44 Years Ago, This Vicious Horror Movie Introduced Us to One of the Greatest and Most Enduring Villains of the Genre
What are the greatest TV horror movies? Perhaps it’s the IT miniseries, which could be watched as one long feature. A beloved contender is the 1992 British mockumentary Ghostwatch. Using real-life BBC presenters, it became controversial for how it played with realism when a ghost hunt on air went terribly wrong. A decade earlier, however, another TV movie scared viewers differently. Released on CBS in 1981, Dark Night of the Scarecrow was about small-town secrets and revenge from beyond the grave. It’s regarded as the first scarecrow horror movie, and it might still be the one that did it best.
What Is’ Dark Night of the Scarecrow’ About?
In the Deep South, the innocent friendship between the little girl, Marylee (Tonya Crowe), and the mentally disabled man, Bubba (Larry Drake), catches the ire of a small group of men that includes a mechanic and some farmers, and is led by local mailman, Ortis Hazelrigg (Charles Durning). When an accident seemingly kills the girl, the blame is put on Bubba, who gets hunted down by Otis and his friends. They find him hiding as a scarecrow and kill him, only to learn that Marylee is alive and Bubba had protected her. The men cover up their crime, but each of them soon gets punished, like the karma out of EC Comics.
Dark Night of the Scarecrow is great for those who love slashers and ghost stories. A wind blows across the field where Bubba dies, and later, across the town. Something otherworldly is taking over when mortal justice can’t apprehend Otis and his friends. One by one, they are killed in what could be just accidents. It doesn’t have the graphic violence seen in the Final Destination series, but Dark Night of the Scarecrow doesn’t feel sanitized, despite being made for network television. Here, no one gets a peaceful death.
‘Dark Night of the Scarecrow’ Is Bloodless but Still Vicious
A wood chipper eats up bone and flesh; A silo is filled with someone locked inside; Each time one of the men is killed, their deaths are brutal, even though their final moments are off-screen or bloodless. It never feels like a weakness that the film can’t show everything. This is a horror film that scares you by (1) what you don’t see and (2) how it makes you feel. A minimalist score that plays isn’t catchy like the Halloween theme, but its ambient sounds help establish an eerie tone from the first scene and capture the atmosphere of this Southern rural town.
Mountains in the distance close it off from the outside world; dusty roads and dried-up fields make the location seem inhospitable. But the most effective fright is the scarecrow, with a face that resembles Edvard Munch’s The Scream. Bubba’s eyes peering out of the head when he hides inside is a startling image, although the creep factor doesn’t let go from there. Otis’ friends begin to spot the same scarecrow posted in their fields, a reminder of their crime and the omen of death that will come for them. The scarecrow doesn’t move or do anything explicitly “scary.” The fear it creates is how it’s discovered on the land, with no one having put it there.
Dark Night of the Scarecrow is tame compared to the other scarecrow-themed horror movies that would come after it. Still, it’s the one that did it first, introducing a recurring theme in horror that others would continue. Seven years later, a slasher film aptly titled Scarecrows turned the titular figures into possessed murderers. A grisly childhood feud in 2011’s Husk turns a cornfield into a bloody hunting ground. Harold gets off his post and targets a bully in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark from 2019. Both use their scarecrow monsters to represent abuse and bullying, which goes all the way back to the 1981 TV movie, where the sins of an oppressor will not go unpunished.
This ’80s TV Movie Knew How Scary Scarecrows Can Be
In an interview with J. D. Feigelson, the writer of Dark Night of the Scarecrow, he revealed the special place his teleplay had in the genre. “I was informed by a film historian that it was the first feature-length horror movie to have a scarecrow as its centerpiece.” But Feigelson did more than write popcorn scares; there are crueler things going on in the plot. The real monster is Otis, whose motives behind hating Bubba are strongly implied to be wanting Marylee for himself. “Now, you’re not afraid of me. I’m the mailman,” he tells the girl, while cornering her before she hurries away. Otis and his friends don’t understand Bubba’s mental disability, but it doesn’t matter. They are aching to have a good reason to attack Bubba.
From the disquieting rural setting to Charles Durning’s despicable mailman you will love to hate, Dark Night of the Scarecrow most definitely brings the darkness its title promises. Over 40 years after it originally aired on TV, the atmospheric horror is well-preserved for new viewers, with an ending that is hard to forget.
Dark Night of the Scarecrow
- Release Date
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October 24, 1981
- Runtime
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96 Minutes
- Director
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Frank De Felitta
- Writers
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J.D. Feigelson, Butler Handcock
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Charles Durning
Otis P. Hazelrigg
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Robert F. Lyons
Skeeter Norris
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