The first time you are truly terrified by a horror movie sticks with you forever. For me, the final scene in this flick has remained in my subconscious and I remember it today as vividly as I did when I was nine years old. It was near Halloween in 1981 when these images were first implanted into my mind. I was staying with my grandparents for the weekend and this was a TV movie on prime time that we decided to watch. It seemed innocent enough as it was around Halloween but little did my loving family know that this movie would have a profound effect on their grandson. This is not the first horror movie that I experienced as I had been watching classic monster movies every Sunday with my dad but I think that this is the first horror movie that I saw that took the monsters and made them more real and ominous. This may also be my first exposure to the revenge subgenre where I learned that no sin goes unpunished.

Charles Durning stare as Otis Hazelrigg, an irascible postal worker in a small U.S. town who also acts as the community bigot. He has taken a particular dislike to a man named Bubba (Larry Drake, Dr. Giggles) who has an intellectual disability as is best friends with a young girl named Marylee (Tonya Crowe). When Marylee suffers a serious trauma, Hazelrigg and his cronies jump to the conclusion that Bubba is responsible so they hunt him down and kill him in cold blood. Bubba is defenseless and hiding inside a scarecrow when he is discovered but the small lynch mob still proceed to execute him like a firing squad. After thing have settled down, the murderers one by one find the same scarecrow on their land when it appears shortly before they get what's coming to them.

The foreboding atmosphere of this movie is what makes it so effective. In the past, major network TV movies were very different than they are today in that some movies were as well-produced and frightening as some of the flicks coming out theatrically. Think of Trilogy of Terror, The Night Stalker, and Salem's Lot and you will get the idea. I think this is one of the best examples of what can be done within the limits of what is acceptable for television. Director Frank De Felitta implies much but shows little but we all know that our own imagination can conjure of the most horrific of visions. When you see someone fall into a woodchipper, the thought of what happened to him is going to be gruesome no matter what is displayed on the screen. The chilling image of the old scarecrow hanging on a wooden cross in the middle of a field is another one that is not easy to shake especially when combined with cinematography that emphasizes the isolation.

This movie deals not only with revenge but also with pedophilia and ignorance. Charles Durning plays Hazelrigg as an absolutely despicable character and he gets worse throughout the film. By the end, you absolutely hate this guy and what he has done to both convince himself that his opinion is right and also to cover up his own crimes. He is one of those people who don't have a shred of humanity left. Hazelrigg's followers elicit a little more pity as they show some remorse for their actions. They are played by established character actors Robert F. Lyons (The Todd Killings), Claude Earl Jones (Bride of Re-Animator), and Lane Smith ("Lois & Clark") and we can clearly see how they are under the dominating spell of Hazelrigg. Director Frank De Felitta is also a novelist who is noted for writing the books that The Entity and Audrey Rose were based on. Look for Marlon Brando's sister Jocelyn as Bubba's mom. (Josh Pasnak, 10/20/10)

Directed By: Frank De Felitta.
Written By: J.D. Feigelson.

Starring: Charles Durning, Robert F. Lyons, Clause Earl Jones, Lane Smith.

Picture Ratio: Full Frame.

Picture Quality: This is a gorgeous transfer that I was not expecting from an old TV movie. Bravo.

Extras: We get a commentary from director De Felitta and writer J.D. Feigelson. This is a good listen but there is some dead air and I would have preferred it if they were a little more prepared. We also get a CBS network world premiere promo which is essentially just a curio from when the movie originally aired.

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