Dark Night of the Scarecrow
| Dark Night of the Scarecrow | |
|---|---|
DVD cover
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| Genre | Suspense Horror |
| Created by | J.D. Feigelson |
| Screenplay by | J.D. Feigelson (teleplay) |
| Story by | J.D. Feigelson (story) Butler Handcock (story) |
| Directed by | Frank De Felitta |
| Starring |
Larry Drake Charles Durning Tonya Crowe Jocelyn Brando Lane Smith |
| Theme music composer | Glenn Paxton |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Joe Wizan |
| Producer(s) |
Bobbi Frank Janet Greek (associate producer) |
| Cinematography | Vincent A. Martinelli (as Vincent Martinelli) |
| Editor(s) | Skip Lusk |
| Running time | 96 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Wizan Productions |
| Distributor | CBS |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | October 24, 1981 |
Dark Night of the Scarecrow is a 1981 American made-for-television suspense horror film directed by veteran novelist Frank De Felitta (author of Audrey Rose) from a script by J.D. Feigelson. Feigelson's intent had been to make an independent feature, but his script was bought by CBS for television; despite this, only minor changes were made to the original screenplay.
In a small town in the Deep South, Charles Eliot "Bubba" Ritter, a large but gentle mentally challenged man, befriends young Marylee Williams. Some of the townspeople are upset by the closeness between Marylee and Bubba, and the brooding, mean-spirited postman Otis Hazelrigg is the worst. When Marylee is mauled by a vicious dog (Bubba saves her) and lies unconscious at a doctor's office, Otis promptly assumes that Bubba has murdered (and likely raped) her. Otis and three friends – gas station attendant Skeeter Norris and farmer-cousins Philby and Harliss Hocker – form a lynch mob. Bubba's mother disguises him as a scarecrow and posts him in a nearby field to wait for the drama to cool down. Otis' bloodhounds sniff Bubba out, and all four vigilantes empty multiple rounds from their guns, killing him. Afterwards, they discover that Marylee is in fact alive, thanks to Bubba, whom they have just murdered. Acting fast, Otis places a pitchfork in Bubba's lifeless hands to make it appear as if he were attacking them with a weapon. The vigilantes are subsequently released because of lack of evidence against them (and blatant perjury by Otis) when the murder is brought to court.
Marylee, who has recovered from the attack, sneaks out of her room at night and goes over to the Ritter house looking for Bubba. Mrs. Ritter cannot bring herself to tell Marylee the truth and instead tells her that Bubba has gone away where no one can hurt him. Marylee runs out of the house to look for Bubba and Mrs. Ritter goes after her. She finds Marylee sitting in the field where Bubba had been killed singing a favorite song of hers and Bubba's, and she calmly tells Mrs. Ritter that Bubba isn't gone, only hiding.
A day later, Harliss finds a scarecrow in his fields like the one Bubba was hidden in; there is no indication of who put it there. Otis suspects the district attorney of putting it there to rattle the four of them and tells the others to keep calm and do nothing. In the evening, the figure disappears, and Harliss hears activity in his barn. He is investigating up in the loft when a wood chipper below starts of its own accord. Startled, he topples over into the machine and is killed. Because the wood chipper had not run out of gasoline after Harliss had been killed but had been switched off, Otis, Philby and Skeeter suspect that Harliss' death was not accidental. Otis obliquely accuses Mrs. Ritter of having engineered this supposed accident; she denies involvement, but says that other agencies will punish her son's murderers (and also implies that Otis is a pedophile because of his intense interest in Marylee).
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Wikipedia