Movie Info
Movie Name: Dark Night of the Scarecrow
Studio: Wizan Productions
Genre(s): Horror/Mystery/Suspense
Release Date(s): October 24, 1981
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Bubba didn’t do it!
Otis Hazelrigg (Charles Durning) has never liked Bubba Ritter (Larry Drake). The mentally challenged Bubba has always played with children, and Otis suspects Bubba is just looking for an excuse to cross the line with a child. When Marylee Williams (Tonya Crowe) is attacked by a dog and Bubba is suspected, Otis gathers a posse of Philby (Claude Earl Jones), Harliss Hocker (Lane Smith), and Skeeter Norris (Robert F. Lyons) to hunt down Bubba and stop him once and for all. Taking matters into their own hands, the men take lethal action…but when more deaths begin to occur, the men fear someone might know their secret.
Directed by J.D. Feigelson, Dark Night of the Scarecrow was a made-for-TV horror movie. The film first aired on CBS in October 24, 1981. The film was released to mixed reviews but has gained a cult following over the years.
Bad hiding spot Bubba…
Scarecrows are in their name “scary”. Oddly enough, they had been under-utilized in horror. Comics had used scarecrows, but there really weren’t any great horror scarecrows until Dark Night of the Scarecrow. The movie created a small horror sub-genre of scarecrow films (most bad), but Dark Night of the Scarecrow has some moments.
You can tell that Dark Night of the Scarecrow was one of the first scarecrow films because the scarecrow is actually pretty unutilized. The dogging of the men who killed Bubba by an unseen horror now would have more scarecrow and less “unseen”. The lack of scarecrow actually builds suspense and a slight mystery (is it Bubba?), but it could have even been built up more.
The cast is surprisingly good. Larry Drake is good as the simple Bubba who gets cut down (he later went on to play a disabled man on L.A. Law to critical acclaim). Charles Durning comes off as pretty skeevy as the head of the posse who has his own secret lusts. The movie also features Marlon Brando’s sister Jocelyn Brando (as Bubba’s mother), Alice Nunn, and Lane Smith in smaller roles.
Who’s the perv now?
The movie is low budget but makes nice use of the scenery. The film feels like a Southern gothic film but the movie really looks like it is set in California. I imagine being set in a swampy Louisiana or rural Alabama or Mississippi and wish they had shot the movie there…still, the movie looks quite good and has some good imagery.
Dark Night of the Scarecrow is simple but effective. The movie isn’t quite horrific as it could be (granted a man being sent through a stump grinder is pretty graphic), but it is relatively low-key in the horror building atmosphere instead of jumps and gore. It might be a good “intro to horror” film for younger viewers, but scarecrows might forever become a villain or a nightmare.
