We Jam Econo

I usually make a point to watch as many horror movies as possible in the fall leading up to Halloween. In honor of the upcoming season I chose Dark Night of the Scarecrow to review, because in my opinion it is one of the best movies to watch on Halloween night. Though not terribly frightening or bloody, it has the feel of a classic old time horror movie that just feels good to watch on Halloween, much like Night of the Living Dead does. That, and it will give you something to think about whenever you visit the Midwest…giving you that sense of that "hey, it’s just like in that movie" sort of feeling.

Revenge figures prominently in Dark Night Of The Scarecrow, making it kind of “vendetta horror”. The horror movie initially focuses on Bubba (played by the always great Larry Drake), a mentally challenged man in a small Midwestern town. He has a very close friendship with a young girl named Mary Lee. One day while they are playing as usual, Mary Lee gets attacked by a dog, and Bubba comes to her rescue.

The next thing you know, Bubba is standing at Mary Lee's doorstep holding her almost lifeless body in his arms saying "Bubba didn't do it!" (not exactly the best thing to say at first sight in that situation) to her mother. Immediately, the whole town thinks that Bubba did do it. A group of four local men, led by the town mailman Otis (Charles Durning) and known for having been very cruel to Bubba in the past, decide to deal with Bubba in their own personal way.

The mob eventually tracks poor Bubba down in a field where he is hiding by masquerading as a scarecrow. Before they even give Bubba a chance they unload on him with their guns and kill him. Immediately after doing so, they get a call on the radio saying the girl is okay and that Bubba actually saved her life!

The mob, in an effort to save themselves and hide their evil deed, make their murder look like self-defense by placing a pitchfork in Bubba’s lifeless hands.

The killing goes to trial but all four men are found not guilty. Both the prosecutor and Bubba’s mother swear revenge.

All of the men believe they got off free and clear, and swear an oath of secrecy. Soon after the trial, however, they start to see scarecrows in their fields that were never there before. At first the men think that either Bubba's mother or the prosecutor is trying to scare them into doing something to expose their guilt. Soon enough, though, they start to die one by one in horrible ways made to look like farming accidents.

Otis begins to investigate each death as it happens, and his paranoia rises to a dangerous level. He wants to make sure that there are no witnesses to the murder left alive who could expose him.

Who is really behind the scarecrow killer? Bubba’s Mother, the prosecutor…or is it Bubba himself?

Dark Night of the Scarecrow is a great horror movie, originally made for TV back in the eighties. The suspense and atmosphere are perfectly developed here and the rising sense of paranoia and the “whodunit” factor really make Dark Night of the Scarecrow a horror movie that gets your attention and keeps it for the duration…right up to the final scene.