DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (1981)

  

DIRECTED by Frank DeFelitta.

SCREENPLAY by J.D. Feigelson from a story by J.D. Feigelson and Butler Handcock.

STARRING  - Larry Drake as Bubba Ritter,  Charles Durning as Otis P. Hazelrigg,  Robert F. Lyons as Skeeter Norris,  Claude Earl Jones as Philby,  Lane Smith as Harliss Hocker, Tonya Crowe as MaryLee Williams,  Jocelyn Brando as Mrs. Ritter,  Tom Taylor as D.A. Sam Willock, Richard McKenzie as Judge Henry.

PLOT - Bubba Ritter is a 36 year old man with a mental age of 4. He is a gentle manchild and his best friend is a young girl MaryLee Williams. They spend thier days singing songs and playing in the fields of the small rural town where they live.  However not everyone in town is so approving of this innocent friendship...

Local postmaster Otis P. Hazelrigg and his cronies Skeeter, Philby and Harliss like to bully the innocent Bubba suspecting him of being a peadophile and a "danger" to children. When Marylee is attacked by a dog, Bubba is blamed for the attack. 

Forming a small lynch mob of himself and his three friends, Otis pursues Bubba to the farm where he lives with his mother. Mrs Ritter disguises her son as a scarecrow and hides him in the field, however, the terrified and confused Bubba gives himself away and Otis and company proceed to shoot him to death.

Immediately after the killing a call comes through that MaryLee survived the dog attack and the truth comes out - Bubba didn't attack the girl, he saved her life. Realising thier mistake Otis's mob try to cover up Bubba's murder, placing a pitchfork into his dead hands to make it look like he was attacking them. They claim that they only shot him in self defence.

A few days later, Otis and his friends are placed on trial for Bubba's murder but get away with it when the case is thrown out of court due to a lack of evidence. With the scandal over, life returns to normal in the small sleepy town...

But something is festering in the nearby fields, something that wants revenge. Bubba Ritter's unquiet soul has entered the body of the scarecrow. Otis and his friends had better watch out because the scarecrow is coming for them... and it won't stop until they are dead...

DIALOUGE  - Bubba - "Bubba didn't do it."

PERFORMANCES  - Dark Night of the Scarecrow is a film where the hero only appears briefly and the villian is the main viewpoint character. Its an interesting way of doing things but is necessary for the type of story which this movie wants to tell.

The hero is Bubba - played by Larry Drake. Bubba is only in the first 10 to 15 minutes of the film before he is murdered, yet his death is the linchpin around which the whole story revolves. At first we're not sure if it really is Bubba's ghost commiting the revenge killings (the film offers us several potential human suspects). It's only in the final scene where we actually see the supernaturally animated scarecrow walking around on its own.

Drake's performance as the mentally handicapped Bubba is amazing. It's truly realistic to the point that before I knew who Drake was I actually did wonder if they had cast a special needs actor in the role. Although his appearance is brief Drake totally gets the audience on Bubba's side. You care about this innocent and loveable man with the mind of a child, you don't want to see him come to any harm even though you know deep down that he's doomed. 

Drake also has a good chemistry with Tonya Crowe who plays little MaryLee. It runs the risk of looking awkward or clumsy seeing a near middle-aged man playing with a child but both actors pull it off successfully and the bond and friendship between the two characters seems real, innocent and touching. Crowe is great in later scenes too where she seems privy to the supernatural happenings, she comes over as sweet but also slightly creepy herself, this a little girl who knows what lurks in the darkness...

The character we see the most of is the villain of the piece - the truly odious Otis P. Hazelrigg played by Charles Durning. Otis is a jumped up nobody with delusions of grandeur. He's only the town's POSTMAN for crying out loud and yet he sruts around like he owns the damn place. His little bunch of cronies are never far behind - redneck farmer Harliss (Lane Smith), the obese, sweaty, always on the verge of a heart attack Philby (Claude Earl Jones) and the dumb and cowardly Skeeter (a great turn by Robert F. Lyons).

The fact that this bunch of misfits fawn and bow and scrape to Otis's every whim shows how weak minded and pathetic they are. Otis is seen to be smug and self important, he clearly thinks he's above the law and sees himself as a man of great importance. The truth of the matter is he's just a coward and a bully. This cowardice starts to come to the fore as the story progresses and Otis becomes more panicked and desperate. The more desperate he gets the more dangerous he becomes, eventually murdering the hapless Skeeter to stop him from telling others the truth.

Otis is also (heavily) implied to be a peadophile. He seems to spend his days spying on little MaryLee, under the pretence that he believes Bubba to be a danger to children. Perhaps Otis is just projecting his own twisted desires onto Bubba. When Mrs Ritter (Jocelyn "Marlon's sister" Brando) points this out to him Otis seems genuinely rattled. He's been rumbled and his precious position of deluded importance is in danger of being damaged.

It's a great performance from Durning. He really makes you hate this arsehole. Otis is a fully three dimensional and interesting villain and you really, REALLY want to see him get his just desserts and when he does its oh so satisfying.

SFX  - This being a made for television movie, don't go into this expecting loads of special effects because there are hardly any. It's all about the mood and atmosphere. The only "special effect" as such is the scarecrow and thats just a man in a suit. The scarecrow does look pretty cool and menacing though...

SEX & VIOLENCE  - Again, due to this being a TV movie, dont expect wall to wall gore because you'll be disappointed. There is violence but it's never explicit or lingered upon, the camera always cuts away before things get too graphic, leaving your mind's eye to conjour up the grue.

The event which kicks off the cycle of death is when Marylee gets mauled by a guard dog. The camera cuts away to a bunch of garden gnomes as we hear Marylee's terrified screams. This sounds terrible on paper but its actually quite unsettling on screen...

Then we get the big event. Otis's gang killing Bubba. The bunch of lowlifes shoot poor defenseless Bubba over twenty times...

First to get his comeuppance is Harliss when he falls into a woodchipping machine. We dont see the results but we can well imagine what a state he would be in after this. To give us a clue we cut to a breakfast scene where a spoonful of bright red strawberry jam is slapped onto a plate...

In an attempt to intimidate Bubba's mum, Otis breaks into her house (he's a real piece of work), this causes the old lady to have a fatal heart attack. For some reason Otis then decides to burn her house down to cover his tracks. WHY ???? She'd died from natural causes, nobody would have traced it to him. It's total overkill. Otis is as dumb as he is evil.

Then we get probably the most memorable death in the entire film. Philby gets trapped inside his own grain silo. The machine switches on and tons of grain pours into the silo. Philby literally drowns in grain. I live out in the country myself and have to walk past a grain silo everyday - it ALWAYS makes me think of this scene. It must have been a horrible way to go. Fat bastard deserved it though...

Later on Otis silences a panicking Skeeter by smashing his brains in with a shovel, saving Bubba's ghost a job in the process. In a nice little touch Skeeter's hat is stuck to the shovel after Otis has brained him...

Finally we get the main event, the one we've all been clamouring for - the death of Otis...and it doesn't disappoint. Otis is pursued through a pumpkin patch by a Combine Harvester that appears to be driving itself. He runs blindly through the field straight into scarecrow Bubba who is holding the very same pitchfork that Otis planted on his corpse. Otis winds up being impaled on the pitchfork. A look of utter confusion and horror spreads over Otis's jowly face and he drops dead, coughing up blood. Bye bye dickbag.

RATING  - Dark Night of the Scarecrow is a great little movie. It's far better than it has any right to be considering it's humble origins.

It's well acted, well scripted and it has absolutely tons of atmosphere. It's one of the films that I watch without fail every year around Halloween and its always enjoyable.

5 vengeful scarecrows out of 5. A seasonal classic.

POSTER/VHS/DVD ART  -