Night of the Scarecrow [Blu-ray] [1995] [US Import]

This movie was a great find for a few bucks. I guess scarecrows
are getting a bad rap these days. Pop some corn, shut the lights down and enjoy this for the time of the year (love scarecrows, especially since jeepers creepers2) they give the
harvest, Halloween season a whole new meaning. It has a few jolts but it
is different and filmed well. Yeah cheesy here and there but
all good b movies need to be, its dark and brainless, like the
scarecrow.

Okay, at times the scarecrow in question looked and cackled like a demented Muppet. I quite liked it. I also enjoyed the vertigo inducing flight over the cornfield during the opening credits.

As horror films go, this one is par for the course. The story/history of the scarecrow is pretty much what one would expect from a fairy tale. The townsfolk several generations back needed a crop booster so they turned to the resident warlock. A bad bargain was struck in order for the town to prosper. Several orgies later, the same townsfolk got fed up, stole the warlock's spell book, lashed him to a cross, waited impatiently for him to die, burned his body, stuffed the bones into a casket, stuck the casket into the ground, and placed a cement slab over the top of it. How were they to know that some yahoos, eons later, would break the seal with a bulldozer? Common mistake uneasily rectified, several bodies later.............
I enjoyed seeing several members of the cast struggling with the material. I often wonder what goes through the minds of actors playing these wacked-out roles. Take Gary Lockwood for example, playing the obligatory stinker/mayor who knows what's going on but chooses to ignore it until he is face to face with the scarecrow. What went through his mind..........I once starred in a classic, 2001 a Space Odyssey. Ah, those were the days. Now I'm hung on a wall with a sword and a poker sticking through me. Where did my career go wrong?

Not to worry, your shame went for a good cause; it ain't art but I liked it!

I remember watching this movie in the mid 90s when it was still fresh. I recalled the "wild orgies" scene very well...it was extremely cheesy and hilarious. I found out that Night of the Scarecrow was getting its long overdue DVD/Blu-Ray treatment, so decided to buy the High Def version...got it for 20 bucks and some very little cents. The movie is just as cheesy and campy as I remembered it, and I loved every bit of it. The scenes when the scarecrow uses his "finger" to impregnate, or attempt to impregnate, women, is disgusting in a guilty pleasure sort of way. The special effects are actually pretty good for a low budget horror flick of this caliber. Besides the impregnation and ensuing "birth" scene, the part when the mayor gets crucified is awesome, and the expression and laughter of the scarecrow is truly disturbing and creepy. The back story to the movie is cliché, but it works. As mentioned, get ready for a laugh at the orgies scene. It's so over the top and bad acting you can't help but giggle. Actually, the whole movie is full of bad acting, but what do you expect from a low budget slasher about a killer scarecrow? It adds to the charm. Now, about the Blu-Ray, It isn't amazing, but for an 18 year old slasher that is definitely no classic in the genre, it's decent enough. There's beautiful detail in the scenery, especially the corn field in the opening credits. The locations are nice to look at. The daytime outside scenes are of course nicer than the inside and nighttime scenes. The special features are sorely lacking, but anything is better than nothing. There's a 3 minute vintage making of, which the only good scene is showing how the "mayor crucifixion" scene was done. There's an 8 minute photo gallery montage of behind the scenes and production correspondence, in tune with music and the director commentary. It's not bad, actually. There's also a full length director commentary for the feature, but I haven't listened to that yet. Overall, if you enjoyed this movie when you were younger, I'd recommend getting it for nostalgia reasons. If you never seen it before, but like cheesy low budget horror flicks, or scarecrow flicks in general, then it's a good viewing.

Night of the Scarecrow is by far one of the finest 90's B horror we've seen in a long time. Yeah that is a strong way to start out. Naturally, you know by now that the Sid brothers are the worlds foremost 90's B enthusiasts. Maybe because it brings us back to a time we'd walk into the local video store on a Saturday night, pick up a great new release B, load up on the snacks, and have an evenings worth of laughs. There's just something about 90's horror that's so great. Filled with sub par acting and an awesomely B grade plots, the 90's had it going on. Which is why we were so pleased to come across Night of the Scarecrow....this thing is good, we want to be friends with it. The movies is essentially what all 90's B horror should emulate.

Right off the bat you open up with a creepy tripped out scene from a crows point of view, moments before he gets finished off by the scarecrow. After this we are introduced to the resident small town hicks of Anytown USA. Lucky for us the sheriff was the bank manager who gave Kramer $25 dollars for nobody saying hello, and all the trades worked out. The real problems begin once the town's two young punks get wasted, steal a tractor, and unleash an evil warlock spirit that possesses a scarecrow. This scarecrows is all about the business. This thing tears people apart in some of the most intense Death Scenes since Appache getting impaled by Matt Collins. The towns only hope lies in the hands of an outcasted daughter and her beau that looks like a Razor Ramone impersonator. You can pretty much map out the plot, which is what any good 90's B allows you to do.

So obviously we were all about Night of the Scarecrow from the opening scene up until the captivating ending. We're sure the haze in the air helped, but no matter what this movie should be viewed by everyone at least once. It may even be one of those movies Sid has to throw in rotation every few years. Every year would be sacrilegious being that annual viewings are reserved for Death Ring and Halloween. This film really had everything Sid looks for in B horror. We could almost compare it to the classic Pumpkinhead (Collector's Edition) except swap out Pumpkinhead and Lance Henriksen with a warlock scarecrow and Razor Ramone's brother's cousin. Do yourself a favor and find a way to view Night of the Scarecrow...it will be the equivalent of being chased with a pink turkey baster, then enjoying your Christmas presents.

...
The movie starts off that some drunk yokells riding farm equipment try to destroy a farmer's corn field,
The acting in this movie is... well bad. It's the main downfall of the film...
There were no wasted scenes and the movie always had you wondering what would happen next. There's a great chase scene in the house where... is chased by the scarecrow from the attic all the way to the farm that had me literally squeezing the life out of my pillow.
This movie has grisly murders, a mediocre cast, and an overall okay plot. I honestly would give this move 3 1/2 stars but I rounded up for the sake that I had fun with this crazy scary film.
Good Movie, Buy it or Rent it.