Back in the day, made for TV movies were considered low-budget, trash movies. They usually had subpar actors and poor direction. Dark Night of the Scarecrow was one of the first made-for-TV movies that broke out of that stigma. It premiered on CBS in 1981 and was popular enough that they re-broadcast it in 1985. I was too young to see the original broadcast, but I have faint memories of seeing commercials for the rebroadcast. As a child, I remember the scarecrow mask being very frightening. I just got around to watching it and I was pleasantly surprised.
The plot is simple. A mentally handicapped man, Bubba (played by Larry Drake), is friends with a little girl and they frequently play together. The most hateful mailman in the world, excellently played by Charles Durning, seethes about the friendship and has it out for Bubba. When a dog attacks the little girl, the mailman uses it as an opportunity to punish Bubba and he gets a small pack together to chase down the falsely accused man. Bubba hides inside a scarecrow, but the mob find and shoot him. The men claim self-defense and that they were attacked with a pitchfork. Legally, they get away with it but soon after, someone or something starts picking off the members of the vigilante gang.
The movie is filled with great character actors and builds a strong sense of suspense. It has atmosphere and some creepy images. It also flips the script in that it makes the audience cheer for the killer.
That brings us to part 2 of this double feature. Dark Night of the Scarecrow 2 was released in 2022 and has no involvement from the original team. In just about every way, it is an unnecessary and inferior film. It fails at building the tension at which the first one excelled. The editing swings between feeling choppy and stretched out. It also retroactively ruins the character of Bubba from the first film. Part 2 is a skip for me.
As far as the release, I wasn’t paying attention and watched the Blu-ray version first. It looked fine but nothing special. I realized my mistake and put in the 4K disc. The picture was vastly improved and made the TV movie look almost brand new. The special features are plenty. There is a behind the scenes photo gallery, the original promos for the 1981 broadcast and the 1985 re-broadcast. There is a cast reunion Q&A filmed at a convention. There are multiple commentary tracks. Finally, there is a featurette detailing the history of the writing and making of the film, which was easily my favorite of the supplementals.
The VCI double feature release has plenty of special features, good looking front and back cover art, and at least one classic movie. The original DNOTS is worth watching, especially to see what caring about your craft can do for a movie with limited budget and a rushed shooting schedule. However, DNOTS2 is a movie that I found boring and not worthy of the original. Overall, this is a recommend for part 1 and the special features.