A Major Disappointment

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

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.

Been quite a while since I've watched this one. Watching it again I must say it's a good old school horror film - and it was made for TV.The movie has a pretty basic story line to follow for a "slasher" TV movie without being "silly" - it is enough to keep me interested. The "monster scare factor" is pretty decent. There is not an over abundance of scarecrow horror films out on the market so this movie gets bonus points for being a scarecrow "monster" film.It's always nice to see Charles Durning on the screen - he's a good actor. He plays a "bad cop" role in this movie. Without giving the film away, Otis P. Hazelrigg (Durning) and his fellows did something they really should have not done - covering up their act - which leads to the "scarecrow".Good film for the Halloween season and a late night flick. A worth while horror movie in my opinion.7.5/10

Dark Night of the Scarecrow is directed by Frank De Felitta and written by J.D. Feigelson and Butler Handcock. It stars Charles Durning, Larry Drake, Tonya Crowe, Jocelyn Brando, Lane Smith and Claude Earl Jones. Music is by Glenn Paxton and cinematography by Vincent Martinelli.Small town Americana and Bubba Ritter (Drake), a friendly but mentally challenged man, is falsely accused of attacking and severely injuring young Marylee Williams (Crowe). Four of the town residents, with hate and ignorance driving them on, hunt down Bubba and find him hiding as a scarecrow in a field. Murdering him, they claim self defence and walk free from court. It's not long afterwards, though, that the men start to see a scarecrow in their midst…Some things from movies just stay with you from when you were a wee youngster, I still remember the first time I heard the anguished cry of Bubba Ritter stating that he didn't do the crime he was being hunted for. Dark Night of the Scarecrow stood out by some considerable mile as one of the best TV horror movies I saw as a youth, not for things that I would later appreciate in film making as I got older, but just for sheer terror of a scarecrow stalking his prey for divine retribution. How wonderful to revisit the movie three decades later and find that it is still one of the best TV horror movies out there.Oh it doesn't terrify now, though it still packs a sense of unease and keeps scarecrows firmly in the realm of creepyville, but it has a style so sorely lacking in many of today's horrors. There is no need to bludgeon us with slash and stalk, showing us gore front and centre, the makers here are subtle, refusing even to put the scarecrow in the limelight like Michael or Jason. There's a smart ambiguity about the supernatural elements, keeping the mystery element strong as the guilty men begin to crack and head towards their real judgement.Simmering away nicely in the narrative is of course the vile stench of bigotry, and the pain inflicted by such narrow minds. There is also a dark thread left dangling that suggests one of the guilty men is impure of thoughts towards little Marylee, one of the very things he whipped up as reason to hound Bubba for. Some thought went into the screenplay, and it's credit to the writers that it never becomes a moral crusade, while the crafting of the lovely innocent friendship between Bubba and Marylee is beautifully born out by actors and technicians alike.Durning and Drake dominate the movie with classy shows, impressive in Drake's case as he is only in it for a short amount of time, but the work of young Tonya Crowe puts her in the club that houses best child performances of the 80s. Her reactions to Bubba and Otis (Durning) naturally call for different human emotions, and she in turn nails the aspects of youthful innocence and mature awareness of who the monster actually is. The photography is textured, the music equally so, and there's even some shards of humour and irony along the way.I can imagine many of today's horror fans going into Dark Night of the Scarecrow and being very disappointed not to get a Voorhees type movie, while some more sensitive viewers may find the portrayals of backwater folk as being ignorantly stereotyped by the makers. It isn't for every horror fan, without a doubt, and clearly it's not perfect, but to those who loved it back when it first showed, those who are jaded by how this type of sub-genre of horror has evolved into bloody overkill and remake/sequel hell, then Dark Night of the Scarecrow is in fact a minor classic. 8/10

I never recall myself getting so wild with the 'Scarecrow' tales. 'Dark Night of the Scarecrow' is one such masterpiece that has no budget to boast but simply a great attitude that brings a win-win situation to both director and the audience. Frank de Felitta is a miraculous man and has proved that the scarecrows don't just scare the crap out of birds! The background music adds tension to the plot and is one of the most haunting soundtracks I can ever think of. The artistry lies in the way scarecrow has been pictured and this solely makes the story alive. J.D. Fiegelsen (The godfather of scarecrow sub-genre and also the author of 'Audrey Rose') has penned down the script with a meticulous and fervent mind that itself is a terrific combination. What impresses me most is that DNOTS was a TV movie! They don't make like this anymore nowadays. The plot revolves around few townsfolk who kill a mentally-challenged and nitwit Bubba for no apparent reason, but someone who lives in the sky and writes our fates decides to wreak havoc on the culprits and settles the scores in bizarre and supernatural ways.Buba Ritter (Larry Drake) is a retarded but fully-grown up man, who lives with his mother Mrs. Ritter (Jocelyn Brando) in a small town. He befriends a little girl Marylee (Tonya Crowe) and it seems that they both are on the same note and love each other's company. Marylee and Bubba spend their time playing near a windmill in the lemon-yellow fields. Their friendship is despised by the town's mean mailman Otis (Charles Durning), farmer-cousins Philby (Claude E Jones) and Harliss (Lane Smith) and gas station attendant Skeeter (Robert Lyons) and they are only looking for a good time to punish Bubba. One day while playing with Bubba, Marylee is mauled by a ferocious dog and falls unconscious. Bubba is attacked by the dog but he somehow manages to save a fainted Marylee and takes Mary to her mother. The news spreads like a fire and Otis quickly assumes that Bubba might have raped and murdered the girl. Otis, Skeeter, Philby and Harliss promptly form a lynch mob and go after Bubba with a pack of hunting dogs. Mrs. Ritter realizes that her son is in danger and she disguises Bubba as a scarecrow and plants him at a field. The lynch mob arrives and the dogs sniff Bubba out in no time. Otis and his friends empty their revolvers on poor Bubba. Minutes later, Otis is informed that Marylee had only fainted and is alright after medical care. In order to make the murder look like a self-defense assault, Otis puts a pitchfork in dead Bubba's hands to make appear as if he were about to attack them and was therefore killed in response.The murder is prosecuted in court where on the grounds of zero proof, the culprits are somehow able to save their necks. The district attorney Sam Willock (Tom Taylor) doesn't believe on Otis and his friends, and promises to send them to the death row, if he ever finds a clue. Otis and his friends want to keep their misdeed a secret but its not very long when Harliss mysteriously falls into a chipper and is shredded to pieces. Philby notices a scarecrow in his fields and is horrified. On Philby's tip, Otis decides to take the matter in his hands and burns Mrs. Ritter's house. A few days later Philby, under mysterious circumstances perishes inside a grain silo and Skeeter goes insane with fear and is ultimately killed by Otis. Otis appears to be a pedophile and is after Marylee. He also accuses Marylee of orchestrating the scarecrow murders, which she denies. A game of cat and mouse begins where Marylee is chased by Otis and they finally land on a pumpkin patch. A plowing machine in the patch animates all by itself and begins to follow a running Otis. Otis soon finds the Bubba scarecrow before him and realizes that he is impaled by the same pitchfork he ever put in Bubba's hands as alibi.DNOTS is one of the best Halloween films that follows a simple plot, has a weird atmosphere and crazy soundtrack. I never get satisfied watching it once and can watch it all day long. It has some magic that keeps you tied to your seat. Unlike splatter films, the film has very little gore and takes inspiration from evergreen horror milestones like Halloween and the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It is noteworthy that Halloween and TCM also have very little gore, but they boast on the effect they cast on the viewers. DNOTS certainly is a great combination of fear, anxiety, insanity and trauma all seasoned in the curry of devilish Halloween atmosphere. The portrayal of rural culture adds great taste to the movie, where empty fields, chippers, plowing machines, grain silos and pumpkin patches have been used as horror intensifiers. DNOTS simply rules!