DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROWS 1 & 2 DOUBLE FEATURE (1981-2021)
DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (1981)
+ DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW 2 (2021)
DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (1981)
Label: VCI Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 97 Minutes 4 Seconds
Video: 2160p Ultra HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo, 5.1 Surround with English Subtitles
Director: Frank De Felitta
Cast: Charles Durning, Robert F. Lyons, Lane Smith, Tonya Crowe, Larry Drake, Claude Earl Jones, Jocelyn Brando, Tom Taylor
Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1980) is a made-for-television horror film that aired on the CBS network the week before Halloween in 1981 that chilled my eight-year old self all the way down to my ratty Chuck Taylors. It was great timing for a proper chiller the week before Halloween, and the film affected me deeply because, much like the location in the film I grew up a rural area blanketed with fields of rustling corn and agriculture. Afterwards I had quite a few nightmares about scarecrows and cornfields, and at this point I hadn't even seen The Children of the Corn (1984), yet - that one cemented my fear of all things corn for a while - at least until I realized what a sort of cheese-fest CotC actually was.
The film is directed by Frank De Felitta (TV movie Doberman Patrol), the author and screenwriter of supernatural chillers Audrey Rose (1977) and The Entity (1982). The film opens with the simple-minded Bubba Ritter (Larry Drake, Dr. Giggles), a grown man with a child's mind, playing with Mary-Lee (Tonya Crowe, TV's Knots Landing), an adolescent girl who seems to be his only friend. As they play they are watched through binoculars by Otis P. Hazelrigg (Charles Durning, When A Stranger Calls), who is the absolute meanest mailman I have ever seen on the small or big screen. He disapproves of the relationship despite it's innocent nature, the thought of a 36 year old "retard" playing with the sweet young lass really curdles his cream something fierce. It must be said that Durning is amazing in this film, he's just so goddamn mean and nasty, a closeted alcoholic with a dark streak, and it's heavily implied the reason he doesn't much like Bubba is because of his own impure thoughts about that sweet little girl. Soon thereafter young Mary-Lee is attacked by a vicious dog after sneaking into a neighbors backyard to check out their cool gnome collection, unaware that it is guarded by a vicious dog. Otis rescues her from the jaws of the vicious canine and takes Mary-Lee's seemingly lifeless body to her mother where he tries to explain the situation "Bubba didn't do it!", but the distraught mother panics and it's assumed that Otis has somehow harmed the girl.
When that bastard mailman gets word of the girl's misfortune he assumes the worst and shuts down the post office to form a lynch mob alongside local yokels Skeeter (Robert F. Lyons, 10 To Midnight), Philby (Claude Earl Jones, She-Freak, Bride of Re-Animator) and Harliss (Lane Smith, Night Game). The mob now armed with guns, an abundance of ignorance and hatred, and bloodhounds track the scared-shitless Bubba to his mother’s home, where Mrs. Ritter (Jocelyn Brando, The Big Heat) attempts to send the angry mob away, but the hounds have already picked-up his scent, leading the mob to a scarecrow hung from a post in a field out behind the Ritter property. The inquisitive Otis walks-up to the scarecrow to investigate and sees Bubba’s staring back at him with his scared, wide-eyed stare from the eerie burlap mask, his eyes tearing up and trembling with terror. The men on Otis's command open fire executing him in a hail of gunfire, blood pouring from the wounds. For a '81 made-for-TV film it's was quite a bloody sight, and more violent than what I remember seeing on TV at that time. Right on cue the truck's CB radio gurgles to life informing the men that the search for Bubba has been called off, the girl is all right, and that Bubba actually saved her life! Well that's just a little late, no? Acting quickly to mask their blame Otis takes a pitchfork from the truck bed and places it in Bubba’s dead hands, thereby claiming the execution was self defense. There’s a short trial afterwards and the town's D.A. (Tom Taylor, Resurrection), who looks like a made-for-TV version of Alan Alda (M*A*S*H), is unable to make the murder charges stick, and with no witnesses the men walk free, a true travesty of rural justice. Soon thereafter the men are find themselves being dispatched one by one in a series of chilling revenge killings, each foreshadowed by the appearance of a mysterious scarecrow in a field outside the men's homes.
I do not wish to spoil the film for those who haven't been initiated so I won’t go into much detail about the murders or finale, but they are terrifically staged. This is a TV film, as such it is absent of any serious gore by design, but the way that character Harliss is killed inside a barn near a woodchipper horrified me as a kid, it's chilling stuff, especially for someone who was no stranger to farm equipment having grown up in a similarly rural area in Upstate New York. This is a classic tale of revenge with some supernatural elements and it's also the very first scarecrow horror film that I know of, if you don't count the Scarecrow from the The Wizard of Oz, who also kind of scared me as a kid The films also has some great supporting characters, particularly Charles Durning's Otis who's one mean-spirited motherfucker, and of course young Mary-Lee played by Tonya Crowe is also quite wonderful. Then there's Larry Drake who is amazing, though his role as Bubba gets limited screen time he makes an impression, and it lead to him taking this simple-minded act to the next level with his role TV's LA Law years later. I love the entire film, but the last 10 minutes of it are above and beyond amazing, the final stalking though a pumpkin patch which is brilliantly shot and creepy as Hell. The cinematography is surprisingly cinematic for a TV film, cinematographer Vincent A. Martinelli makes wonderful use of the 4:3 frame with interesting angles and striking composition. He went onto direct nearly a 100 episodes each of the 80's series Simon & Simon, which I was a huge fan of, and Major Dad, but I see he also directed a bunch of Marvel TV prosperities in the late 70's, including The Incredible Hulk and the Amazing Spider-Man TV series, but the TV movies Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979) and Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge (1979). The well-staged scares are also enhanced by the terrifically frightful score by composer Glenn Paxton that ups the tension and creep-factor quite a bit, who also scored a bakers dozen of those ABC Afterschool Specials!
This is a made-for-TV terror that is firing on all cylinders - it's not a blood bath by any means but there's so much great atmosphere and chilling tension that still manages to get under my skin - this is just a stunner of a fright flick that earns it's scares with a great script, solid performances and a fantastically eerie finale that culminates with a cornfield encounter that chilled me to the bone when I was eight, and still works it's Halloween magic on me still.
DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW 2 (2021)
Label: VCI Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 84 Minutes 26 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: J.D. Feigelson
Cast: Amber Wedding, Aiden Shurr, Carol Dines, Adam Snyder, Tim Gooch, Richard Seng
The made-for-TV chiller Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981) originally aired on CBS on October 24th, 1981 when I was eight, I consider it a seminal slice of TV terror that frightened me good back then and it still holds up pretty dang well today. It stands as the flick that ignited the scarecrow horror sub-genre, followed by Scarecrows (1988), Dark Harvest (1992), Night of the Scarecrow (1995) and many others after, but few have been able to muster the nostalgic kinder trauma that the original seemed to achieve so effortlessly. This four-decades later sequel is both written and directed by J.D. Feigelson, the writer of the original film, but I am saddened to say that it falls far short when compared to the original and even when taken on it's own.
Set in the same sleepy little town forty years later we have single mother Chris (Amber Wedding) and her son Jeremy (Aiden Shurr) who have recently moved into the small community while she tries to escape her past, which comes back to haunt her 'natch. She takes up a job at a local store, and while she's working her seemingly emotionally troubled son Jeremy is babysat by a kindly older lady named Mrs. Corvis (Carol Dines, Spider-Man: No Way Home). She notices that the old lady and the boy have grown abnormally attached, but doesn't think too much about it, but we discover that the restless spirit of Bubba from the first film is still animating the sack-headed scarecrow, and he has a connection to the young boy that Mrs. Clovis uses for her own mysterious purposes.
As where the original film was a made-for-TV film the gore was non-existent, but it still worked because of the deft direction, the superior cast, and the oodles of atmosphere it offered. What this sequel offers is pretty much zero gore as well, and the kills, which happen mostly just-off screen, which is fine, but they are just poorly executed. What we do actually see are cheap digital effects that fail to illicit any sense of suspense or tension, so that's very disappointing. Also, I am not a fan that forty-years later the spirit of poor Bubba is still trapped in that raggedy scarecrow, his soul is still not at rest, poor guy, that thought totally bummed me out.
On top of that, as where the original film featured the talents of Larry Drake, Robert F. Lyons, and Lane Smith, this no-budget cheapie is populated by an all amateur cast that is flat at best, and just bad at worst. The script itself feels like a first draft that never got a second pass before it went into production as well. There's also an outside element that comes into play that I didn't care for, I feel like they should have kept it small-town centric, and where it goes feels shoehorned in. The look and design of the scarecrow is not half bad, but not half as as good as the first film either, but it's least passable, and is probably the sequels only attribute. The biggest change in the look is that the eye holes glow yellow at times, which just looks super cheesy, it's unnecessary. The original film was written by Feigelson but also had the talents of author-turned-director Frank De Felitta (Audrey Rose) behind the camera. It's also worth noting that the original had a much higher budget, so it's not exactly on a level playing field, and it's not a fair comparison, but when you make a sequel to a beloved property you're gonna be judged by the original, that's just the way it goes, for better or worse, and here its way worse. On one hand this feels like a group of friends making a no-budget flick, and I can appreciate that, getting any movie made and distributed is a minor friggin' miracle, but when it's a sequel to a beloved cult-classic that sort of lineage carries a different kind of expectation with it, and this ill-conceived sequel fails to deliver on all fronts in my opinion. If you're a die-hard scarecrow-horror completest who needs to see 'em all go ahead and give this a watch, I suppose, but if you're looking for a sequel to the original that delivers on that film's chills and flights I would have to say skip it, you will be disappointed.
Audio/Video: Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981) arrives in 4K Ultra HD from VCI Entertainment in 2160p UHD full screen (1.33:1) with HDR WCG color-grading. The source in in good shape, there are a few minor white speckles and scratches evident, but is in otherwise near-flawless. The HDR color-grading looks just okay, it's very underwhelming, and I did not notice a heck of a lot of difference between it and the older Blu-ray master to be honest. Black levels are also inconsistent and anemic in spot, and contrast shows room for improvement. The encode seems to be the biggest problem, throughout my viewing grain looked tinkered with, it's noisy, there are compression artifacts throughout, and a handful of instance of banding. It's not an ideal 4K presentation by any means, in fact I preferred the accompanying Blu-ray by comparisons, which had more natural looking grain and less compression. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround with optional English subtitles, the tracks are clean and well-balanced, dialogue is always intelligible, and the Glenn Paxton score is definitely a highlight. The sequel also gets a 4K UHD with uncompressed DTS-HD MA 2.0 and 5.1, and it looks superior to the previous 2022 Blu-ray release in all the expected areas.
Onto the extras, disc 1 is the 4K UHD disc, we gets 2160 UHD presentations of both films, plus a new 2023 DNOTS Triple Fan Audio Commentary Track Hosted by Heath Holland (Cereal Midnight Podcaster) and featuring Robert Kelly noted film historian, and super-fan Amanda Reyes, expert on TV movies, author, podcaster, which is just a treat to listen to. They all clearly love the flick so it sort of feels like you're watching it with like-minded friends, who just happen to be super nonweldable, especially Reyes who is a bona fide made-for-TV historian whose book Are You In The House Alone?: A TV Movie Compendium 1964-1999 is essential reading for any horror fan. There's also a new 2023 DNOTS2 Audio Commentary by J.D. Feigelson, for the sequel, which I have not yet listened to, but I should because I am curious about why he chose to make this sequel.
On the second disc, a Blu-ray, we get the original DNOTS film and extras, and this is basically the same disc recycled from their 30th Anniversary Edition, not the exact same disc, but a newly pressed disc with different artwork, but it appears to be the exact same disc, as such it does not feature the sequel or the 2023 DNOTS Triple Fan Audio Commentary Track Hosted by Heath Holland, Robert Kelly, and Amanda Reyes, which is sort of lazy.
The archival extras are pretty terrific though, we get a wonderful Audio Commentary with the writer J.D. Feigelson and director Frank De Felitta, it's quite an entertaining listen, particularly when you enjoy the film as much as I do, as they discuss the music, the cast, the genesis of the story and production. We also get the original 1-min World Premiere CBS Promo and the 1-min CBS Rebroadcast Promo both of which brought back a flood of nostalgic made-for-tv memories for me, I clearly remember being curled up on the couch watching these. There's also 10-min Behind-the-Scene's Photo Gallery with stills from the film and plethora of cool candid shots taken while the film was being made. The 34-min Ballyhoo Motion Pictures produced "Bubba Didn't Do it: 30 Years of the Scarecrow" (2012) is still a fantastic watch, we get interviews from actors Robert F. Lyons, Tanya Crowe and the late Larry Drake, the late director Frank De Felitta, the late director Stuart Gordon and writer J.D. Feigelson among others. Topics discussed are the script and inspiration for the film, casting, locations, production, the finale and reaction to the film. We get a ton of great insights, director and fan Stuart Gordon (From Beyond) offers an appreciation for the film, while director De Felitta admits he almost passed on directing it, and remembrances of the late-great supporting cast which included Charles Durning, Jocelyn Brando, Bobby Lions, and Layne Smith. It's a great watch. The last of the disc extras on disc 2 is the 46-min Cast Reunion from 2011 Frighfest Film Festival which brought together Larry Drake, Tanya Crowe and writer J.D. Feigelson on stage for a fun and chatty discussion about the film.
The 2-disc 4K UHD/BD release arrives in a dual-hub black keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork. Up front I will say that I think the artwork for this release is absolutely awful. VCI have recently released two classic films, both Street Scene (1931) and The Bat Whispers (1930), both with classy looking sleeves which were clean and elegantly designed. What we have here looks slapdash and cheap-looking. I love the first DNOTS, and it deserves a much better presentation than what VCI have saw fit to give us - this is one of the all-time best made-for-TV horror flicks, it just deserved better. When I think about what an outfit like Vinegar Syndrome could have done with just the packaging alone it makes me want to cry a little bit. Just as an example VS released the two VCI catalog titles, the UK-kaiju flick Gorgo on 4K UHD and the 80's SOV-era slasher Terror at Tenkiller on Blu-ray, and seeing what they did with those releases in terms of A/V and deluxe packaging is pretty terrific, those are premium products. The bad photoshop job we get here advertising 'Dark Night of the Scarecrows 1&2 Double Feature' is an dang eyesore and in my opinion is disservice to the original lumping it in with the needless sequel, even the spine is cramped with lettering and hideous. The wrap artwork features close-up of the scarecrow's burlap bagged face is garbage-looking, the are so many better screenshots you could randomly lift from the first film that are superior, heck, even the title card would have been better. In my opinion they should have just used the artwork from their previous 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray and included DNOTS 2 as an extras that is not even mentioned on the sleeve, because in my opinion no one is buying this to own that maligned sequel. There should have been at least a reversible artwork option that featured the 30th anniversary artwork option. I don't usually go off on tirades about poor packaging, but frustratingly VCI have recently released both the aforementioned Street Scene and The Bat Whispers with terrific looking sleeve designs so why is this classic made-for-TV terror getting the sleeve-design shaft?
- NEW! 2023 DNOTS Triple Fan Audio Commentary Track Hosted by Heath Holland (Cereal Midnight Podcaster) and featuring Robert Kelly noted film historian, and super-fan Amanda Reyes, expert on TV movies, author, podcaster!
- Original DNOTS Audio Commentary Track with Writer J.D. Feigelson and Director Frank DeFelitta.
- Video Feature - “Bubba Didn’t Do It: 30 Years of the Scarecrow” by Daniel Griffith (31:42)
- DNOTS Cast Reunion Q&A Recorded at the 2011 Frightfest Film Festival (46:05)
- 1981 CBS World Premiere Broadcast Promo (1:07)
- 1985 CBS Network Re-Broadcast Promo (1:05)
- Photo Gallery – Behind the Scenes (10:03)
- Original DNOTS Audio Commentary Track with Writer J.D. Feigelson and Director Frank DeFelitta.
- Video Feature - “Bubba Didn’t Do It: 30 Years of the Scarecrow” by Daniel Griffith (31:42)
- DNOTS Cast Reunion Q&A Recorded at the 2011 Frightfest Film Festival (46:05)
- 1981 CBS World Premiere Broadcast Promo (1:07)
- 1985 CBS Network Re-Broadcast Promo (1:05)
- Photo Gallery – Behind the Scenes (10:03)
- NEW! 2023 DNOTS2 Audio Commentary by J.D. Feigelson
I love the original Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981), it's a classic made-for-TV terror, it looms large in my horror-loving heart. I saw it the night it first aired on TV Oct. 24th 1981 and for the last 10 years or so I have re-watched on the anniversary of it's original broadcast on October 24th in the lead-up to Halloween - that's how much I love it. This 4K UHD release from VCI does not please be; it should be a cause for celebration, and instead it's an advertisement for why not every 4K release is worth upgrading over the previous Blu-ray. I will give the caveat that I think the new Audio Commentary with Heath Holland, Robert Kelly, and Amanda Reyes is terrific, but you have to ask yourself, is it that alone worth upgrading for? I am of the opinion that the 4K UHD format should be the ultimate home video presentation for a film, it's probably the last physical media format, and as such should be the last-best version of the film on home video, and this is not that, this is lackluster, and if someone else acquires the rights and puts effort into a proper 4K UHD release of the first film I will buy it, day one.
Buy it!
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Screenshots from the VCI Entertainment Blu-ray:
Extras:
