In a small rural town, mentally handicapped gentle giant Bubba Ritter (Larry Drake, Dr. Giggles, Darkman) spends his days chumming around with young Marylee Williams (Tonya Crowe)… but that comes to a swift end when she becomes fascinated by a yard-full of garden gnomes before being savaged by a dog, who normally is doubtless a good boy unless some one fucks about with the lawn decor apparently.
While Bubba dashed in to save her, town mailman/professional Bubba-hater Otis Hazelrigg (Charles Durning) assumes Buba attacked and molested the girl so he gathers up his local-yokel vigilante posse who blast Bubba to shit-hereens while he is hiding out disguised as a scarecrow… like tied to a post and everything.
In an unbelievable turn of events, the vigilantes get off on a self-defense plea, but before you can say “seemingly supernatural vengeance from beyond the grave” that damn scarecrow keeps turning up like a bad penny, and when it does those responsible for Bubba’s demise start to have considerably lower life expectancy rates!
Now a little history before we go further. In the ’70s and ’80s, made-for-TV movies were big-ass deals, and often involved the ol’ horror biz. Titles such as Gargoyles, Tobe Hooper’s adaptation of Salems Lot, and the alien invasion melodrama V, provided some top-quality scares and 1981’s Dark Night of the Scarecrow was no exception!
Directed by Frank De Felitta (who wrote the screenplay for 1982’s The Entity based on his novel of the same name) and written by J.D. Feigelson, this is a grim revenge tale in the E.C. comics mold… and the narrative is played to perfection by the top-shelf cast assembled, with Durning leading the charge as a real piece of shit of a human being that rapidly losses his cool as the preternatural screws are turned.
The supporting cast is fantastic as well, with Crowe and Drake making for sympathetic, unwilling participants to Hazelrigg’s increasing madness, and Jocelyn Brando provides plenty of tortured pathos as Bubba’s grieving mother.
As for the blood and cuts present in this terror tale, well standards and practices were a bit tighter in the ’80s, but the suspense is still there in front and center… but on the whole, Dark Night of the Scarecrow could easily have been a theatrical release if the camera wasn’t so gore-shy.
All of the above looks phenomenal here with a picture boasting plenty of crisp detail and vivid colors… and I can assure you, this film did not look this good in 1981 on the big, honking, wood covered cathode ray monsters we watched it on.
That was all for Bubba until 2022’s follow-up feature Dark Night of the Scarecrow 2…
Chris Rhymer (Amber Wedding) and her son Jeremy (Aiden Shurr) head out to the middle of nowhere to start a new life after Chris is tossed into the witness relocation program after snitching on her boss, who just so happened to be involved with organized crime. Once there, Jeremy befriends school teacher Hilda Corvis (Carol Dines)… who coincidentally is a relative of Bubba’s.
Speaking of our departed arcane avenger, Jeremey soon starts talking to his new imaginary friend (also named Bubba, but I’m sure that’s just a coincidence… ) while Chris confides in the now familiar scarecrow whom she finds hanging in a cornfield… and when the bad guys from Chris’ past inevitably show up you can bet your sweet ass that the straw-man will be up and killing ‘fore too long!
Written and directed by the first outing’s scribe, J.D. Feigelson, Dark Night of the Scarecrow 2 is a digitally shot follow-up to the movie-of-the-week original, and while it doesn’t look like a Hollywood picture, it certainly does look gorgeous thanks to the cinematographer Josh McNally absolutely rocking the rural locations giving the proceedings some truly “chef’s kiss” artistic panache as well as a sense of dread and isolation among the endless cornfields and desolate farmland.
The cast here is solid as well, with Wedding making for a sympathetic, strong, and relatable protagonist, and Dines shines in a performance that goes from sweet to spooky at frequent intervals. Special mention has to be made of Jimmy James Hamblin’s portrayal of greasy backwoods lawman Deputy Layton Turney, a role which he so unbelievably owns that he manages to steal every scene he’s present in!
As far as the red stuff is concerned, there is a tad more blood present here, but on the whole it’s pretty PG stuff… which makes sense as this is carrying on the spirit of the nearly bloodless original.
While both flicks are pretty damn spiffy, they can be appreciated even more thanks to their accompanying audio commentary tracks; with the first picture being analyzed from a fan’s perspective (with said fans including Heath Holland of the Cereal Midnight podcast, film historian Robert Kelly, and author/TV movie expert Amanda Reyes), and the second feature under the microscope of director Feigelson who provides a step-by-step journey through the film’s production.
The special features keep on a-commin’, as the second disc present in this release contains Dark Night of the Scarecrow, back for an encore go-around, and now featuring an audio commentary by Feigelson and De Felitta, a 30 minute retrospective “making of” featurette, a duo of vintage promo ads (both of which absolutely brutally misuse a scene of stark terror as Bubba fears for his life, only to be made to look like a complete fucking madman thanks to some editing magic… it’s as unfortunate as it is hilarious), a 46 minute Q&A with Crowe, Drake, and Feigelson (from a cast reunion circa 2011), and a behind-the-scenes photo gallery.
Dark Night of the Scarecrow is a fright flick classic and it’s sequel is a fun follow-up, so you can’t really go wrong with this release… plus the original film has never looked better than it does here in 4K!
