Proto-slasher film based on actual events about a mask-wearing psycho who attacks people, killing most of them, in Texarkana in 1946. Written and filmed like a crime doc reenactment, but not quite so accurate as its claim that "only the names have been changed" would have you believe. This is particularly evident in the scene of one of the killings where the filmmakers turn an irrelevant saxophone into a deadly trombone. Plays better than its small budget in the "filler" scenes between the killings -- they aren't nearly as embarrassing as they might have been (see The Zodiac Killer and others) -- and becomes something special during the scenes of the attacks, which are so well done that even that killer trombone comes off as both believable and terrifying. Just as in real life (and countless later slasher films), the killer here is never caught. Dawn Wells, of Gilligan's Island fame, plays one of the victims. Followed in 2014 by a sequel/remake, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.
++1/2
Proto-slasher film based on actual events about a mask-wearing psycho who attacks people, killing most of them, in Texarkana in 1946. Written and filmed like a crime doc reenactment, but not quite so accurate as its claim that "only the names have been changed" would have you believe. This is particularly evident in the scene of one of the killings where the filmmakers turn an irrelevant saxophone into a deadly trombone. Plays better than its small budget in the "filler" scenes between the killings -- they aren't nearly as embarrassing as they might have been (see The Zodiac Killer and others) -- and becomes something special during the scenes of the attacks, which are so well done that even that killer trombone comes off as both believable and terrifying. Just as in real life (and countless later slasher films), the killer here is never caught. Dawn Wells, of Gilligan's Island fame, plays one of the victims. Followed in 2014 by a sequel/remake, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.
2 Comments
bookstooge
10/24/2016 06:28:23 pm
So the killer takes someone out with a trombone? That "sounds" unpleasant ;-)
Reply
Brian
10/25/2016 08:17:39 am
For the victim, a sour note for sure.
Reply
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