Dark Night of the Scarecrow

[bendk]

The cover illustration for the forthcoming Ligotti book "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" reminded me of another horror movie that I like: "The Dark Night of the Scarecrow". It is a made-for-TV movie that originally aired in 1981. The story is about the killing of a mentally retarded man (Bubba) for a crime he didn't commit - the murder of a young girl, his friend. The group of vigilantes, led by Charles Durning, in a great performance, escape justice. But as Bubba's Momma yells after the unjust verdict "There is other justice in this world besides the law." There follows some fairly violent and unexplainable happenings in this small town. The movie gets increasingly frenetic until the end. Directed by Frank DeFelitta, with some interesting cinematography (even if you don't take the low budget into consideration) by Vincent A. Martinelli, and a creepy score by Glenn Paxton. It is a supernatural revenge movie that could be compared to later movies like "The Crow" and "Pumpkinhead". For a Ligotti comparison, it might be close to a rural MWINYD.

	MWINYD My Work Is Not Yet Done

[waffles]

I remember seeing this when I was young. It scared the crap ot of me. Nowadays it would probably be derided as being too dated - as if that should dampen the overall horror.

Cheers!