The Tomb of Terror: Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)

March 26th, 2011 | POSTED BY John Portanova

One thing to keep in mind with this film is that director Frank De Felitta (writer of The Entity) and writer J.D. Feigelson (Wes Craven’s Chiller) don’t want to make a typical horror film where as soon as the scarecrow reappears it begins cutting down the cast list. The creators instead set up an intriguing mystery. Whenever the scarecrow appears in a field, it is just a normal scarecrow made of hay. When one of the guilty rednecks tries to show his friends what he’s seen, it’s disappeared. Once the body count begins, we don’t see any evidence that the scarecrow is responsible. Instead, the characters react to noises they hear off camera, rustlings in a dark hayloft or work shed. The first murderer to meet his maker follows these sounds up to the top of his barn and ends up falling to his death. Was he pushed? Was there even someone else there?

The filmmakers want us to consider all of these possibilities, just as the characters do. Otis becomes increasingly paranoid as the body count builds. He refuses to believe in anything supernatural, so he decides that someone is out to get revenge. He confronts the district attorney, Mrs. Ritter, and even little Marylee as the web of horror and violence spins out of control. The mystery is a good one and the suspense throughout is top-notch. The film also looks like a million bucks. The shots and composition used make it seem more like a theatrical feature than a typical made-for-TV film. The biggest downside to the film is the fact that we don’t get the supernatural carnage that the film is advertised as. I’m fine with a mystery, but personally prefer the flock of demonic scarecrows from the 1988 gorefest Scarecrows.

Dark Night also features top-notch performances, something very rare in a telefilm. Leading the charge is Charles Durning as the hate-filled postal worker. Even though he’s saddled with some bad exposition in the opening sequence, used to set up his hatred of Bubba and what he’d like to do to him, Durning turns Otis into a full fledged character. We not only see his prejudice, but also that he’s a strange man with secrets of his own. The fact that he lives in a boarding house where all of the other residents are 30 years his senior is peculiar. It’s implied in the film that he is a pedophile, and this is sold by Durning’s body language in any scene he shares with Marylee.

The supporting cast doesn’t get to show as much range as Durning, but they still bring good performances to the table. Otis’s posse of rednecks each turn in a good performance for their one-dimensional characters. Jocelyn Brando is the older sister of Marlon Brando, and although she doesn’t have the charisma of her brother, she does well as the grieving mother. The biggest impacts in the supporting cast are made by Tonya Crowe and Larry Drake. Crowe was just 10 years old during the making of the film, but makes Marylee seem like a real child who’s been through a traumatic experience. And the film wouldn’t have been nearly as effective if Drake didn’t make such a big impression as Bubba. He only appears in the opening scenes, but he completely sells the handicapped character and would actually go on to play a similar role for seven years on L.A. Law.

Dark Night of the Scarecrow originally aired as a CBS Saturday night movie on October 24^th, 1981. It was well received at the time; legendary horror star Vincent Price spoke its praises on a few occasions. Since the film was made for TV, it didn’t have a long theatrical window to accrue fans. If you didn’t see it when it aired or happen upon a rerun, you had to wait until the VHS was released in 1986 to see the film. When the tape went out of print soon after, the film became a legend, another “lost” telefilm of the era. Fans kept it alive by passing around bootlegs at horror conventions and online. The film is finally available to the mass public once again, so they can see how even the constrained world of television can make a successful horror film if the makers strive for something more than the standard fare.

Final Grade: B

DVD Releases:

Dark Night of the Scarecrow had been MIA on home video for nearly two decades when VCI Entertainment released it to DVD in the fall of 2010. The disc features a pristine transfer of the film in full frame, the original aspect ratio for any television production of the era. The film itself has seen a minor change in that a new shot lasting about ten seconds has been added to clear up some confusion during the ending. This isn’t a Star Wars special edition like atrocity, but it’s still a fix that didn’t need to be made. The main bonus feature is a commentary track by director Frank De Felitta and writer J.D. Feigelson. This track is a disappointment because the two spend long periods of time just talking about what we’re seeing onscreen and not giving any kind of insight. Of course, at 89 De Felitta might be the oldest person ever on a commentary, so maybe his memory wasn’t serving him too well that day. The only other feature included is a promo from the film’s world television premiere. This fun piece will be a nostalgic trip for anyone who grew up watching original Saturday night movies in the 70s and 80s.

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Charles Durning, Claude Earl Jones, Dark Night of the Scarecrow, Frank De Felitta, J.D. Feigelson, Jocelyn Brando, Lane Smith, Larry Drake, Made-for-TV, Tonya Crowe