's like telling them where to go.
And it's like, give them a second. They physically cannot get there fast enough.
Zach: Um, and I was like, who is this guy? Like,
Danny: oh, [00:38:00] he's kind of our main character, but not really our main
Zach: character. Yeah. It's like he starts out to be. And then once the Texas ranger comes in, he's kind of our main JD Miralis is kind of our main guy
Danny: kind of, it's really hard to lock a main character in this movie,
Zach: but why did he leave them alone?
Casey: I remember he, he was trying to, but the man, he was, he was beating the woman, but the man was able to get up and flagged somebody down. So he
Danny: ran away. Or do you mean in the movie? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yes. I'm not listening. That's okay.
Zach: Never. She never does. Um, so yeah, in the movie, I, won't curious why he leaves them alive because there's no indication that, um, somebody called for help or anything and he got scared away.
Um, I'm just curious.
Danny: I don't think they really explain it. I was just kind of under the impression that maybe this was his first time doing it and he was a little like, oh fuck. Like, all right. I'm out. [00:39:00] Like, I don't know. Maybe he got butterflies or was it deliberate? And yeah. Because they say later, they're like, why is he doing it?
And they're kind of, they suggest that he just loves the attention. That is like, I just love terrorizing people. Yeah. Like kind of confuse them. Like literally, like what we're talking about right now, why didn't he kill them? It just adds more of like, uh, an air of mystery around the whole thing. Yeah.
Casey: Yeah.
There are some killers, some like serial killers that have killed people and like left their bodies in public areas specifically because they actually like to disturb the people that find
Danny: them. Jeez.
Casey: Instead of like the actual murder itself.
Danny: Yeah. I've like heard about that. I don't know what I was watching, but they were like, if you're being put this, can't apply to everyone, which just makes it so much harder to basically, if you're being attacked, they say, well, a lot of them kind of get off on you being helpless and in pain.
So don't act. You're helpless or in pain, but it's like, [00:40:00] what if you got the killer who wants, you know what I mean? Like who is actually a sympathetic? They'd be like, God, there's no winning. Like,
Casey: fuck, if you were in that situation, you're not going to be thinking that anyway, if you're fucking in pain and you want to scream, you're going to scream.
He might really, you know,
Danny: he might really like that. He uses his left hand, which makes me think, statistically, he'd be more inclusive.
Zach: And now we are introduced to patrolmen Benson. Sparkplug
Danny: Andy Griffith,
Zach: AK not Andy Griffith Barney.
Danny: Actually
the station is just, something is just straight out of the Andy Griffith show. And then we get nothing because you don't really get character development or any setup. You just kind of get like silliness and hi-jinks, but no real introduction.
Casey: I think he was on the phone with like a kid that was being bad and he was threatening [00:41:00] him to be a good kid, like his mom called and he's like, well, you talked to my son and he's being a little bastard,
Danny: but what's frustrating is, is that character type, like spark that spark cloak has, has no payoff.
There's nothing. It has no like relevancy throughout the story. Well,
Casey: spark plug is the only person I remember.
Zach: Well, yeah, he's just there to like, he's there for laughs I guess, because later he like can't drive the car and. You know, they say, like you said, you wanted to get there fast and he's like, not that fast, but then they're like, now's your time to shine spark plug.
And he like sends him into the lake.
Danny: Oh my God. And then it turns into the town that dreaded sundown, Tokyo drift the car drifts in the road in this movie drink. Every time you see the card, not going straight drink every time you see the car not going straight and drink every time someone tells you something before it happens.
Cause that's all this movie is [00:42:00] just people like reconvening, like, okay, well what just happened? Okay. She got her they're alive. Okay. And then it's yeah. Oh God.
Zach: And I feel like the, the, some of the car scenes. It's like film that like, like the old school, like 12 frames, a second, where they crank up the speed and they speed it up and
like the old horses or
Danny: something. And then they get out and the people are also moving really fast. Cause they forgot to like crank it back down.
Casey: All right guys, we're about, uh, 10 minutes into the movie.
Zach: Well, now it's time to meet Howard Turner and Emmylou. All right. So Howard Turner, uh, was in the war apparently and he comes back, um, and Emmylou makes a very strange comment about how he must have liked quote, all those Japanese girls scrubbing your back.
Yeah. And [00:43:00] why, why scrubbing your back? Like, is that a thing? What would you
Casey: rather, they said, sucking your Dick.
Zach: What about scrubbing your deck? I mean, it would make more sense. I think that
Casey: it was probably just a nice way in 19, since it takes place in 1946, it was just a less vulgar way of saying sucking your Dick.
Danny: The rest of the movie was just this argument in the car about like how he loves getting his back scrubbed. And I'm sorry,
Casey: I'm not a Japanese girl. Okay. So, uh, keep going after a Japanese women's scrubbing his back. I mean, sucking his
Danny: Dick. I mean, we don't see the death. We just see them Ramsey happens upon the car.
Well,
Casey: that's right, because that was like the 10 minute fucking scene of him. Like being on a radio for no reason.
Danny: Yeah. Yeah. Again, telling us what he's going to do. Show us the kill. Instead, like you said it, they mentioned how he would bite people. [00:44:00] I don't want to see that, but since that's what this movie is about, I want to see it, you know, like this movie is literally the epitome of sh you know, not showing, you know, show don't tell, but they're just telling and not showing.
And when they do show, it's been set up. So you're so exhausted that it's like, great. Okay. Yeah, I know what's going to happen.
Zach: Yeah. So deputy Ramsey, it's raining. He's on his radio. He comes to a fork in the road and this is what confused me. I'm still a fork in the road. He says, I'm going off air. I'm going off channel for like 60 seconds.
That's one minute. That is one single minute. He proceeds to take like 30 of those seconds to put on his rain jacket. Right. Then he gets out and he walks like towards one fork in the road while his car is pointed at the other way. [00:45:00] And like, where was he going? What was he going to do? And then he hears the gunshots.
After he finds the car, he hears more gunshots. And he says he radios. I heard gunshots. Like if they came from like a mile away and instead of getting in his car and driving, he runs,
Casey: yeah. I could walk a mile in like 17.
Danny: But if you had the car and there were people dying and there were gunshots happening, you'd be like, he just needed his exercise.
Well, he probably didn't want to, because he's like, this is just going to drift all the way through. Got an already
Zach: one off. Yeah. He's like, they don't stand a chance. I'm going to give up some extra tonight, but we do find the woman, Emmy Emmylou, tied to a tree with a gunshot in her back. This is where I realized how brutal these like killing scenes are when I saw her on the tree.
And like that gunshot looked gross and they like zoom in on it. Yeah. [00:46:00]
Danny: The thing that I love about movies that are like really low budget where you, you know, you don't have the luxury of like doing multiple takes or anything is when he goes. Before he sees the girls corpse. He sees the guy's corpse and the guy is this poor actor.
Like there's no way around this, but he's laying down to the rain's hitting him. And his eyes are just like flickering. It's like, he's getting hit with water. He's clearly not dead. What
Casey: he's
Danny: supposed to do. Also, it was at this point where I was like, I think Ramsey is in on this because he's always like at the right place at the right time, he's delaying the police from getting to the crime.
He's taking his time to get to the scene of the crime. That's why he ran. Yeah. He's just like, well, there's no.
Zach: The, the killer gets in the car and drives off. And instead of shooting, he doesn't exactly. So, so the narrator can tell us who deputy Ramsey, [00:47:00] he didn't shoot that day. It's like what? Uh, we know that he didn't shoot guy from arrested
Danny: development and just talking about he's like, I'm going to shoot him.
He didn't.
Zach: Casey, can you tell us a little bit about the true crime that goes along with this, that of murders?
Casey: Uh, so Richard was actually 29 and Polian was 17 just saying, why is nobody reacting to that? 29 and 17. Thank you. That's a big age gap. Okay. Well, because I think in the forties, like women were still just used to have babies.
It didn't really matter how old they were as long as they had their period.
Zach: They aren't arguing. I believe, I believe Arkansas has like a really low legal limit, [00:48:00] really legal age, which is
Danny: why, um, who's writing. Sure. Is that sign off on that law? That sounds their bodies
Casey: were actually, uh, in the car, but there was evidence that suggested that they were taken, they were taken out side of the car and then shot and killed.
They were both
Danny: shot in the head. So this is the killers first kill, even like on a record in real life. Yeah.
Zach: So at this point in the story, we are introduced to J D Miralis of the Texas Rangers. He is called in to help solve these crimes. And he, I guess he's supposed to be the best, but he kind of sucks.
Danny: Yeah, no, one's truly a great at their job in this movie.
Zach: I mean, dude, supposed to be like a Texas ranger. That's like a, you're supposed to be pretty observant to be a Texas ranger. Right. He comes, was he coming on a train or something? I'm not going to
Danny: lie. That went over my head. I [00:49:00] missed, I must have missed his grand introduction.
Zach: He comes in somewhere in like a station somewhere. I don't know if he came in by a car or something. There's like reporters and stuff. He stops to get a cigar asks the store clerk if he has any cigars. And the guy's like, yeah, they're right there. And the case is literally in front of him, like eye level.
And I'm like, wow, are you sure you're the best Texas ranger out there? But
Danny: I see if this movie, I don't know if this movie is actually very clever and that was like totally deliberate, like, look how stupid he is. Yeah. We shot at this location. The cigars were right there. We didn't want to change the script as it was.
Zach: Um, and we were told that Benson is going to be his driver. And this is when I realized that Benson needs his own comedy spinoff. There should have been a [00:50:00] sitcom about sparkplug. Yep.
Danny: For sure.
Casey: Where he, he should have been, uh, well, he was a police officer, but if he wasn't a police officer, he should have been a getaway driver.
Danny: Yes,
Zach: guys,
Danny: we literally get, like you said, Zach, how we get this brutal, brutal murder, and then. I like a prolonged scene about a silly cop for getting the keys, literally with music that may as well be a laugh track. It's like, it's like, yeah.
Zach: And he's like, I forgot the keys, Sarge.
Oh my God. And then the captain. Oh, why don't you look on the wall over there? What do you see?
Casey: Yeah, I was going to, I was going to say the wall that says keys on it with all of the keys hanging
Danny: from them. He should have been like, oh, keys you mean? [00:51:00] Oh geez. Spark plug.
Zach: Oh, that's great. That's perfect. Um, so this is when Ramsey is talking to JD Miralis and he says it was exactly 21 days ago tonight that the first murders happened. So I think he's going to attack again. Y
Danny: Y Y
Zach: in order to get that idea, it would have had to have been like at least two or three. Yeah,
Danny: I
Casey: take three.
I'd say, well, that's
Danny: easily.
Zach: It could have been like 17. He could have been like, it was exactly 17 days ago tonight. I said it every day, but this is just the one that we saw. She was like, exactly. 21 days.
Danny: It's funny you bring that up because [00:52:00] later, uh, when they're at the dance, it says there's like a little subtitle says, you know, Sunday, April 14th.
And the date is kind of treated like a reveal. Like the movie is sort of counting on us to do the math, to be like, okay, well, the movie started off on Sunday, the third, and then 21 days after that, it was okay. Oh my God. It's it's the 14th of April. It's like, wait,
Zach: This is why we need the, whoever did the time captions for whatever the time titles for Halloween three, three days later, four days,
Danny: six days later,
Zach: one hour later, um, 30 minutes ago, wait,
Danny: wait, you can't know we're going backwards.
Zach: And then we get this goofy, goofy scene with Benson as he's dressed up as a toy, [00:53:00]
Danny: worse than that, you have the narrator setting up. You're like, oh, if only he knew what he signed up for.
I'm trying to think of what the rat's name is. Okay. Templeton. I love Templeton. Pendleton used to scare me. I know. That's why I love it. Thank you. Eat me while I was sleeping. My
Zach: favorite part of this scene is what I have termed the balloon titty pop he's like in the car and the dudes like cuddling up on him.
And then he like pops his balloon boob.
Danny: I don't remember.
Casey: I have no, I literally have
Danny: no idea what you're talking about. I will say I was surprised. I said this is a surprisingly progressive small town in Texas. In the 1940s. Yeah. Is it?
Casey: Oh, wait, is [00:54:00] it because, because the, the, okay.
Danny: He wants to go up with him.
Are you
Casey: talking about when they dress up the one dresses up as a woman? Yes, I remember that, but I don't remember the titty pop.
Danny: I remember seeing them dressed up. Sergeant Griffin is getting a little handsy, which is inappropriate, but it's the fact that he's looking past the fact that it's a man. Uh, you know, good for you.
Okay. All right.
Casey: So next is the dance,
Danny: right? The problem. Yes,
Zach: man. I just can't get over the ladies porn, alcohol in each other's drinks. Um,
Casey: I particularly liked the people pretending to play their
Danny: instruments. Oh, I actually kind of appreciated that. Like they weren't trying to make them good. Cause they were like high schoolers,
Casey: like pressing things and moving things.
Danny: A little bit of realism in this
Casey: movie. Everything about the dance in general was a
Danny: pretty awkward, well, first of all, not, you know, let's not [00:55:00] bury the lead, the titular town that dreaded sundown clearly isn't afraid of sundown anymore. Right. They're out at a dance at night.
Zach: Yeah. And this is past the point where they said there has been, there have been cops called in from all different yeah.
Areas. When there's someone I forget who says it, but they're at the dance. And someone says like, they'll be home at like 1:00 AM. And I'm like, wait a second.
Danny: It's like, bitch, you're far past sundown. You're closer to sun up at this point.
Casey: We're also that, like, he really had to convince her to go that's fair.
She did not want to go deliver something.
Zach: Oh, you're talking about Peggy and Roy. Yes, yes. Yes.
Danny: It's just, I wonder if there was something where the filmmakers weren't allowed to show like sex or any kind of like physical contact between characters. [00:56:00] Because again, we talked about this earlier, but it was just, it added this layer of unnecessary confusion where they literally wake up from a nap.
And he's like, oh, it's almost three. And then he's like, wait, no, let's stay. And it's like, Hey, you're sleeping. Like go to bed
Zach: just a little longer. Like,
Danny: wait, I'm confused. When was this? When they go after the dance, that couple goes to lover's lane. Oh,
well,
Casey: because when you're in a new room, when you're in a new relationship, like you don't ever want to leave the person because you're like, oh my God, I might not see them like tomorrow.
Danny: I mean, that's fair, but I just feel like it, it would just make so much more sense if we just, instead of like having this arbitrary, like why we're at three in the morning.
Cause that time is irrelevant. I thought sundown was the whole point. So like it could literally be any time in the dark, [00:57:00] anytime at night, just cut to them, making. Right. It's just like, wait, why are they napping? What happened? There's just, it's just like, I feel like it's supposed to mean something, but it doesn't mean anything.
So it was being killed
Casey: on lover's lane, which is a make-out spot. And none of them were even touching
Danny: each other. Maybe the killer is just like disappointed. He's like waiting. He's like, are any of them are gonna actually do anything?
Casey: I'm actually
Danny: just here to be a lawyer. And then they don't and he's like, I'm going to kill them.
He's like, I never intended on hurting anyone, but you guys are driving me crazy.
Casey: I can't man. I was going to try and make a joke about SACS and how he has to wear one in his head because he's not getting,
Danny: he's
Casey: not because his balls aren't drained.
Danny: So he's got to wear sack on his head. I rub my sack and just enjoy the sites he's like, and I'm talking about my mask.
You per lives.
Zach: The fact that you [00:58:00] just said his sack is not drained. It's like I said, his balls, aren't green, his balls.
Danny: Aren't
Casey: aren't
Danny: getting drained.
They say, I just need a nice, nice SAC drain. Hey, the sundown sex rain.
Oh good. Lordy, Lordy.
Casey: Look at this movie is not that bad. Look at all that.
Danny: Okay. I have to say, like I was thinking if I was watching this with a group of people, I feel like I'd be having a fun time. Yeah. Probably. I mean, okay. I should say, and I'm removing it from the reality of like what it's based on in the same way I would remove, you know, Texas chains are psycho from like the, is it ed?
W what is his name? Dean? He had this movies just, yeah, there's a, there's a lot to work with, I guess is [00:59:00] the,
Zach: well, this was an interesting speaking of that, this is an interesting kill because, so first of all, he liked beats Roy. Right. Then he ties her to a tree. Yeah. Then Roy starts getting away and he's like, you can see the, like the fucking disappointment on the Phantom.
He's like, oh, fuck. Like, really? I got to do this and see, like, Chase's. Kills him. Then he comes back and puts the knife on the end of her trombone and like stabs her while playing the trombone. Yeah.
Danny: Only not playing it because he doesn't have a mouth.
Zach: Yeah. So he's just like pretending to play it. Um, clearly that's not what happened in real life.
Sadly.
Casey: She played the saxophone.
Zach: Oh really? Yeah. Yeah. It seems like it's so like, it's such a weird thing to do that, like stranger
Danny: than fiction kind of it's like, wow, they [01:00:00] get that from right.
Casey: This is the part that I was talking about earlier that I think they just tried to change to make it more disgusting or more, you
Zach: know, flamboyant.
Yeah. So the real people were, were Paul Martin and Betty Joe Booker. Do you know what actually happened to them?
Casey: They were only 15 and 16 years old. They were at like a town hall dance, not a prom, but yes, she was playing the saxophone. Not the trombone. So Paul was found shot four times. Uh, he was found in like a rural area and the girl was raped and shot twice.
And then she was found in a wooded area, like a mile away and they were all the people were shot by the same gun, a 32 caliber.
Danny: Did they ever find the gun or they just were able to, no,
Casey: they never found the gun.
Zach: Oh man. Now we're at a scene where it has, it has a [01:01:00] JD Miralis they're in like a restaurant and they bring in the psychiatrist, um, a psychiatrist and, um, he appears to know all this stuff about the killer, just based on the stuff that has happened, which
Danny: I thought was a little annoying.
Casey: Well, it's kind of like trying to profile, but they, but like profiling, FBI profiling and stuff didn't actually happen until the seventies.
Danny: Well, what frustrated me was, they were just, he there's a line where he says, it's definitely sexual. And they're like, definitely. And he's like, yeah. Okay. Maybe, but like what, how do you know that?
It's just so he's very, he's very like adamant and very like, this is how it is. This is how it is. But the whole point of the movie is that we don't know anything about this guy's motives. Have you ever seen mine, hunter? Yeah. I haven't seen all of it, but yeah. Also from the guy who did Zodiac David Fincher.
Oh, is
Casey: it okay. So mind hunter is about is it's true [01:02:00] story based on true stuff about like the first two people who became FBI. Profilers.
Danny: Okay. So yeah.
Casey: It's good show.
Danny: That's all need for Casey. It's very good. It's
Casey: very good. We get it's really cool because they like go around and talk to a bunch of these serial killers.
And so they have a bunch of these serial killers portray. In the show and they're all so good.
And even acting even is so it's so good. Like the guy that they, that they have to play that plays David Berkowitz. Holy shit. He looks just like fucking David burglars. David Berkowitz, the son of Sam.
Danny: Yeah. Anyway. So it was
Casey: that killer
Danny: who was never found
Zach: there at the scene in the restaurant. And someone says it could be one of your prominent citizens.
And that took me back. I don't know if you guys remember this back when we were first in the police station and Jedi Miralis is there, he's introduced [01:03:00] to a citizen who is quote unquote, a prominent citizen. Um, and he's just like this guy and he's kinda got this. Like, I don't have this look on his face.
That's a little, like, you don't really know how to read them. Um, and then they say, oh, it could be one of your prominent citizens. That's him, that's the guy. Um, but then they immediately cut to another boot shot and the guy gets up and he's like in the restaurant and you see him from the back and he walks out.
I was like, oh, okay, nevermind. It's not him. Do we
Danny: know whose boots those belong to? Or that was just a guy at the table. And the whole point was like, I was supposed to be at the fan. That was him, the killer. Oh, Hmm.
Casey: See, look, this movie
Danny: was not that I was thrown off. I was wondering if they were just doing that to be like, is it him?
Is it him? Is it him? But I guess that makes more sense that they're specifically focusing on one [01:04:00] person. Yeah. It was like there and you didn't even like right under your nose
Zach: mixes are amazing car chase where they report a. From a, like a convenience store or something. And they drive to the convenience store. He had just taken off in a car and he's like, there he is, go get them. And then we get this like that, like you said to any of the music comes in and it's like this goofy comedy where he's like wobbling down the road and he can't drive and this and that, then they go into the lake.
Right. And that's where I, where I lost it. I was like, I cannot believe this, this movie is too it's too much. Well,
Danny: it's also just, again, I, I hate when I do this, I T I go off the rails and I get a little too, like critical. And I'm just off the rails, not unlike spark plug driving. Um, mommy, wasn't driving a train.
So I [01:05:00] guess he's not on the rails, but, um, but like when they pulled the guy over, there's this unnecessary like banter where they're like, you're the, I really come forward. It's like, no, And they're like digital a scar. No. And they're like, well, he says, you're the killer? He's like, oh yeah, I am. And he's like, wait, what did you take the car?
Yeah. What, it's just, there's no tension. It's just like talking until they finally get to the truth. That is just like, okay, what happened? He could have just admitted to that because he put up zero fight whatsoever. Right. I just feel like we got so many of those kinds of scenes with like non-issues and like anti drama, you know, like we're going to get to a reveal or of some sorts, but instead of adding tension or drama or anything, we're just going to prolong that scene and it was going to watch it sort of just like, okay, like kind of exhausted fumes.
And so anticlimactically, [01:06:00]
Zach: and then he goes to get in the car and he's like, I'll drive you. And he's like, no guys wait up. I'm not driving with him anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Whose car did they get in? Cause there was just enough cars for the amount of people, their cars in the lake who stayed on that road so that Barney Fife could drive away.
Um, so here we are, May 3rd Floyd and
Danny: Helen. Oh, these are the victims at the house. Yes.
Zach: This is May 3rd. Um, in 1946, we are in the house of Floyd and Helen. I missed their last name, but this is when Floyd gets shot through the window. And that was, that was creepy. He's like just in there and then like dudes at the window behind him, I was like, Ooh,
Danny: I like the scene for the most part.
Casey: Yeah. Cause the rest of the movie. And cars and stuff. I don't know. Just the least expected one.
Danny: Yeah. [01:07:00] It just that's. The thing about this movie is it would have been great if like we knew, I wish we had focused on the victims in town, not knowing who would be a victim so that when they're victims, it's like, oh shit, I like them.
You know? But like you said,
Casey: there was, there's no character development there's no, it is set up. I mean, this is how it would, this is even though they didn't do like the voiceovers all the time, that's, it's still set up like a documentary. In
Danny: that sense, I would have preferred it to be like a fake documentary about a real thing, you know?
Or like even like found footage or something or just something that felt raw. So it felt cinematic, but not, there was just, it couldn't commit to anything and it just made. This, it made us just like confused. Like what are, we don't know? I don't know what I'm supposed to feel. Is this supposed to be like a scary scene or is it just like, I don't know.
Yeah, [01:08:00] it's a
Zach: tough one. Yeah, it's fun. Um, but after Floyd gets shot in the head, Helen also gets shot multiple times.
Danny: Neither of them have a exit wounds though, which I noticed conveniently for the makeup department.
Casey: Well, the woman hers were launched in her face for real.
Danny: Oh, seriously. Yeah. See, I need, I'm going to shut up then because I keep forgetting.
This is like ACE on a real
Zach: thing. Um, Helen does getaway, she crawls through the, through the weeds, um, our Phantom killer and she crawls, she grows. Um, and our, our Phantom grabs a pickaxe in true like slasher style. Yeah. But, uh, no, she, she finds. Refuge in some homes down the street.
Danny: Um, very, uh, Halloween with, uh, yeah.
Yeah. I'm running down the street and like paying out people's doors.
Zach: Um, and so these two people in real life were named [01:09:00] Virgil Starks and Katie Starks. Yes. Do you know what happened to them for real Casey?
Casey: Yeah. That's exactly what happened.
Danny: Okay. Yep. Okay. So the shot,
Casey: while he was sitting in the chair, she was shot twice in the face and crawled away and to a neighbor.
Um, but there was speculation that it was actually a different person or a copycat because, um, it was a different caliber bullet. It was a 22 instead of a 32. Um, it was done in a home instead of in a lover's lane or car and, uh, yeah, they were older than all of the
Danny: other victims.
Zach: Yeah. So Helen gets away.
Yes. Okay. Remind me about this part. I have a note that said, lady finds cat in the garbage Wawa, goofy music. So there's
Danny: no idea. I wrote that dumpster seen LOL.
Zach: So that must been like, whoa,
Danny: well, the movie feels [01:10:00] like it kind of crescendos to this finale, but then doesn't because, I mean, thank God, it's a true story.
So the, the w the woman got away, but then we cut to this sort of like, and it's another kind of, almost montage of how the town's handling the craziness of this, you know, killer. And it cuts to this scene where like this old woman's like convinced that someone's at our house, which just takes all the steam out of the last scene.
We just saw like, just kicks it in the sack, you know, to reference, uh, you know, to stay on brand. Um, and then like a cat, like jumps out and they do the whole like, oh geez. Like it's like not the right time for this scene. Do that early. You just gave us this finale. Yeah.
Zach: Uh, uh, and then we get to the sand pit and the train.[01:11:00]
Casey: Oh my God. That fucking train shootout with thing.
Danny: The cops just want to shoot some. That was
Casey: like the dumbest thing I've ever said. And then it pissed me. It really pissed me off because they're like, this train is moving so slow and they're just standing there waiting for it to get all the way past them.
Instead of like taking the 30 seconds to go run around the end of it.
Danny: I'm sorry.
Zach: Yeah, no, that's a valid point valid point. Now this is going to be probably the best compliment. I'll give this movie when they got to the sandpit. Now that I'm like thinking back on it, it kind of gave me like true detective season one
Danny: vibes.
Yeah. Don't how fucking
Casey: dare you.
Danny: Dare you.
Zach: Oh, wait me for complimenting this movie by calling him or Danny for now.
Casey: How dare you compare it? How dare you put that on the head of store with that [01:12:00] show? I fucking dare both of you Danny. Go wash it, Zach. I
Danny: can't believe. You know, I'm right.
Casey: I don't, because I don't remember what part you're talking about
Danny: in the movie, but the, his show is amazing.
Okay. As great as the show is, as great as that shot may have been or whatever, it is all softened in ruined by the setup to this scene, which made me laugh audibly when they stumble upon a car and he goes, well, it's the same color. And I'm like, it's a black car.
It was looked like every car that you've used on this movie. Yeah. But their budget just like ACE detective work, you guys. So glad we brought in a
Zach: professional, [01:13:00] the cigars are right in front of your face.
Well, I'm sorry, Casey. I apologize.
Danny: I need
Casey: you to just like, when we're done with this, I need you to kind of think about what you've done. You definitely needed to take some time.
Danny: Oh. But uh, more, I kind of skipped over some other screen references that I had earlier. Cause I was like, you know, fuck this movie's just irritating me. Um, but I did like how the movie does end, where we, we were talking about this earlier, where it's the characters in the movie are going to see a movie that's called the town that dreaded sundown.
So they're seeing the movie that we're watching. So it's very meta, very scream, which makes you wonder is like Ms. Kevin Williamson, because he has all these like little nods was that sort of the thing that sort of like, oh, a movie within a movie. Um, the movie even ends with like freeze frames of the characters where like re you [01:14:00] know, revisit, whoever.
Casey: Well, the 20 14 1 was very meta. Um, every year in Texarkana, this is true every year in Texarkana in October, they play films in like the park every Thursday. And the last one that's shown is always the original town that dreaded sundown, which is like, how fucked is that? That this town is watching this movie that's based on true events, like in their own town.
Terrible. Yeah. So they always watch that movie. And so the 20 14 1 at the very beginning, they're at this park watching the original movie. So the 20 14 1 is about another, I don't know if it's supposed to be the same guy, if he's like a Michael Myers type in some aspect, or if it's copycat killer or what, but he's, they're starting over and they start terrorizing the first one in to say they terrorize people that
Danny: have gone to this.
Is [01:15:00] it set in 2014 or is it okay? So I
Casey: think that that idea for that movie is really cool. I think it's fucking insane that they watch that movie every
Danny: year. Okay. It is a very organic, uh, sort of extension of how this movie ends, where you do sort of have that. So I commend them, I guess, for, uh, for going that route and kind of like sticking with what they were sort of setting up.
Zach: Uh, so that's it, that's the town that dreaded sundown, um,
Danny: from the co-host or dreaded the town that runs on. Yeah. I mean,
Casey: we all
Danny: did after we started it. What
Zach: was your favorite reveal in this movie? I'll go
Casey: first. Mine was the end,
Danny: those credits. Oh wow. They really, they really stick legitimately. My, my favorite reveal was, uh, during the scene when.[01:16:00]
The Phantom does like this like little jig dance around the car and then like jumps onto
Zach: the car. Like I was like, what a little goofy,
Danny: little idiot, idiot. So stupid watching this moment happened. He just like, doesn't attack them while they're parked waits for them to drive and then just like jumps onto the car.
Um, right. So I just thought that was very amusing. Uh, it, it made me giggle and chuckle a little bit. So, uh, yeah.
Zach: Uh, my favorite is the first time we see him when he slammed the hood down and they snap zoom to a sec. That's cool. I love it. I love a good sex zoom.
Danny: Yeah,
Casey: nothing.
Zach: Um, but now it is time for a segment that I like to call the real monster[01:17:00]
Danny: monster. I'm not a monster here you are you. And the rest of that fairy tale crash in my perfect world. I'll tell me, where are the others?
Zach: Do you guys have some real monsters for the tongue that dreaded sundown? You mean
Casey: other than the movie itself? Yes, I do. It's cigars.
Zach: Okay.
Danny: Just cigars, cigars. They're gross.
Okay. They smell. Yeah. I used to think that ginger spice from the spice girls had a raspy voice because she spoke to the guard. Based off of nothing.
For some reason I had in my, I was convinced as a kid that if you had a breastfeed voices, cause you smoke cigars, fucking idiot.
Zach: Who do you have a real monster
Danny: basically said this earlier, but it was death, deputy Ramsey. When he's waving down the ambulance, the [01:18:00] ambulance is obviously driving towards him.
They obviously see him and it's just like this one shot. It just goes on for way too long. He's like waving them and like, it's like, stop give them like the benefit of the doubt that cars can only go so fast. Yes.
Zach: We established last episode that cars were invented in 1902. So they've only been around for 44 years.
So they're not up to speed yet. They could probably go backwards at this point, but yeah. I have two real monsters. I have rice at weddings because at the beginning, when they're showing the townspeople, someone's getting married and they throw rice. And I don't understand that. Like, it seems dangerous.
Casey: Yeah. I mean, I guess it's just kind of like a biodegradable form of
Danny: confetti band that in some areas, because it would like birds. Yeah. That seed, I laughed so hard because I always love when you [01:19:00] see actors that are clearly just directed to kind of. You know, do what you would do, you know, treat these people as your guests, you know, give a kiss here and there.
And the guy goes to like, there's this older woman, who's there as a guest and he's walking down out of the church and he clearly would have the normal thing would be like, Hey, you know, like give her a kiss on the cheek or something, but you can see him like a split second, make a decision. And he kisses her on the head and you can just see them both just like going with it, but like, oh no, I didn't kiss her on that.
Casey: And guess what? Then they fucking put it
Danny: in the movie.
Casey: So now they probably were like, oh, it's fine. They've got, they're going to do several takes of that. And then they did.
Zach: Uh, and my second real monster case will probably disagree with me on this one is the length of training.
Danny: You can see the end of the train and then it's there.[01:20:00]
Zach: Uh, but yeah, trains are just too fucking long. They need to tone it down a little bit.
Danny: Chill out trains.
Zach: Okay. I know we've talked a lot about the town that dreaded sundown and most of it was not good. Do you have anything else to add about the town that drove the sundown before we wrap up?
Danny: Um, any criticisms that we have specifically on this episode are all in good fun.
Yes.
Zach: Yes.
Danny: 100%. We know movies are hard to make and we're not shitting on that. We just, you know,
Zach: oh my gosh, movies are so hard to make. Um, and anyone that does it or attempts to do it has as kudos from us. It's difficult. Um, so yes, all the criticisms and jokes and all this stuff on this episode and all of our episodes are all in fun.
So if you have any other information about this movie or the true crime behind it, let us know, tweet us on Twitter at I'm at your monster, or send us an email@zachandhowhemetyourmonster.com. You can also find us on [01:21:00] Facebook and Instagram at how I met your monster. Um, where can our listeners find you guys on social media?
Danny: You can find them on Instagram.
Casey: I'm on Instagram at Wolf mother, Casey.
Danny: Uh, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Danny Salaam. That's Danny, as it's traditionally spelt. And that slim as it's also traditionally spelt that you probably don't know how to spell it. S a L E M M E. That's two ends like the candy Melton your button, not in your hands.
Zach: Um, so make sure to check out our website, how I met your monster dot. Uh, you can sign up for our newsletter and listen to past episodes of the show. Um, make sure to join us next week for a very special episode. It is our drum roll please.
Okay guys, that's a lot of drums and a lot of drums. Um, [01:22:00] it is our 50th episode next week. So,
so not only did we just hit 10,000 downloads. It is now our 50th episode. So it's a big, it's going to be a big week for how I met your monster. So you don't want to miss next week's episode. We are watching solidify and you
Casey: know what fuckers we know that it's a good one. We know
Danny: that it's a good one. Yes.
Can we go awesome. During the 50th episode? Like channel our inner Kelly Clarkson. Like it's a moment like this.
Casey: No, stop it, Danny. Stop.[01:23:00]
Zach: Yes, we can all do that again.
Danny: Let's do it. Let's do it again.
Zach: All right. Well as always, thank you all for listening. Now. Go meet some monsters. Go.
Danny: No, he'll meet you, but don't mean. It's not worth it. .