History YMMV / Targets

* HarsherInHindsight: Obviously the film's finale is all the more unsettling when viewed today after the events in Aurora, Colorado on July 20th, 2012, along with all the other mass shootings before and since.

** Mike Farrell, better known as B.J. Hunnicutt on ''Series/{{MASH}}'', can be glimpsed as one of Thompson's sniper victims. (He's the man who gets gunned down while inside a phone booth at the drive-in.)

** Mike Farrell, better known as B.J. Hunnicutt on ''Series/{{MASH}}'', can be glimpsed as one of Thompson's sniper victims. (He's the man who gets gunned down while inside a PhoneBooth at the drive-in.)

** More of an indirect example, but a young Creator/JackNicholson appears alongside Karloff in footage from Corman's 1963 film ''Film/TheTerror'', seen during the opening credits and again during the climax at the drive-in.

* VindicatedByHistory: Not a big box office hit when it was released, TooSoon after the Whitman shootings and just as UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr and UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy were assassinated, the film has been re-assessed as a classic film, an excellent capper to Creator/BorisKarloff's career, and a chilling statement on the banal brutality of the real world.

* RetroactiveRecognition: The drive-in patron who is shot while in the phone booth is played by a young Mike Farrell, who went on to greater fame as B.J. Hunnicutt in Series 4-11 of ''Series/{{MASH}}''.

* HarsherInHindsight: Obviously the film's finale is all the more unsettling when viewed today after the events in Aurora, Colorado on July 20th, 2012.
* VindicatedByHistory: Not a big box office hit when it was released, TooSoon after the Whitman shootings and just as UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr and UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy were assassinated, the film has been re-assessed as a classic film, an excellent capper to Karloff's career, and a chilling statement on the banal brutality of the real world.

* VindicatedByHistory: Not a big box office hit when it was released - TooSoon after the Whitman shootings and just as UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr and UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy were assassinated - the film has been re-assessed as a classic film, an excellent capper to Karloff's career, and a chilling statement on the banal brutality of the real world.

* VindicatedByHistory: Not a big box office hit when it was released - TooSoon after the Whitman shootings and just as MartinLutherKing and BobbyKennedy were assassinated - the film has been re-assessed as a classic film, an excellent capper to Karloff's career, and a chilling statement on the banal brutality of the real world.

* NightmareFuel: Thompson's shooting spree takes him [[spoiler:to an oil refinery overlooking the highway, where he begins sniping with terrifying accuracy at cars driving by... and at anyone getting out of their cars to help.]]
** The shooting at [[spoiler: the drive-in]], especially with the scene where we see [[spoiler: a crying kid in a car, then it pans to his father, who's been killed by a bullet in the car seat, and suddenly the kid ''[[GoryDiscretionShot stops]] [[NothingIsScarier crying]]''.]]

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Thompson's shooting spree takes him [[spoiler:to an oil refinery overlooking the highway, where he begins sniping with terrifying accuracy at cars driving by... and at anyone getting out of their cars to help.]]
** Not to mention the shooting at [[spoiler: the drive-in]], especially with the scene where we see [[spoiler: a crying kid in a car, then it pans to his father, who's been killed by a bullet in the car seat, and suddenly the kid ''[[GoryDiscretionShot stops]] [[NothingIsScarier crying]]''.]]