DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW - I'd better include an Octobery, Halloweeny type film now we're nearly a week in, so here is 'Dark Night Of The Scarecrow', which must've been on UK TV at some point as it's the source of many lingering childhood memories. I haven't revisited it that often over the years, but it struck me yesterday - what a classic. I think it works so well because, unlike the majority of horror movies, it has an emotional core that seems capable of tugging at the heartstrings as well as summoning dread. For the unacquainted, it's about what happens in a small town after mentally challenged Bubba, despised by the local postman, is murdered by a vigilante posse; when the culprits start dying, we're left to figure out whether someone's taken up Bubba's cause, whether the rats are turning on themselves, or whether we're witnessing vengeance from beyond the grave (very skilfully, it keeps us guessing to the last). What stands out now is the sheer eeriness of some of the scenes and the vibes that director Franke De Felitta pulls from the Autumn air, and I was surprised to see a superficial TV movie flatness give way many times to really striking, indelible images - Bubba's eyes staring out from that scarecrow mask, a distant shot of one of the perps kneeling before the scarecrow in a landscape of rolling corn, an underlit scene in an attic full of shadows. All this plays out against a backdrop of roiling suspense driven by Charles Durning's great performance as the rabid postie, always stood there his ridiculous sub-military suit and helmet as he paints a picture of utter weasellyness. By turns unsettling, tense and heartbreaking, 'Dark Night Of The Scarecrow' has to be one of the best American TV horror movies of its era and is just really compelling viewing.
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