Posted on 08/23/2008 1:43:51 PM PDT by lowbridge
Finally! Dark Night of the Scarecrow DVD!
Now here's some truly great news. Deadpit.com's "Creepy Kentuckian" is reporting that the classic (and largely unseen by today's audiences) 1981 made-for-TV fright flick Dark Night of the Scarecrow is at long last getting the DVD and Blu-Ray treatment. About damn time!
Dark Night of the Scarecrow is a genuinely creepy horror movie about a mentally handicapped young man (Larry Drake, Dr. Giggles) wrongfully accused of assaulting a young girl in a rural farm community who is then hunted down by a lynch mob led by legendary character actor Charles Durning. The frightened simpleton tries to disguise himself as the scarecrow in his mother's field only to get gunned down in cold blood by the mob. The murderous rednecks then try to cover their tracks by putting a pitchfork in his hands and claiming self defense. They get away with it too until that night someone dressed at that scarecrow begins picking them off one-by-one with that very same pitchfork.
A more effective chiller than most of the more well known slasher flicks of the era, if it had been a theatrical release instead of a TV movie that's been fairly obscure for a quarter century I truly believe Dark Night of the Scarecrow would be widely considered one of the seminal horror films of the Eighties - except maybe amongst gorehounds who'd complain about the lack of blood and guts. Heck, a revenge tale about retards, redneck injustice, and a pitchfork-wielding killer, Rob Zombie would have probably already signed on to direct the remake by now.
Image Entertainment is planning a special edition DVD release of Dark Night of the Scarecrow to be released sometime next year. Expect to hear more about it as further details begin to emerge.
Now if only we can get The Bermuda Depths its long overdue DVD release.
Our friend RoG from I-Mockery has up a lengthy article on the film to help jolt your memories. Click here to check it out.
- The Foywonder
Better a nutmeg grinder than a staple-gun...
BUBBA
I LOVE THIS MOVIE!
Taint nuthin’.
They try this sort of thing on all Texans. Trying to gay us up so we will be a bit more like them.
True, but it’s tough lookin’ more manly than New Mexicans.
Only because we were fresh out.
You know as well as I do that if we HAD dynamite, it'd be staged offa the propane tank.
Quid pro quo, it's axiomatic.
Did you post the “Beware of Midget” sign?
Got to.
It's the law.
There are State and Federal guidelines and requirements.
It ain't like the good old days when you could have unregistered midgets running around helter skelter.
http://www.archive.org/details/moviesandfilms
Watch full-length feature films, classic shorts, world culture documentaries, World War II propaganda, movie trailers, and films created in just ten hours: These options are all featured in this diverse library! Many of these videos are available for free download.
Under subjects Science Fiction
Killers From Space
Giant Gila Monster, The
The Wasp Woman
Idaho Transfer
Planet Earth: Our Response
there are probably also plenty of old radio dramas like Dimension X.
http://www.archive.org/details/moviesandfilms
There are MANY more under Horror
Mad Monster, The
Teenage Zombies
Werewolf in a Girls’ Dormitory
Werewolf of Washington
Bloody Pit of Horror
Bride of the Gorilla
Lady Frankenstein
Nightmare Castle
The Sadist
The Screaming Skull
White Zombie
Night of the Living Dead
Frankenstein
Rogue’s Tavern
Carnival of Souls
Night of the Living Dead
The Terror
The Vampire Bat
Nosferatu
The World Gone Mad
Satanic Rites of Dracula, The
Blood Tide
Bloodlust
Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari ( The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari )
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -
Haxan
The Little Shop of Horrors
The She Beast
The Phantom of the Opera
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Brain That Wouldn’t Die, The
Creature from the Haunted Sea
Dementia 13
Phantom Ship , The
Bluebeard
Fall of the House of Usher
City of the Dead/Horror Hotel
Prehistoric Women
Shock
The Last Man on Earth
Atom Age Vampire
Dead Men Walk
Deep Red (Profondo Rosso)
Horror of the Zombies
King of the Zombies
The Corpse Vanishes
The Witches’ Mountain
Horror Express
Horrors of Spider Island
The Veil (by episode)
Cathy’s Curse
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter
Scared to Death (Bela Lugosi’s only color film)
The Monster Maker
The Vampires’ Night Orgy
Werewolf Woman
The House On Haunted Hill
Bad Taste
Attack of the Giant Leeches
Les Vampires (1915) directed by Louis Feuillade
Devil Times Five
Many, but not all, of these are actual very good films.
Hey, the nutmeg grinder is a bizarre mating ritual.
At least that’s what I was told.
The staplegun on the other hand...
If you had stuck around, the staple-gun would have been part of a bizarre mating ritual...
BUMP!
Thanks :-) I forgot about archive.org
Oh no, I’ve watched this whole movie one jerky little motion at a time and now it’s stuck at the very end where Charles Durning is chasing MariLee into the bushes and WHAT HAPPENS??????????????
COMPLETE Spoiler (highlight text to see spoiler)
Durning catches up with Mari Lee in the pumpkin field by a bulldozer/farming machine, grabs her and angrilly screams at her, "It was you! It was you!". Mari lee screams for bubba. "bubba! Bubba!"
Just then the headlights of the bulldozer is turned on, shining on Durning, and then the engine of the bulldozer turns on too. Durning lets go of Mari Lee who runs away. Durning stares at the bulldozer and then calls out "whos there?". The shovel of the bulldozer lifts up off the ground. Then he calls out, "Sam?" (neither he or us can see who is actually operating the bulldozer)
The shovel still lifts up. "Listen sam. I can explain. It was her. It was her all of the time. I'm sure of it because..." Just then the bulldozer starts rolling towards him and he calls out several more times, "Sam? Sam? Sam?". Now he begins to run away and the bulldozer (which is also towing some farming implement that slices up the pumpkins it rolls over) keeps up with him as he keeps yelling out "Sam! Sam! Sam!".
Durning falls down, gets up and starts running again, only to come face to face with a scarecrow, where he stops (the bulldozer stops too). He is stunned, blood starts coming from Durnings mouth, and Durning takes a few steps backwards from the scarecrow.
Then we are given a closeup of the scarecrows head, the camera pans down to reveal that the scarecrow is holding a pitchfork in his hands and is aimed at Durning and the tines are dripping with Durnings blood. Durning looks down at his belly which is soaked in his own blood. Obviously he ran into the pitchfork. Durning drops to his knees, still looking at the face of the scarecrow. He raises his arm, points his finger up at the scarecrow, then falls forward, dead. The camera pulls back to show the scarecrow, Durnings body, and the bulldozer all together in the same shot. Then, the engine of the bulldozer is turned off, and then the lights of the bulldozer are switched off with a loud click.
Then we see Mari Lee hiding amongst the pumpkins in the field as we hear the sound of someone walking through the pumpkin field. The sound of rustling of the dry grass.
We are then given a point of view of whomever is walking in the field towards Mari Lee who has her back to whomever is walking towards her, she turns around and looks up. We are then given, from Mari Lee's point of view, a sideview of the scarecrow that Durning came face to face with. The scarecrow turns its head to look down at us/Mari Lee. Then we are shown a close up of Mari Lee's face. Her expression changes from worry to a smile. The scarecrow bends down towards Mari Lee. Then we are given a close up of the scarecrows hand which holds a flower that he is presenting to Mari Lee. Mari Lee's hand comes into the scene, and takes hold of the flower stem which the scarecrow is still holding. Now the camera is focused on the closeup of the scarecrows hand and Mari Lees hand, both grasping the flower, and the camera remains its close up focus of both hands holding the stem of the flower, while in a voiceover we hear Mari Lee say, "Thank you, Bubba. You know what? Tomorrow, I think I will teach you a new game. Did I ever show you how to play the chasing game? Its fun. You'll like it. Its sort of like tag...". Then the end credits scroll over the close up of the scarecrows hand and mari lees hand holding the flower with the same eerie theme music that the movie opened with.
Spoiler END
The "Sam" that Durning is calling out to, you will recall, is the District Attorney who prosecuted the case, unsuccessfully, against Durning and his fellow vigilantes
Wow, thanks, that was a lot of typing, but I appreciate it. I guess for me, raised on Aliens and other modern technology, this doesn’t seem scary at all. But I remember the first time I saw Shock Waves, back in about 79 or so, and I was so scared then that I had to put my feet up on the couch, lest I be grabbed from underneath it. Yow!
http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/dark-night-scarecrow/scarecrow2.php
This has the description of the movie, with the ending, and photos, some of which are animated gifs.
I loved Shock Waves!
Nazi Zombies!
It took me a long time to find that flick on the web.
Where’d you find it?
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