Verdict
Summary
What made the original movie work so well was its rather simple and easy to follow plot with suggested horrors rather than in-your-face gore (it was made for TV, after all), and this sequel from director / producer / writer J.D. Feigelson (who wrote the original) takes its cues from classic horror films which is appreciated, but it still seems to lack a genuinely creepy vibe and texture.
Plot:
A scarecrow stalks and kills some folks in a small farm town, but there’s a good reason why …
Review:
A single woman in the witness protection program named Chris (Amber Wedding) and her young son Jeremy (Aiden Shurr) relocate to a small Middle American farm town. It seems like the town is entirely composed of rows upon rows of cornstalks and folksy diners with jukeboxes, but it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows here. There’s a dark secret that has been festering for a long time in this town, and somehow – by some supernatural force of will – a vengeful scarecrow is at the center of some killings, although nobody (at least not until it’s too late) seems to understand that. A complicated plot begins to unfold as farmers, a sheriff, a good-for-nothing farmhand, and others all fall prey to a scythe-wielding scarecrow killer, and as the story is peeled back like an onion we begin to understand that the scarecrow is host to a vengeful spirit working on behalf of Chris, although she never intended to unleash the power within the creature hanging from a pole in the cornfield …
A sequel nobody on earth asked for, Dark Night of the Scarecrow might’ve best been served as a standalone scarecrow horror film rather than propping itself up as a follow-up / reboot to a TV movie made in 1981, a full 40 years previously. It works on its own with nicely shot and staged suspense and moody horror, although the movie is incredibly well lit, which is a little jarring. What made the original movie work so well was its rather simple and easy to follow plot with suggested horrors rather than in-your-face gore (it was made for TV, after all), and this sequel from director / producer / writer J.D. Feigelson (who wrote the original) takes its cues from classic horror films which is appreciated, but it still seems to lack a genuinely creepy vibe and texture. The story Feigelson concocted is heavy and thick, relying mostly on dialogue and exposition rather than action, and fans of the original film might be put off by how new and shiny it feels, but I enjoyed it for what it was.
The Blu-ray for Dark Night of the Scarecrow is out now from VCI and MVD Visual. No special features are included.
