 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 | 🎙️ EPISODE 573: 10.11.22 This is a made-for-tv (CBS) movie that is quite the little hidden gem. It's developed a small enough cult fandom over the years to warrant a really nice restoration version, as well as the writer of the film (J.D. Feigelson) going on to make a sequel that came out just a couple of weeks ago, almost 41 years later! Nevermind, that it looks pretty bad! (it's free to watch btw.) This came onto my radar back in 2020 when Jay Bauman of Red Letter Media tweeted it as one of his yearly October recommendations. I'm really glad I got around to seeing it because I definitely enjoyed it. |
One fateful day, a dog attacks Marylee and she's gravely injured. Only because Bubba is there to fend off the canine does she survive. But in the ensuing hysteria, it's assumed that Bubba himself is responsible for the little girl's injuries. So Psycho Mailman grabs two local dunces (one of whom is played by the terrific THAT GUY, Lane Smith) for some vigilante justice. (Shockingly, they don't use the R-word once in this; not bad for 1981!) Bubba, in an attempt to hide from these madmen, dresses up as a scarecrow in a field. But they find him and all four of these lunatics gun him down execution-style as he tacked to a post. They position a pitchfork in his hands so they can claim self-defense later.
And because this is bohunk small-town America, their explanation works. They get off scot-free. The three other guys (drunk crops farmer, dumb pig farmer and even dumber mechanic) are wrecked by the guilt but not Psycho Mailman, whose only concern is not getting caught. Bubba's mother tells them that there's other justice in this world besides the law, and boy oh boy is she not kidding.
The first to get is Lane Smith, the drunk farmer, who by way of magical forces falls into a large wood-chipper machine one night. We get this lovely cross-cut to avoid the gore one might usually expect from a scene like this...
This is a made-for-tv movie, after all. What it's missing in blood and violence it more than makes for in clever old school suspense. Sure, it plays out almost exactly as you might expect. All four of these schmucks get it. The second one is trapped inside his silo and covered with grain...
And in a small twist, Psycho Mailman ruthlessly murders the dumber-than-a-rock mechanic by hitting him with a shovel and (maybe) burying him alive (!) because he's worried he's going to turn himself in. This is actually the third murder by Psycho Mailman, who killed Bubba's elderly mother earlier and staged it as a gas leak/fire, and its preceded by a ridiculous stunt double subbing in for Durning and tackling this sad sap with his stupid polka dot hat...
Everything culminates in a final showdown where the cosmic forces animate a large piece of farming equipment that chases Psycho Mailman directly into the waiting pitchfork of our scarecrow...
And in a final — slightly creepy — twist, the scarecrow comes alive and gives little Marylee a nice, intact flower before the requisite freeze frame ending (this is a nice callback to the opening scene where Bubba gives her a crushed flower)...
Hat tip for Durning on his performance here. It's truly an extremely vile character and the film itself is wonderfully paced and suspenseful. That they did all of this without any blood and guts at all is highly commendable. Definitely one of the best made for television movies I've ever seen.
CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 572 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 574 ⫸
⫷ EPISODE 572 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 574 ⫸
Dark Night of the Scarecrow is a 1981 American made-for-television 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. It was released on October 24, 1981.
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