The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

The Town The Dreaded Sundown is a 1976 mockumentary film about one of the U.S.’s first serial killers. Taking place just after World War II in 1946, the film showcases a killer known only as “the Phantom” terrorizing the city of Texarkana. The film ties its lore into real life by loosely basing itself on the Texarkana Moonlight Murders. As what happened in real life, the Phantom seemed to be just one step ahead of the police at all times. As the police find the victims quickly, the Phantom remains ever elusive. In this way, this film also references the real-life attacks as no conclusive arrest was ever made for this serial attack.

The Yellow Raincoat motif in this film is brief, as protagonist Deputy Norman Ramsey is the only character to don a yellow raincoat in the film and at that, it is only for a brief period of time. At the 17-minute mark, Ramsey parks the car in the pouring rain and radios the police base saying he’ll be off the radio for a minute then dons the raincoat.

In this almost 5-and-a-half-minute scene, Unit Two (Ramsey) is the first officer hot on the trail of the Phantom. Ramsey gets out of his car and hears gunshots, then proceeds to drive toward danger. He finds the car of the Phantom’s next victims and demands the occupants to evacuate – only to find no one there. The Deputy then proceeds to head into the woods after hearing more shots, reporting it all to HQ as he goes. Ramsey comes across the male victim, then the female while chasing the killer. After some slogging and unintentional blending into the surroundings, the officer finds the serial killer and watches him get into his vehicle and drive away. Just out of firing range, Ramsey is unable to stop the Phantom.

As mentioned before, this film sees the protagonist wearing the yellow raincoat instead of the villain. What’s also irregular about this yellow raincoat over others that have been mentioned in other articles on this site, is that the coat doesn’t have the signature hood that is used most times when shown. This could signify the justice that Ramsey represents as typically characters who flair up the hood tend to be up to “no good” or are “morally ambiguous”. Ramsey is seen as a pinnacle of righteousness within the film – a “straight cop”, so it makes sense not to give the character any air of menace (plus with the hood we wouldn’t get these awesome shots with his cowboy hat!).

This film uses the yellow raincoat motif in many different ways. The yellow raincoat could be seen as a symbolic christening of the cop as Ramsey was the first police officer to have a direct encounter with the Phantom. The raincoat is also used to differentiate Ramsey from a scene, showing himself as someone other than a victim (maybe even a veil of protection since he is never killed by the Phantom?).

The film also shows a scene in which Ramsey disappears while wearing the raincoat. The raincoat as a device is typically used to denote and separate characters from others within a film. It makes them stand out and gives them definition, however, it could be argued that in this case, Ramsey’s disappearance could be the echo to the Phantom getting away with the killings. This could show that Ramsey, like the Phantom, is appearing/disappearing at different times, never in the exact place at the same time. This scene could also be a visual representation of all the cases and struggles to pursue the serial killer since the Phantom killer was never brought to justice in either the film or real life.

Either this scene was done purely to send a message or was an unintentional gaffe that could actually symbolize a greater personification of the hunt for the killer. Regardless, while this film doesn’t use the motif for a long duration, the device is used in an interesting and unique way that is worth noting.

Editor’s Note: I apologize for the poor quality of some of these images, I had to take a picture of them with my phone off my computer since I couldn’t take a screenshot on any streaming service I found, even though this is purely for educational purposes.