Watch Dark Night of the Scarecrow For Free

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Touches You

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This is a pretty creepy, even somewhat sad movie about a mentally handicapped man who is murdered by the denizens of a Podunk town out in the middle of nowhere for no other reason than they don't like him. After killing him and gloating about getting away with the murder, the murderers themselves start turning up dead, one by one. But who's getting revenge? This movie really goes for it. The subject matter is some pretty dark stuff, and the movie doesn't shy away from making you uncomfortable. There are some really, legitimately great shots in this movie, that really present a feeling of dread very well. One particularly good shot I absolutely love is what should be the movie's most violent, gruesome, bloody death -- since it's a made-for-TV movie, they can't actually show any gore, but they work around it in a clever and amusing way.The story is also quite good (up to a point, which we'll get to in a moment). In the first 20 minutes I was pretty sure I had the whole movie pegged -- I just KNEW who the killer was. But multiple curve balls later, it shook things up and kept me guessing. It is, however, a little slow to get going, but once it does, it's dark, spooky fun.Which is ultimately the problem: the movie kept me guessing so much that it never actually gave any answers. It just ends, rather ambiguously, leaving a couple very important threads dangling without resolution. The movie works up to a big reveal that never actually happens. It just rolls credits.On principal, I'm not anti-mystery. Sometimes not having all the answers is part of the fun. But this movie gives you the impression it has an answer to give you, and then just... doesn't. It almost feels like they had hopes for a sequel that never materialized.THAT leaves a sour taste in my mouth, so much so that I feel like I can't fully endorse it. Any time this movie comes up, I will have to attach the caveat at the end of "Hey, the ending kind of sucks." Which... yeah, kind of sucks.

A group of bigoted locals wrongly blame gentle man-child Bubba (Larry Drake) for the death of a young girl and hunt the frightened dolt down, eventually finding him disguised as a scarecrow in his mother's field. Without giving poor Bubba a chance to explain what happened, the trigger-happy gang fill him full of holes. The ensuing murder trial is a farce and the men are acquitted, but one by one they are menaced by a creepy scarecrow before turning up dead.For my money, scarecrows are every bit as disturbing as clowns, but they don't seem to have captured film-makers' imaginations in quite the same way: there's tons of scary clown flicks (with more and more on the way following the success of this year's horror blockbuster It), but only a handful of scarecrow films. TV movie Dark Night of the Scarecrow, directed by novelist Frank De Felitta, attempts to prove to the boob tube masses that a creepy straw man can be just as terrifying as a grease-painted killer, but fails to do so: the limitations of the small screen format means that there is zero gore, and the film delivers very few genuine frights simply because the victims are all thoroughly deserving of their fates (it's hard to be scared when you're rooting for the scarecrow).It's a shame because the cast is good (Charles Durning is delightfully loathsome as mailman Otis, leader of the lynch mob, who, it is implied, is also a pedo) and De Felitta displays some not inconsiderable skill behind the camera.

When the film begins, Bubba (Larry Drake) is playing with a neighbor girl. She's young and he's a mentally challenged adult. Well, for some odd reason, several of the locals hate Bubba and Otis (Charles Durning) enjoys stirring up hatred against the man. Soon after this little scene, the girl is attacked by a vicious dog and Bubba saves her and brings her home to her mother. He's hysterical and soon all sorts of crazy rumors start that HE attacked the kid and killed her. But she's only slightly hurt and before long, folks are running about town looking for Bubba. Otis' little group is primed for a hanging...all due to Otis' drumming it into their dumb minds that Bubba is a danger to them all! As for Bubba, he hides in a most unusual fashion...pretending to be the scarecrow on his mother's farm! The evil quartet soon find him and don't give him a chance to surrender and shoot him 21 times!! Amazingly, the local judge refuses to indict them for murder!! So, it seems that the four scum-bags have gotten away with it.Soon after this incident, a scarecrow appears on one of the four men's land...and within a short time, he's dead...supposedly by accident. And, soon after that, the same thing happens again. At this point, Otis isn't about to take any chances and begins killing off anyone who could possibly be behind the two deaths. What's next? See this cool made for TV horror movie.Overall, this is a very well made and highly entertaining film...far better than the norm for such a picture. The acting, writing and scare factor are all there...and the film is well worth your time.Interestingly, a few years after this film was made, Larry Drake went on to become a regular on "LA Law" playing another mentally challenged man. I am pretty sure this film must have helped him land this role.

Genuinely scary, effective, memorable thriller about a mentally challenged man named Bubba(superbly played by Larry Drake) who is murdered by bigoted townspeople who think his innocent friendship with a young girl is inappropriate, and how this group of men(led by the sinister Otis Hazelrigg, played menacingly by Charles Durning) are mysteriously killed in "accidents". Can the ghost of Bubba be at work, seeking his revenge in the scarecrow costume he was killed in? Or is there more to it than that? The direction is stylish and crisp, the script smart and multi-layered, the whole cast fine, and the ending chilling, all aided by a memorably sinister score. A true classic that was worthy of a theatrical release.