It Came From The Tube: DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW

TV is usually the first portal for horror when you’re a kid. At least it was for me; pre internet horror was found either: a) at the movies, b) in comic books, or c) the idiot box. And before we were allowed to see big screen horror, TV scratched that itch. Saturday mornings had Scooby Doo, The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, and various other shows, animated or not, to quench our growing curiosity for the weird, creepy, and unusual. But if we were lucky enough to be able to watch after 9 pm, things got much more interesting.

Terrifying stories of miniature monsters, witchcraft, Satanism, and creepy cults awaited our bloodshot eyes. TV was absolutely inundated with horror, channels dripping with malicious behavior in the form of weekly shows or made for TV movies. Of course, the networks (the big – and only - three: ABC, NBC, and CBS) back then had much stricter guidelines as to what could be shown; as a result these programs can seem downright timid today. And while that is true of what is seen, it certainly doesn’t speak to the intent.

So with this new column my intent is to cover horror based TV movies (and TV shows) from the ‘60s on up. Most will be from America, but if something popped up in syndication from say, the UK, look for that here as well. I’m sure some of your favorites will be accounted for, and hopefully many more that pique your interest (and some may fascinate for all the wrong reasons). So get off the floor and change the channel (no remotes yet, I’m afraid), adjust the rabbit ears, and join me as we soak up the cathode rays of yesteryear. Our first stop: 1981’s Dark Night of the Scarecrow (CBS).

Now, a Saturday night is when I would have had an easier time convincing the parents of an extended bedtime, and I’m sure many youngsters and adolescents convinced theirs likewise. However, I was living abroad at the time and missed this when it aired on Saturday, October 24^th, 1981 at 9 pm EST. If I were an adult, I would have checked it out too; the other options were The Love Boat/Fantasy Island juggernaut on ABC, with NBC offering an hour of sitcoms that no one remembers, followed by hour long specialty programming that didn’t stick either. Another enticing (and rather insidious) draw towards the CBS network? The lead in program for Dark Night was Walt Disney, a weekly show that featured shorts and films from the Disney vaults. I can only imagine parents thinking they would be in for a spookfest along the lines of Ichabod Crane being chased by The Headless Horseman. I can also imagine their shock (and their children’s trauma) when they ended up being subjected to whispers of pedophilia, pitchfork goring, grain silo drowning, thresher mulching, and a scarecrow who could only be found around the dark alleys of Oz. Nightmare fuel galore.

Let’s flip through our copy of TV GUIDE for a description: A mentally challenged man (Larry Drake as Bubba) is hunted down and slain by four vigilantes in a small town after he is wrongfully thought to have killed the little girl he befriended. Soon the four men become the hunted as the appearance of a mysterious scarecrow spells their doom. Charles Durning stars.

Okay I made that up, but it is the plot in a nutshell. Essentially what we get is a great EC Comic plastered on the screen, two dimensional characters included. Vengeance is on the menu, and while our four antagonists led by Durning are under the impression that someone is seeking revenge for what they did to Bubba (as they were acquitted on self defense), we know damn well who’s responsible. Bubba’s elderly mother (Jocelyn Brando) spouts ‘an eye for an eye’ to mailman Durning as he confronts her about his dwindling posse, and while she isn’t complicit, she certainly doesn’t disapprove; in fact there’s a calm about her that says her ‘good boy’ is taking care of the karma end of things.

In J.D. Feigelson’s deft teleplay (which he wrote for the screen but ended up here), he paints a broad picture of a small farming community, populated by earnest, hard working folk. Some have criticized the film for tritely pinning the characters as yokels; names such as Otis, Bubba, Harless, and Skeeter would certainly support that opinion. However, I don’t think that’s the case – I think his script is a clever parody of the Andy Griffith small town microcosm gone to seed, with Durning and friends soon realizing that there’s nowhere to hide; either from the encroaching evil or from the truth of their actions. The film slowly turns in the first half of the telecast, ratcheting up the inherent paranoia in our villains predicament – they practically list half the town as suspects in their downfall, but don’t accept the truth until way too late.

The second half brings the wrath, and how. One by one our antagonists are targeted and hunted, first with the ominous placement of a scarecrow in their fields – the same scarecrow that Bubba was hiding in when they gunned him down. From there it’s downhill for the gang as they fumble through the darkness pleading for their lives. And the darkness is at the heart of this tale; while Bubba and little Marylee (Tonya Crowe) play games in the sunshine at the start of the film, once he’s killed their games are resigned to the pitch black hue of the fields. While unseen, Bubba is still very much spoken of (and to) by Marylee, her grip on reality seeming to loosen as the misbegotten vigilantes are whittled away. A smart script move – the misdirection towards her involvement is cleverly resolved by the end.

While Charles Durning is not exactly synonymous with genre fare, his presence is always felt regardless of the project. And his Otis P. Hazelrigg looms large, even on the small screen. A cauldron of disgust and hatred disguised with a pleasant façade, mailman Otis represents the underbelly of small town life – a blinding self-righteousness unfettered by reason or empathy. This film makes no bones about reaping and sowing. As his accomplices, Lane Smith and Claude Earl Jones act as Otis’ reluctant conscience, one that he is unwilling (and unable) to listen to. Don’t get me wrong, as strongly portrayed by Smith and Jones, their characters are still despicable, but if there is any humanity to be found, it lies with them. Outside of Otis, Marylee is given the strongest arc, and Crowe portrays her as a girl steeped in sadness who stumbles blindly into madness. Of course setting everything up is Drake’s sympathetic portrayal of man child Bubba, with flashes of the brilliance he would show in his Emmy winning turn on L.A. Law as mentally disabled Benny. He has the audience on his side in his abbreviated role; which is good, because there really is no protagonist other than vengeance itself.

Director Frank De Felitta is better known as the writer of the novels and screenplays for Audrey Rose and The Entity and here he perfectly captures the Norman Rockwell Goes to Hell atmosphere prevalent in the scenes of retribution. He plays very well with the darkness, and creates moments of genuine tension and unease. The final shot is brilliant, and sums up everything right about Dark Night of the Scarecrow – true friendship lasts forever, and when a simple story is told well with imagination and talent, it does too.

Dark Night of the Scarecrow is available on Blu-ray and DVD from VCI Entertainment.