Dark Night of the Scarecrow

"The Original Classic"

1981 1h 37m EN

👍

6.5

SOLID

🍅

63%

FRESH

⭐

6.7

IMDB

★6.5TMDB · 205🍅63%Rotten Tomatoes★6.7IMDB · 10,222

HorrorTV Movie

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Bubba, an intellectually disabled man, is falsely accused of attacking a young girl. Disguised as a scarecrow, he hides in a cornfield, only to be hunted down and shot by four vigilante men. After they are acquitted due to lack of evidence, the men find themselves being stalked one by one.

“The Original Classic”

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Cast

Charles Durning
Otis P. Hazelrigg
Larry Drake
Bubba Ritter
Robert F. Lyons
Skeeter Norris
Claude Earl Jones
Philby
Lane Smith
Harless Hocker
Tonya Crowe
Marylee Williams
Jocelyn Brando
Mrs. Ritter
Tom Taylor
D.A. Sam Willock

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Frank De Felitta
Writers: Butler Handcock, J.D. Feigelson
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

45 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Dark Night of the Scarecrow Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Frank De Felitta, shot by Vincent A. Martinelli. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Glenn Paxton. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Skip Lusk shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Charles Durning and Larry Drake and Robert F. Lyons carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The Original Classic".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0082235 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Frank De Felitta directs. Vincent A. Martinelli behind the camera. Glenn Paxton scores. Skip Lusk cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

145 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Part of the "Dark Night of the Scarecrow Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
3Directed by Frank De Felitta, shot by Vincent A. Martinelli. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Glenn Paxton. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Skip Lusk shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Charles Durning and Larry Drake and Robert F. Lyons carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "The Original Classic".
8IMDB entry: tt0082235 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 13 themes, including "mentally disabled", "grave", "scarecrow", "cover-up".
10Released under 12 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Vincent A. Martinelli
Original score: Glenn Paxton
Editing: Skip Lusk
Makeup / hair: Stephen Robinette
Stunt coordinator: John C. Meier
Runtime: 97 min · 1h 37m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)
Rotten Tomatoes: 63% 🍅 Fresh
IMDB rating: 6.7/10 · 10,222 votes
MPAA: TV-14

Awards

1 nomination total

Part of

Dark Night of the Scarecrow Collection

A series of films about a killer scarecrow in a small, rural, American town.

Also by

Frank De Felitta

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2013-11-04
★ 8/10
Bubba Didn’t Do it… 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
Wuchak2022-04-20
★ 8/10
Of Scarecrows and Men Something horrible happens in a rural community and four yokels are haunted by their part in the tragic event. Their torment increases when mysterious things start occurring. Charles Durning stars as the lead hick, a mailman, while Larry Drake plays the mentally challenged Bubba. Jocelyn Brando is on hand as his mother. "Dark Night of the Scarecrow" (1981) is a thriller/horror with good Halloween ambiance that mixes in “Of Mice and Men” (1939) and “To Kill a Mocking Bird” (1962). You could tell Stephen King was influenced by it for his “The Green Mile” (1999), but don’t expect a prison flick. There’s an effective sense of small town good ol’ boys, albeit misled by one of their own, along with some powerful subtext and a conclusion that can be interpreted a few ways, providing food for thought. One of the themes concerns projecting one’s own negative issues on to an innocent person and situation. This was originally released to television so don’t anticipate much gore. It doesn’t need it. The film runs 1 hour, 36 minutes, and was shot in Piru, California, which is 24 miles due north of Malibu in the high country, a dozen miles west of Santa Clarita. The 2010 restored version (which is the version I viewed) adds a key 2-second scene regarding the farm tractor in the field at the end. GRADE: B+/A-