Dark Night of the Scarecrow

Director: Frank De Fellita
Script: J.D. Feigelson, Butler Handcock
Cast: Charles Durning, Larry Drake, Rob Lymess, Claude Earl Jones, Tonya Crowe
Running time: 80 mins
Year: 1981
Certificate: 15

The film starts with gentle, developmentally-disabled Bubba Ritter (Larry Drake) playing in a meadow with 10-year-old Marylee Williams (Tonya Crowe), before heading back towards their homes. On route Marylee decides she wants to explore a neighbour’s garden resulting in her getting attacked by the owner’s dog. Bubba rescues the girl, but rumours are spread that she’s dead, and that it’s all Bubba’s fault, leading to the manipulative postman, Otis (Charles Durning), forming his own lynch party to take down the gentle giant, once and for all, since, for some reason, Otis hates Bubba.

Bubba’s mother (Jocelyn Brando), sensing that trouble is coming, gets Bubba to ‘play hide’ so he pretends to be a scarecrow in the field behind his mother’s house. Unfortunately, the posse have brought in hunting dogs with them who sniff poor Bubba out, so Otis and his ‘crew’ of easily-led friends can pick him out and shoot him. The four men make it look like it was self-defence by placing a weapon in Bubba’s hand, which enables them to avoid any sort of prison sentence.

Following the funeral of Bubba, strange deaths begin to occur, all connected with Bubba’s untimely demise. Gas station attendant Skeeter Norris (Robert F. Lyons), and farmer-cousins Philby (Claude Earl Jones) and Harliss Hocker (Lane Smith) are targeted by some unseen force following a sighting of a scarecrow nearby. Hence Harliss ends up falling into his own threshing machine, Philby is trapped and suffocated  in a grain store and Skeeter is… well, you’ll have to watch the film yourself to find out…

It certainly seems that the ghost of Bubba has returned to haunt and kill the men who were instrumental in his ugly death and, we as the audience, are behind it all of the way, particularly when it comes down to dealing with the odious Otis.

Dark Night of the Scarecrow was a film that myself and some of my school friends hired out on VHS during the early 1980s when horror film watching sometimes felt like a crime, especially when the Video Recordings Art came into play, in 1984. I remember being quietly creeped out by the film, and it remaining in my cherished movie memories for quite some time. Hence, when I had the chance to revisit the film all these years later I jumped at the chance.

Scarecrow still remains one of the best made-for-TV genre films out there, along with the likes of Spielberg’s Duel and John Moxey’s The Night Stalker, starring Darren McGavin. It’s a classy piece of celluloid which features a creepy score, by Glenn Paxton, and excellent cinephotography, by Vincent Martinelli, who’s quite creative with his shots, given the film’s relatively low budget and related time restrictions.

It also features some great performances, particularly Durning, who plays a very memorable villain in Otis, and is a really nasty piece of work, as not only is he clearly very bigoted, but there are also strong hints that he’s jealous of Bubba since he would like to be more than just friends with the little girl himself; whereas Bubba’s relationship is purely innocent and plutonic, since he has the mind of a four or five year old and, therefore, is completely asexual. There are also great performances from Larry Drake, playing the poor, misunderstood Bubba, and Tonya Crowe, playing Marylee as a character with a lot of depth, which is hard to pull off when you’re still just a child yourself.

Dark Night of the Scarecrow could be seen as a precursor to the Final Destination films, with characters getting killed off, one-by-one, by an unseen force, one that’s ultimately inevitable as there’s no cheating death.

88 Films have done a great job restoring the film, nicely retaining the grain, but really cleaning the picture quality up and making it a lot easier to see what’s going on during the night time scenes, which I remember were too dark when I watched the VHS version. There are plenty of special features including:

Audio Commentary by The Hysteria Continues and TV movie expert Amanda Reyes – This is an informative track with plenty of TV movie-specific information courtesy of Reyes. We learn that the film first aired here, in the UK, on Channel 4, in 1985, having previously aired in the States back in October 1981, so there was quite a time gap for the film to cross the Atlantic on TV. The group see the film as being a precursor to A Nightmare on Elm Street focussing, as it does, on some very adult themes such as vigilantism and paedophilia.

Audio commentary with film historians Robert Kelly and Amanda Reyes, hosted by Heath Holland – Another insightful commentary, tracking the success of the film on the CBS network and talking about the film’s good fortune when it came to getting a VHS distribution deal, since only 5 – 10% of TV movies ever received a VHS release. Apparently lots of other films were shot in the small town that Scarecrow was shot in, including She Freak and Don’t be afraid of the Dark.

Audio Commentary with director Frank De Felitta and writer J.D. Feigelson – A more personal track which reveals a bit more of what went on behind-the-scenes during the making of the film. Apparently Tonya Crowe was a very versatile child actor, but her teacher was quite difficult and made it tricky at times for them to get scenes done on time. We also learn that Durning was more used to playing good guys and had a sly sense of humour on set. The writer also posits that, rather than the ghost of Bubba being responsible for the deaths, its left open that it could equally be down to the girl using telekinesis, which is an interesting take on it, and one that I hadn’t thought of before.

Soaring Crows – Robert F. Lyons on Dark Night of the Scarecrows (21 mins) – The actor, who played gas station attendant Skeeter Norris in the movie, reflects on the film and its overall effect on his life in general. Apparently, the studio didn’t want him for the role, but the director stuck to his guns and he later became a great friend of Durning. He also reveals that Vincent Price was a big fan of the film too and Marlon Brando’s sister plays Bubba’s mother in the film.

Bubba Didn’t Do It – 30 Years of the Scarecrow (32 mins) – A featurette that’s split into sections, including Script, Cast, Location and Post. The writer explains that after getting some feedback from Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling he changed the script for Scarecrow quite a bit, making it less pedestrian. We also learn that the director was working on The Entity at the time that he received the script, but came on board as he really liked it.

CBS World Premiere Promo (1 min) – A fun CBS Saturday Night Movies teaser

CBS Network Re-Broadcast (1 min) – Another Saturday Night Movies sting

Cast Reunion Q&A (46 mins) – An interesting question and answer session from a festival in Kentucky, featuring Larry Drake, Tonya Crowe and writer J.D. Feigelson. Drake, in particular, seems moved by fans’ positive reaction to the film over the years.

Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery (10 mins) – This is nicely annotated with some cool behind-the-scenes shots.

Reversible sleeve with original poster and brand new artwork