For this year’s 31 Nights of Horror Challenge, the Day 29 prompt is Scarecrow. We watched the movie, Dark Night of the Scarecrow on Amazon Prime.

Storyline

A mentally challenged fella named Bubba invites the wrath of a group of men when he befriends a small girl. This group is always ready to beat or harass Bubba but one very mean man from the group named Otis wants to kill Bubba due to his hidden perversion towards the small girl. Otis gets his chance when the young girl is attacked by a dog and the townspeople assume it to be the work of Bubba.

Our Thoughts on Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)

You can tell this one is a TV movie in that you don’t see a whole lot of blood or anything. The story is pretty sad as a mentally retarded man is accused of hurting a little girl…which turns out not to be the case and this idiots who are not police go looking for him. The police could have prevented what happened next by locking the mentally retarded person up till they questioned the girl, but that wouldn’t have made for much of a movie. The rednecks go to where he lives and find him hiding in the fields dressed as a scarecrow and they proceed to kill him even though he didn’t make a move. They get over in the trial cause they have connections and then they proceed to be killed one by one. Predictable and a bit to slow paced, but watchable.

4 out of 10 stars

Trivia 

Hazelrigg is never seen wearing anything but his Postal Service uniform throughout the entire film.

Charles Durning did most of his own stunts in the film’s climactic chase scene when he was running away from the tractor. A double can be seen in a few shots with darker hair.

Screenwriter J.D. Feigelson went to Texas and recorded the sounds of cicadas so they could be used in the film.