Dark Night of the Scarecrow

Halloween 2017

>>

Under the Radar

Here we have a fairly intriguing entry from 1981, in the form of a made-for-TV horror film. It's pretty much television's answer to 'Friday the 13th Part 2', which was released the previous May. The film was released to the TV audience on October 24, and... no one really ever talks about it. This is probably due to the fact that it basically was like watching the entire 'Friday the 13th' concept all over again.

Our story opens with Bubba Ritter (Larry Drake) picking flowers, and singing songs with a little girl named Marylee Williams (Tonya Crowe). Understandably, to some local yokels, this grown man hanging around with this little girl is pretty damn creepy and suspicious. It also doesn't help that Bubba is mentally handicapped, giving the townspeople that cliched vibe of "well, he must be harmful as he's unpredictable". However, to the film's credit, it shows us just how very harmless this guy actually is. There's a point where she offers him a friendly kiss, but he seems to know better than to do anything stupid. He shies away from her, but you do get the impression he realizes the act of kissing her would be wrong.

So, Bubba and Marylee start heading home, when they spot that one of the neighbors got a new fountain. Marylee wants to go check it out, but Bubba is afraid they'll get in trouble for going onto a property they're not supposed to. Marylee goes anyway, gets mauled by a dog, and Bubba returns to Marylee's house with her body.

Of course, according to the townspeople, it's obvious Bubba must have killed her. This sparks the angry mob chase as poor Bubba runs for his life, and back home, where his mother tells him to hide. He does so, dressed as a scarecrow, but is found, and killed in cold blood. The twist is, immediately afterward, it's revealed that Marylee came through, and is still alive. This, in turn, sparks the beginning of the horror in the typical "that-guy-you-killed-isn't-really-dead" fashion.

So, how does it hold up? Well, it IS a made-for-TV horror film from 1981, which means it can't be THAT great by today's standards. But, to the movie's credit, I could have seen this being pretty damn solid for the time. It's actually fairly well-acted, does a good job with a creepy atmosphere, and there's some fairly creative kills throughout.

The only real downside to it I found was that the backstory seemed almost carbon copy of Jason's history. It's just that there were little tweaks here and there. That, followed by the film's overall brutal predictability, and the character of Skeeter, the mechanic. Skeeter may win the overall grand prize for whiniest performance in the history of film. I understand that's a bold statement, but sincerely, I was sitting there thinking to myself "holy crap, this guy's having a bad acid trip for real or something". It's a truly pathetic display to watch, and to the point where you just can't empathize with the character at all.

Is it the best thing to watch for Halloween? Probably not. I can tell you there are far better Halloween films out there you'd probably rather spend your time with. But I would recommend at least checking it out once - just for the experience of it all. The cheese-factor works out much of the time here, so in a way, it's still pretty fun. It can be found in mediocre quality on YouTube if you don't feel like spending the cash.

​3/5

---