Review of Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981) by A.d. V — 27 Sep 2010

One of my favorites as kid and that still holds up today "Dark Night of the Scarecrow" is one of the creepiest horror movies of the early 80's, and this in spite of the fact that its a made-for-TV production with an absolute minimum of special effects and/or bloody massacres.

This is truly a gem of a film, with a solid basic plot and straightforward screenplay, tight direction, sublime acting performances from the ensemble cast, a continuously ominous ambiance and suspense highlights that gradually bring you towards the edge of your chair.

All the ingredients to create a moody atmosphere are very well presented: a rural small town setting with an old-fashioned chauvinistic population and endlessly gigantic & forsaken cornfields, sober photography and ? of course ? the titular type of horror creature! Scarecrows are underused in horror, I guess because it's difficult to link a decent and plausible story to lifeless puppets made out of straw and discarded clothes.

Well, that is one problem "Dark Night of the Scarecrow" certainly doesn't suffer from, as the story is genuinely stupendous. Four eminent but obnoxious townspeople form a vigilante posse to track down and execute 36-year-old and mentally handicapped Bubba, because they heard he was responsible for the death of a young girl.

Moments after the fatal gunshots, however, they receive notice that the girl survived a dog attack and actually owes her life to the interference of Bubba. The foursome, led by the grisly local mailman Otis Hazelrigg, covers up the tracks and claim they shot Bubba out of self defense.

They obtain an acquittal in court, but promptly experience it's impossible to escape justice. The four become stalked by the suddenly appearing image of an eerie scarecrow (Bubba's disguise when they shot him) and form the target for sinister accidents.

Multiple scenes literally bath in an aura of tension, the scenery is always great, the twist-ending is more or less unpredictable and quite a few moments in the film were highly influential and later re-used in other movies (like "Witness" and "Pumpkinhead").

Most impressive about "Dark Night of the Scarecrow" are the acting performances, for sure. Charles Durning is indescribably creepy, charismatic and petrifying. His accomplices Lane Smith, Claude Earl Jones and Robert F.

Lyons make terrific countryside hillbillies as well and last but not least Larry Drake is splendid as Bubba.This is a must see for fans of nail-biting horror thrillers.