Nayan Gough
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Keeley Coleman
The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
Staci Frederick
Blistering performances.
BA_Harrison
A group of bigoted locals wrongly blame gentle man-child Bubba (Larry Drake) for the death of a young girl and hunt the frightened dolt down, eventually finding him disguised as a scarecrow in his mother's field. Without giving poor Bubba a chance to explain what happened, the trigger-happy gang fill him full of holes. The ensuing murder trial is a farce and the men are acquitted, but one by one they are menaced by a creepy scarecrow before turning up dead.For my money, scarecrows are every bit as disturbing as clowns, but they don't seem to have captured film-makers' imaginations in quite the same way: there's tons of scary clown flicks (with more and more on the way following the success of this year's horror blockbuster It), but only a handful of scarecrow films. TV movie Dark Night of the Scarecrow, directed by novelist Frank De Felitta, attempts to prove to the boob tube masses that a creepy straw man can be just as terrifying as a grease-painted killer, but fails to do so: the limitations of the small screen format means that there is zero gore, and the film delivers very few genuine frights simply because the victims are all thoroughly deserving of their fates (it's hard to be scared when you're rooting for the scarecrow).It's a shame because the cast is good (Charles Durning is delightfully loathsome as mailman Otis, leader of the lynch mob, who, it is implied, is also a pedo) and De Felitta displays some not inconsiderable skill behind the camera.
donbanf
**This review contains many spoilers**. I was around in 1981 and remember this movie being advertised. I could not remember if it was a theatrical or TV movie. All I remembered was something about a scarecrow comes to life and exacts some sort of revenge on the townsfolk. But I never saw the movie until now (October 2016). Great little made for TV movie, above average as many TV movies have been. Its theme is actually like an old folk tale/myth. An avenging spirit comes back to right the wrongs. There is a hint/atmosphere of paganism here with the elements of the harvest, fall, scarecrow, pumpkins, farms, etc. that have been used in other films and it is used here to great effect. In many ways, it reminded me of an extended episode of Night Gallery. The photography, music, production values and just the right touch of eeriness hearken back to that series of the early seventies. Unlike some of the NG episodes, the night scenes in this were actually shot at night and they look really good. Light and shadow, wind and movement are used here to very realistic effect. I'm actually glad I didn't see it until now as the film was digitally restored and put on DVD in 2010. Some small bits were restored that had been cut from the original TV airing. After seeing the film, I watched it again with director and writer commentary which I can recommend. Much of the scenery is beautiful, with wide shots that are more like a theatrical film. The director said he did that purposely to lift the overall quality of the film. Note: the movie was shot in Southern California, north of Los Angeles. It could pass as a Midwestern corn growing state though, except maybe the hills/mountains are a giveaway, i.e. not flatlands and plains. Larry Drake and Charles Durning I recognized almost immediately as character actors I'd seen in countless shows and although I was not familiar with the young actress who played Marylee, she was quite a good little actress, conveying a mature and very knowing quality, wise beyond her years without coming off as phony. Her dialogue and her insistence that Bubba is still alive were eerie and I kept wondering through the whole film whether she really was talking to Bubba and he wasn't dead (as she tells Otis) or just making it up a la wishful thinking. Drake is fabulous as the mentally challenged Bubba who is wrongly blamed for a little girl's death. Turns out she doesn't die and Bubba didn't hurt her either, but by then Bubba has already been executed vigilante style by a posse of four local townsmen in a scene that's surprisingly graphic for a TV movie. You can see poor Bubba's blue eyes peering out of the scarecrow he's hiding in and the fear in them is extremely real and haunting. You don't easily forget it. The musical score is quite good and eerie in its high pitch, sad and piercing. It's an unusual score and one that stays with you. The low budget production values just add to this film oddly enough. They make it better. What it doesn't show in direct view, e.g. Harless falling into the wood/brush grinder, the sound effects make up for and fill in the imagination. The machine obviously was real and makes that scene all the more harrowing. What kept me guessing all along was, you can often hear a sound of someone walking and the Philby character glimpses a shape, some figure going through a doorway, but the figure is just hard enough to make out, it becomes one of the most goose bump inducing scenes in the movie. Is it the scarecrow come back to life or is it someone else (human) exacting revenge on Bubba's behalf? Bubba's mother is almost certain that justice will prevail as she talks about there being more kinds of justice in this world than the law, implying that the four men will get what's coming to them but also raising the possibility that she or someone else is avenging her son's death. That question is answered and revealed in a great two part ending, first where the tractor clearly starts itself (gearshifts move by themselves) and the really best part, the scarecrow once again turning and looking at Marylee, after those footsteps can be heard again. It is Bubba after all and he's gotten his revenge. It's a great ending, chilling and something I had to go back and view again. As another reviewer said, this one is best viewed late at night, alone.
kapelusznik18
***SPOILERS*** Much like the story & movie "Of Mice and Men" in this case it's the simple minded but sweet Bubba Ritter, Larry Drake, who tries to keep his 9 year old friend & playmate Mary-Lee, Tonya Crowe, from going into the Raincross family's backyard who's then savagely attacked and mauled by their dog BoBo and left for dead. With the towns letter-carrier or mailman Otis P. Hazelrigg, Charles Durning, rustling up a posse to exact justice Bubba takes off fearing for his life. Bubba hiding in a scarecrow outfit is tracked down and blasted to pieces by Otis and three of his appointed deputies Harless Skeeter & Philby, Lane Smith Robert F. Lyons & Claud Earl Jones, while offering up no resistance. The trouble for Otis & friends is that it turns out that Bubba in fact saved little Mary-Lee's life and she fully recovered, after receiving a set of rabies shots, from BoBo's vicious attack.Found innocent in Bubba's death by Otis planting a pitchfork on his dead body to proved he was shot, 21 times no less, in self defense it's Bubba's grieving mom Mrs. Ritter, Jocelyn Brando, who predicts that her son's killers will end up getting theirs saying "Theirs other justice in the world besides the law". And sure enough as the movie progresses her prediction,despite not living long enough to see it happen, turns out to be shockingly true. All four of Bubba's killers with Otis saved for last end up getting it-killed-and getting it good from what seems to be the dead Otis Ritter! ****SPOILERS*** A tale of revenge as well as justice in that those who ends up paying with their lives weren't rally all that bad but as a mindless lynch mob let their emotions take full control of them. Otis for his part went even farther then just leading the lynch mob by going out of his way and murdering both Mrs. Ritter as well as his guilt ridden friend Harless, who was about to crack, from keeping him talking. Driven out of his mind and running for his life chased by a driver-less tractor Otis ends up getting it through the guts by the very pitchfork that he planted on Bubba with what seems like a back from the dead Bubba, dressed as a scarecrow, being the one sticking it to him!
Prismark10
Dark Night of the Scarecrow is an effective, eerie even slightly camp television film made for Halloween but seriously put some Horror films made for cinema to shame.Mentally challenged Bubba (Larry Drake) happily plays with a ten year old girl Marylee (Tonya Crowe.) When she goes missing, a group of four local red-necks egged on by postman Otis Hazelrigg (Charles Durning) assumed that Bubba attacked her and go looking for him.Bubba hides by dressing himself up as a scarecrow in a field, but the the group shoot him dead in a hail of bullets.It turns out Marylee is alive and well and that Bubba was innocent. The red-necks are tried at a laughable court hearing and released in a travesty of justice.Unfortunately for the now free group of red-necks, a mysterious scarecrow begins appearing in their fields and one by one they meet a gruesome death such as being buried arrive in a silo.As each person dies the rest get jumpy. Director Frank De Felitta makes effective use of television conventions by suggesting the killer lurking in the shadows and making eerie noises. The killer might be supernatural or a figure of the imagination of the nervous red- necks.Larry Drake became better known in LA Law where he also played a mentally retarded man. The group of red-necks such as Lane Smith also became familiar faces on TV and film but the film hinges really on the repulsive, rotund and creepy postman played by Durning. Too fat that his uniform does not quiet fit him and seems to like young girls as well which might had been a motive why he wanted Bubba out of the way because his playing with Marylee was innocent.Durning is the last to go as an unmanned tractor chases him in the fields, why does he keep on running in a straight line? A corny ending if ever there was one.
