Dark Night of the Scarecrow (U.S.A, 1981) Review

Cast:

Director: 

Frank De Felitta

Writer:

J.D. Feigelson (teleplay), J.D. Feigelson (story)

Stars: 

Charles Durning, Larry Drake, Robert F. Lyons and Claude Earl Jones

Movie:

“A scarecrow comes in from the field”. It was this evocative premise that first inspired writer J.D. Feigelson to create, 'Dark Night of the Scarecrow', one of the most accomplished and beguiling TV movies ever made.

In the heart wrenching opening scenes, simple man-child Bubba Ritter (Larry Drake) brings the lifeless body of his young friend, Marylee Williams (Tonya Crowe) to her home, after she is mauled by a dog. Thinking Bubba is responsible for the girl's condition, a gang of merciless vigilantes led by the rotten Otis Hazelrigg (Charles Durning) set out to find him. Hunting him back to his mother's house, they use a bloodhound to track him to a nearby field where they find him hiding in the clothes of an old scarecrow. Mercilessly they each shoot Bubba, until he is dead.

Pleading their innocence, and with no evidence to hold them, the men are soon set free. District attorney Sam Willock, and Bubba's grief stricken mother, are the only ones suspecting the awful truth. No sooner has the trial ended, when a more supernatural type of justice starts to find each of the men. Signalled first by the arrival of a scarecrow in their fields, each of the men begins to fall victim to a series of terrible accidents. Is someone finally getting retribution against these murderers? Or is it something more unnatural?

'Dark Night' stands apart from the stagnant world of made for TV horror thanks to its dark, adult themes such as: rape, murder, and the undercurrent of paedophilia. The sharp as a blade script by writer Feigelson (Horror High) is also very strong. Feigelson had a number of encounters with horror and writing legends before and during the completion of the screenplay. From his early friendship with fellow Texan Tobe Hooper ( The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), to his correspondence with Rod Sterling (Twilight Zone), and his tutelage under sci-fi legend Ray Bradley, who helped him shape the screenplay. These influences become apparent as you watch the movie, but the fact they are mixed so harmoniously makes the end result truly special and unique.

The cast is also uniformly good for this type of production, particularly Larry Drake's (Dark Man) brief, but memorable, performance as simpleton Bubba. The real star however is Charles Dunning (Tootsie) as the all too convincing monster Otis. His slippery as a snake character adds numerous layers to the horrors he commits, as he twists in his own sick moral code.

Although the image of the murderous scarecrow has since become an archetypal to the horror genre, 'Dark Night of the Scarecrow' got there first, and in my opinion remains the best example to date.

Rating:

Since it first aired on CBS in October 1981, 'Dark Night' has been steadily building a cult following. Over the years it has become a Halloween mainstay on TV throughout the '80s and '90s, cementing its place in the hearts, and nightmares of an entire generation.