“KILLER LEGENDS”
Documentary with local ties is scheduled for release this month.
“‘Tis strange—but true; for truth is always strange; stranger than fiction …”
—Lord Byron
The intersection between myth and reality is always fertile ground for ruminations, as is the human ability to tell stories that aren’t literal reality but possess an undercurrent of truth.
It’s what makes scary stories so interesting on multiple levels, not just for the horror kicks they provide. Horror stories tap into our private, deeply-buried fears and anxieties, binding us together in a good scare as we watch the story enacted in a movie, TV show or book.
And that’s part of what the viewer realizes watching the documentary movie, “Killer Legends,” scheduled for a DVD release July 15. The film aired in March on the Chiller TV channel, and for locals who have any fascination with the Phantom Killer case that frightened Texarkana in the 1940s, it should be required viewing.
“Killer Legends” blends psychological speculation, cultural analysis, creepy case investigation and urban legend creation for a satisfying documentary. You could say it’s a killer good time. Four urban legends are discussed, each one probably deserving longer, more thorough treatment—just about the only drawback to the movie.
The four urban legends are the Hookman, the Candyman, The Baby-Sitter and the Man Upstairs, and The Killer Clown.
“Killer Legends” sees intrepid moviemakers Joshua Zeman, the director, and Rachel Mills, the researcher, explore the degree of truth behind these four legends. Included is Texarkana, of course, with its Phantom Killer, but the urban legend examined herein is The Hookman who scares young couples at lovers’ lanes.
Zeman’s explored this sort of territory before in a movie called “Cropsey.” That documentary investigated a New York legend about kids gone missing at an institution and the creepy guy who goes after them. As “Killer Legends” explains at the outset, that myth inspired them to investigate more urban legends and the true crimes behind them.
“And what we uncovered was a truth more horrific than any fiction,” Zeman says as they begin their quest. They first discuss the Cropsey legend, Mills stating what every kid understands: “Every kid is lured to, or fascinated by, the old house at the end of their block.”
Ideas like this add depth to what could have been simple, straightforward investigations into old murder cases, the film-making team choosing instead to connect our psychological states to the myth-building that surrounds what really happened. In that sense, there’s a tension between the mysteries and realities that makes these legends so interesting. It’s in these ideas that the documentary shines.
After all, seems to be the thinking in this movie, legends spring from reality, Zeman saying at one point that people have to have some form of truth to work from when a legend is made. Another interesting idea is posited: Is what really happened in such cases more terrifying than what the imagination makes? Do we make up these legends because we can’t handle the truth?
“Be afraid, not of the story but the storyteller,” the director says at one point.
The connection between The Hookman and what happened in Texarkana with the Phantom Killer in the 1940s isn’t quite lockdown convincing, but it’s definitely interesting, relevant and entirely plausible. And the lovers’ lane angle with a sexual undercurrent is perfect—and believable—for Bible Belt Texarkana.
“Despite its name the hook is a cautionary tale warning teenagers everywhere about the dangers of sex,” Zeman tells us, saying later, “While the attacks on lovers’ lanes in Texarkana didn’t specifically involve a hook, the Phantom’s sickening crimes create an equally horrifying metaphor.”
He points out that because the Phantom Killer was never caught, the legend endures here in Texarkana. As well, “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” blurred the lines between truth and fiction with its faux-documentary style, helping fictionalized aspects become part of the growing legend. The mask the Phantom Killer allegedly wore is another element that helps the legend persist.
In “Killer Legends,” Zeman and Mills are shown talking to everyday Texarkana folks, such as those met at Dot’s Rentals, to gauge what they believe. Says one woman, “All I ever
heard was don’t go to Spring Lake Park.” And she didn’t go there, she adds.
They also interview local experts like Jim Presley, who’s researched the Phantom Killer cases extensively, and Mark Bledsoe, who interviewed the primary suspect, Youell Swinney. Such choices lend the Texarkana segment credibility. Investigating microfiche in the Gazette’s newspaper stacks also brings up an interesting angle: the origin of the name Phantom Killer.
Of course, here in Texarkana the legends blossoming from the Phantom Killer murders still thrive, keeping the past alive for us. In the movie, Zeman and Mills check out a Gazette newspaper editorial that puts it simply, reading it aloud as they drive through town: “Texarkana will never escape its past. It should give up trying.”
Indeed, documentary projects like “Killer Legends” help show that Texarkana’s Phantom Killer story is thriving, as does the recent uptick in interest shown by a remake of “The Town That Dreaded Sundown,” a DVD release of that movie and a Charles B. Pierce Mini Retrospective held last year. Presley has a book on the subject coming out in the near future.
It seems we’re the perfect, willing audience for this telling and re-telling of the Phantom Killer story.
And in “Killer Legends,” the Phantom Killer urban legend is situated as one of four, showing Texarkana is not alone with a scary past that still enthralls, disgusts, chills and thrills us. And Texarkana’s ability to make up stories about these all-tooreal murders is not unique. In fact, everyone does it, the movie seems to say—perhaps it’s a human need we all share.
As the movie argues, we’ll probably never know who the Phantom Killer was, which only keeps the case alive as an inspiration for the imagination. “It’s these lack of answers that allows the legend to endure for the teenagers in Texarkana,” Zeman says at one point. Therefore, expect the urban legend to continue and the Phantom Killer to live on.
The Breaking Glass Pictures DVD release of “Killer Legends,” with a suggested retail price of $19.99, includes seven special features about urban legends.
(On the Net: www.bgpics.com.)