44 years ago, this vicious horror film presented us one of the biggest and most sustainable bad guys in the genre

ahsan65@gmail.comSeptember 7, 2025

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44 years ago, this vicious horror film presented us one of the biggest and most sustainable bad guys in the genre

What are the greatest horror movies on television? Maybe he’s HE Mini-series, which could be considered a long characteristic. A beloved competitor is the 1992 British documentary Choose. Using real BBC presenters, he became controversial for the way he played with realism when a ghost hunt in the air turned terribly. A decade earlier, however, another TV movie frightened viewers differently. Released on CBS in 1981 Dark night of the scarecrow was about the secrets of small town and revenge beyond the grave. He is considered the first horror film of scarecrow, and it is perhaps the one that did it best.

What is the “dark night of the scarecrow” about?

Image via CBS

In the deep south, the innocent friendship between the little girl, Marylee (Tonya Crowe), and the mental handicapped man, bubba (Larry Drake), catch the anger of a small group of men who includes a mechanic and certain farmers, and is led by a local factor, Ortis Hazelrigg (Charles Durning). When an accident apparently kills the girl, the blame is put on Bubba, which is driven by Otis and his friends. They find him hiding like a scarecrow and killing him, only to learn that Marylee is alive and that Bubba had protected her. Men cover their crime, but each of them is soon punishedlike karma out of CE comics.

Dark night of the scarecrow is great for those who love slashers and ghost stories. A wind blows on the field where Bubba dies, and later, through the city. Something on another world takes over when deadly justice cannot understand Otis and his friends. One by one, they are killed in what could be accidents. He does not have graphic violence seen in the series of final destinations, but Dark night of the scarecrow Does not feel disinfected, despite its manufacturing for network television. Here, no one receives peaceful death.

‘Dark Night of the Scarecrow’ is bloody but still vicious

A wooden shredder eats bones and flesh; A silo is filled with someone locked inside; Whenever one of the men is killed, their death is brutal, even if their last moments are out of screen or bloodless. It never looks like a weakness that the film cannot show everything. This is a horror film that scares you by (1) What you do not see and (2) what it makes you feel. A minimalist score that plays is not catchy as the Halloween The theme, but its ambient sounds help to establish a strange tone of the first scene and to capture the atmosphere of this southern rural city.

The mountains in the distance the ferment of the outside world; Dustrous roads and dried fields make the location inhospitable. But the most effective fear is the scarecrow, With a face that looks like The Scream by Edvard Munch. Bubba’s eyes looking out of his head when he hides inside is a surprising image, although the flipper does not let go from there. The friends of Otis are starting to spot the same scarecrow displayed in their fields, a reminder of their crime and the omen of death that will come for them. The scarecrow does not move or does nothing explicitly “scary”. The fear he creates is how she is discovered on earth, nobody before it.

Dark night of the scarecrow is tamed in relation to Other horror films on the theme of the scarecrow that would come after. However, it is the one who did it first, presenting a recurring theme to horror that the others would continue. Seven years later, a Slasher film Scarecrow Transformed the holding figures into an owned murderers. A macabre childhood quarrel in 2011 Dissect Transform a field of corn into a bloody hunting ground. Harold comes out of his post and targets a tyrant Frightening stories to tell in the dark From 2019. The two use their Scarecrow monsters to represent abuse and intimidation, which date back to the 1981 TV movie, where the sins of an oppressor will not be unpunished.

This TV movie from the 80s knew how frightening the threesome can be

A man kneels and is afraid of a scary scarecrow in the TV movie Dark Night of the Scarecrow.

In an interview JD Feigelsonthe author of Dark night of the scarecrowHe revealed the special place that his teleplay had in the genre. “I was informed by a cinema historian that it was the first horror feature to have a scarecrow as a masterpiece.” But Feigelson did more than write popcorn fears; There are more cruel things in the plot. The real monster is Otis, whose motivations behind Bubba hatred are strongly implicit to want Marylee for himself. “Now you are not afraid of me. I am the factor,” he told the girl, while making her get stuck before she hurry. Otis and his friends do not understand Bubba’s mental handicap, but that doesn’t matter. They have trouble having a good reason to attack Bubba.

From the disturbing rural setting to the contemptible factor of Charles Durning, you will love to hate, Dark night of the scarecrow certainly brings the darkness that its title promises. More than 40 years after its origin on television, atmospheric horror is well preserved for new viewers, with a difficult end to forget.