This is certainly one of the most famous TV movies of the 1980s, if not of all time. I admittedly find DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (1981) a bit overrated, but can’t deny that it has a number of affecting things, including what is almost certainly the screen’s most eerily effective use of a scarecrow.
Directed by the novelist (of AUDREY ROSE, THE ENTITY and several others) and screenwriter (of Z.P.G, THE SAVAGE IS LOOSE and numerous television credits) Frank De Felitta, it was initially conceived as an independent feature starring Strother Martin, but he died before production could get underway. Ultimately the film was reconfigured by its screenwriter/executive producer J.D. Feigelson as a scaled-down CBS TV movie with Charles Durning in the Martin role. As such it amassed enormous popularity, and inspired a 2011 documentary BUBBA DIDN’T DO IT: 30 YEARS OF DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW.
In a small Southern town (actually the outskirts of Los Angeles) Bubba Ritter, a mentally impaired man, lives. It seems most everybody in town, in particular the postmaster Otis Hazelrigg, wants to get rid of this guy. When a little girl named Marylee is mauled by a dog, for which Bubba is falsely accused, Otis and his cohorts Harless, Philby and Skeeter decide to lynch Bubba. He attempts to hide by pretending to be a scarecrow but Otis and co. figure out the ruse and shoot Bubba to death. They escape prosecution for the killing but find themselves haunted by strategically placed scarecrows.
It would appear that somebody is trying to make the men pay for killing Bubba, a surmise that would gains traction after Harless is ground up in a threshing machine. Otis suspects Bubba’s mother of the killing, and upon confronting her about it on Halloween night inadvertently causes the old woman to have a fatal heart attack.
This doesn’t stop the killings, which continue with Philby getting smothered in a grain silo. This leaves Otis and his jittery pal Skeeter, though not for long, as the latter is killed by Otis when his behavior grows dangerously unpredictable, after which Otis becomes quite erratic himself…
The film’s TV movie origins are apparent in the cut rate production values (which are ill-served by the digitally restored version currently available on DVD and Blu-ray, which gives the cheapness an unflattering prominence) and acting that ranges from strong (Charles Durning as Otis, THE TODD KILLINGS’ Robert F. Lyons as Skeeter) to horrendous (the late Larry Drake, who indulges every retarded-guy stereotype as Bubba).
There are at least some canny directorial touches, such as a scary looking garden gnome montage during the dog mauling that opens the film and a shock cut from an off-screen killing to a splash of ketchup on a plate. And again, the film’s use of a scarecrow as an object of horror, in both wide shots and close-ups, remains unrivalled.
Vital Statistics
DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW
Wizan Productions
Director: Frank De Felitta
Producer: Bobbi Frank
Screenplay: J.D. Feigelson
Cinematography: Vincent Martinelli
Editing: Skip Lusk
Cast: Charles Durning, Robert F. Lyons, Claude Earl Jones, Lane Smith, Tonya Crowe, Larry Drake, Jocelyn Brando, Tom Taylor, Richard McKenzie, Ivy Jones, James Tartan, Ed Call, Alice Nunn, John Steadman, Dave Adams, Ivy Bethune