Blazehgehg This is a pretty creepy, even somewhat sad movie about a mentally handicapped man who is murdered by the denizens of a Podunk town out in the middle of nowhere for no other reason than they don't like him. After killing him and gloating about getting away with the murder, the murderers themselves start turning up dead, one by one. But who's getting revenge? This movie really goes for it. The subject matter is some pretty dark stuff, and the movie doesn't shy away from making you uncomfortable. There are some really, legitimately great shots in this movie, that really present a feeling of dread very well. One particularly good shot I absolutely love is what should be the movie's most violent, gruesome, bloody death -- since it's a made-for-TV movie, they can't actually show any gore, but they work around it in a clever and amusing way.The story is also quite good (up to a point, which we'll get to in a moment). In the first 20 minutes I was pretty sure I had the whole movie pegged -- I just KNEW who the killer was. But multiple curve balls later, it shook things up and kept me guessing. It is, however, a little slow to get going, but once it does, it's dark, spooky fun.Which is ultimately the problem: the movie kept me guessing so much that it never actually gave any answers. It just ends, rather ambiguously, leaving a couple very important threads dangling without resolution. The movie works up to a big reveal that never actually happens. It just rolls credits.On principal, I'm not anti-mystery. Sometimes not having all the answers is part of the fun. But this movie gives you the impression it has an answer to give you, and then just... doesn't. It almost feels like they had hopes for a sequel that never materialized.THAT leaves a sour taste in my mouth, so much so that I feel like I can't fully endorse it. Any time this movie comes up, I will have to attach the caveat at the end of "Hey, the ending kind of sucks." Which... yeah, kind of sucks.

MartinHafer When the film begins, Bubba (Larry Drake) is playing with a neighbor girl. She's young and he's a mentally challenged adult. Well, for some odd reason, several of the locals hate Bubba and Otis (Charles Durning) enjoys stirring up hatred against the man. Soon after this little scene, the girl is attacked by a vicious dog and Bubba saves her and brings her home to her mother. He's hysterical and soon all sorts of crazy rumors start that HE attacked the kid and killed her. But she's only slightly hurt and before long, folks are running about town looking for Bubba. Otis' little group is primed for a hanging...all due to Otis' drumming it into their dumb minds that Bubba is a danger to them all! As for Bubba, he hides in a most unusual fashion...pretending to be the scarecrow on his mother's farm! The evil quartet soon find him and don't give him a chance to surrender and shoot him 21 times!! Amazingly, the local judge refuses to indict them for murder!! So, it seems that the four scum-bags have gotten away with it.Soon after this incident, a scarecrow appears on one of the four men's land...and within a short time, he's dead...supposedly by accident. And, soon after that, the same thing happens again. At this point, Otis isn't about to take any chances and begins killing off anyone who could possibly be behind the two deaths. What's next? See this cool made for TV horror movie.Overall, this is a very well made and highly entertaining film...far better than the norm for such a picture. The acting, writing and scare factor are all there...and the film is well worth your time.Interestingly, a few years after this film was made, Larry Drake went on to become a regular on "LA Law" playing another mentally challenged man. I am pretty sure this film must have helped him land this role.

Spikeopath 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

Michael_Elliott Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981) *** (out of 4) Very effective made-for-TV movie has four locals killing an innocent man who they thought killed a child. A short time later all four are let off by the court system but soon they start to fear that the dead man has came back for revenge. DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW has one of the best reputations of any horror film from this era and it's easy to see why once you've viewed it. It's one of those rare cases where a film's reputation is actually worthy of all the good things you've heard about it. Director Frank De Felitta does a very good job building up a rather creepy atmosphere that he captures right from the start and continues up to the rather chilling final shot. The film is rather unique as it doesn't contain any gore and what's most rare for this period is that it actually takes its time building up the characters and their fears. It takes nearly twenty-minutes for the man to be killed and then it takes quite a bit of time before the revenge starts. There's some pretty good moments involving the scarecrow even though it's not used as much as some might think it would be. The opening murder sequence is extremely well directed and the shots of the eyes through the mask were very effective. The film also benefits from some very good performances with Charles Burning leading the way as the main bad guy. Robert F. Lyons, Claude Earl Jones, Lane Smith and Larry Drake are also good in their parts. The film contains some pretty good cinematography as well as an effective music score. All in all this here is certainly one of the better made-for-TV movies and it's a good example of why violence and gore isn't needed to tell a great and effective story.