SOMEONE IS GETTING JUSTICE FOR BUBBA
★★★☆☆ (Good for One Viewing)
Director: Frank De Felitta
1981
Dark Night of the Scarecrow is one of many horror movies that gives us a group of pitchfork-wielding townspeople vilifying a local black sheep and murdering him. This is usually the beginning of a killer’s origin story, leading to a man or women or mother seeking vengeance on those who harmed them, but this is a different kind of tale. Dark Night of the Scarecrow is so surprising, so layered in character development, that it gives us the most despicable villain I’ve seen in years. Darkness doesn’t just come from a lynching posse but from the secrets they harbor within themselves
Much like Lenny petting the rabbits, Bubba (Larry Drake) is a gentle giant who accidentally crushes wildflowers and befriends people he shouldn’t. Today, it’s a little girl named Marylee, who finds joy in teaching Bubba songs and how to make daisy chains. The interaction between the two could be interpreted as inappropriate until she offers to kiss his cheek and he says no. We know then that Bubba does not have any ill intentions with the girl, but we’re the only ones. This innocent playtime doesn’t sit right with a small group of older, neighborhood men who seem to be on the lookout, binoculars and all, for a mistake that will allow them string up Bubba. Their leader played by Charles Durning, an incredible veteran actor who doesn’t have to emote to get his point across, does his job here and then some. He plays Otis, the town’s friendly mailman who, for reasons we will later discover, has it out for Bubba. Otis is good at whipping up a frothing mob, and in a neat little scene with no dialogue, we figure out that his military background might come into play.
That’s the thing about Dark Night of the Scarecrow; this is a simple film made for TV, but the director De Felitta and writer J.D. Feigelson make use of the lean storyline. Bubba’s death is sad and predictable, as are a few deaths that follow. However, just having Otis walk across his room and us seeing military memorabilia everywhere gives us all the information we need regarding his personality. As for his motivation, that’s another shocker, gently handed to us by De Felitta and Feigelson. Without exposition, we don’t have to wonder why a mailman can go from sweet to bloodthirsty in 30 seconds flat.
Those responsible for Bubba’s death are almost prosecuted but the judge decides there’s no evidence and the men are free to go. As you know, this doesn’t mean there won’t be justice. As scarecrows pop up in fields and the body count rises, our characters express pain and panic; someone has decided they’re not going to sit back and let Bubba’s death go unpunished, and we have a couple of suspects to choose from. Dark Night of the Scarecrow, with its perfectly balanced script and great performances by Durning, Lane Smith, and Jocelyn Brando does not belong in TV movie purgatory. It’s a chilling tale about how deceptive appearances can be.
GENRES: Psychological, Serial Killer
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