Fifty years ago, scenes for the 1976 independent horror film "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" were shot at the old National Guard Armory in Texarkana, Arkansas. Russ McDermott, then a local teenager, worked as an extra and got a close-up. He is now opinion editor of the Texarkana Gazette. "It was a thrill," McDermott said.
Directed by Charles B. Pierce, the film was released that December. It dramatizes the unsolved murders attributed to the Phantom Killer, whose attacks began in March 1946 and left residents frightened. The killer's identity was never established with certainty. Pierce wrote the screenplay with Earl E. Smith. Pierce had earlier made "The Legend of Boggy Creek" in 1972, which was also filmed in the Texarkana area.
Crew members included Lynn Andres Sullivan, who was about 16 when she joined, and Barbara Pryor, whose husband was then Arkansas Gov. David Pryor. Pryor later became the film's script supervisor. A Gazette article from June 15, 1976, reported that more than 400 people tried out for 15 speaking roles.