By Chris Summerfield
The movie begins with Bubba Ritter(Larry Drake), a 30something giant of a man with a mental illness, building daisy chains with a very young, Marylee Williams (Tonya Crowe) all looking innocent, though being secretly watched by Otis Hazelrigg (Charles Durning) the town postman, who seems to have an unhealthy attraction towards Marylee. Otis, sure as a dislike towards, Bubba, and lets it known amongst the town and especially his close friends.
Bubba appears at the door of the parents of Marylee with an injured Marylee. The story soon circulates that Bubba had attacked the girl and Otis is immediately accusing him of killing the girl, assembling his lynch mob, made up of his close friends that go after Bubba with brutal revenge in mind.
Bubba returns home, where he lives with his mother, crying and extremely upset, tells her he did not do it, and his mother disguises him as a scarecrow.
Otis, and his lynch mob, Harless Hocker, (Lane Smith) Skeeter Norris and Philby, go to Mrs.’s Ritter’s house, demanding for Bubba to be handed over, but she denies he is at the house and pleads his innocence, the dogs that Otis, as with them draw them to the scarecrow, Bubba, is disguised as.
Otis approaches the scarecrow to see a frightened Bubba behind the mask, whimpering. This scene was very touching as you could not help but feel for poor old, Bubba. He pleads to them just before they fill him with bullets…
The four men stare on at what they have done and as they do they receive a message over the CB that Bubba, had saved the girl from a dog attack.
Otis, and his mob, then face trial and possible a death sentence if they are proven guilty of his murder. The judge believes they are all good members of the community and frees them of the charges and as the verdict is read, Mrs. Ritter, vows revenge.
Otis and his friends celebrate and believe that is the end… then a scarecrow similar to the one Bubba was dressed up as, and in the same clothes appears in Harless’s field. Terrified, Harless goes to his friends claiming one of them had done it, though Otis has other ideas… Harless that evening dies while investigating some phenomena within his barn, falling in to the thresher machine.
So begins suspicions and accusations, Skeeter and Philby. full of theories, Otis not to convinced, though soon is when they go to the barn belonging to the late Harless, and find the thresher machine half filled with gas, as they had been informed the machine was switched off after his death, so believed it had run out of gas.
Otis, confronts Mrs. Ritter, believing she knows something about the death of Harless, so therefore begins the journey for Otis, in to paranoia and revenge that gets out of control; Otis willing to stop at nothing to save his skin and becoming more desperate, especially after hearing of the death of Philby, and just like Harless, Philby had witnessed the scarecrow in a field of his. Otis begins to believe, Bubba is still alive, or perhaps he is losing his mind? Otis though becomes dangerous and bloody determined to save himself, no matter at what price.
The movie comes to an amazing climax with Otis chasing after Marylee through a pumpkin patch, and after catching her and accusing her as being behind the murders, a digger being driven by some unforeseen force chases him.
I am such a huge fan of this movie as it relies on your imagination to fill in the gaps, and only in the last few minutes do you see the scarecrow that had been stalking Otis and his friends.
And what I like about this movie, is it as a strong message regards ignorance towards people with mental health and how venerable they are, especially how easy they can be misunderstood, how easy it is in the society we live in to label such innocence as pedophilia. Then again ask yourself, how would you feel if your young child had grown a friendship with a 30something man?
Without doubt I feel strongly this movie would have been a huge hit at the cinema back when it was first produced, instead of being made for television and without doubt one of the greatest scarecrow horror movies to date.
Rating: 9/10
