Dark Night of the Scarecrow part 2

[jaws3dfan]

VCI Entertainment has officially announced that it will release on Blu-ray J.D. Feigelson's Dark Night of the Scarecrow 2 (2022). The release will be available for purchase on May 10.

On October 24, 1981, television audiences were terrified when they tuned into CBS to catch the premiere of Dark Night of the Scarecrow. This little made-for-TV feature developed into a cult icon and sparked an entire scarecrow-centric subgenre of horror films. More than four decades later, the scarecrow returns in an all-new frightening film, Dark Night of the Scarecrow 2.

Single mother Chris (Amber Wedding) and her son Jeremy (Aiden Shurr) moved to a small country town in Stubblefield County. While Chris begins work at the local country store, Jeremy starts to bond with the older lady (Carol Dines) that watches him after school. On her way home from work one day, Chris happens upon an old, weather-beaten scarecrow. Chris places a flower in its lapel and whispers in its ear. Little does she know that this seemingly harmless gesture awakens an evil from the past.

* Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream); after reading J.D. Feigelson's script for DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW-2, commented "Loved it…beware the cornfield!

DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW 2 (2022) Official Trailer (HD) - YouTube

[snipemonkey]

That preview looks absolutely dire.

[jaws3dfan]

Looks terrible. Too bad because the original is a true classic.

[Bugg]

Those Bill Zebub production values.

[waxHead]

The original TV film is great. That looks abysmal, more like Soap Opera of the Scarecrow.

[snipemonkey]

The budget went entirely to a charge cord for the iPhone they shot this on and the pork rinds and Mountain Dew that fed the "actors".

[elecrofunk]

How I wanted this to be a true successor to the fantastic original.

[Mushi Minion]

Most movies don’t need a sequel.

[Hammerlover]

Saw the original on TV when I was a kid in 1981, and it creeped me out big time.

[toodeepuntilnow]

Originally Posted by snipemonkey

That preview looks absolutely dire.

I mean, did you really expect different? Expectations should be set no higher than at z-grade made for hopeful Prime/Tubi streaming syndication.

[snipemonkey]

Originally Posted by toodeepuntilnow

I mean, did you really expect different? Expectations should be set no higher than at z-grade made for hopeful Prime/Tubi streaming syndication.

I always keep a tiny flickering flame of hope alive just so I can feel the sweet, sweet pinprick of having it stamped out. I'm a bit of a masochist that way.

[gbm82]

Originally Posted by Mushi Minion

Most movies don’t need a sequel.

stop with your cancel culture! all movies deserve sequels

[Member-425016]

Wouldn't mind buying this...if it was 24 fps. I mean don't 100% of HD cameras have it?

No need to cheapen it with a soap opera video image.

Why people? I would have given you my money.

[Jay H.]

Originally Posted by Hammerlover

Saw the original on TV when I was a kid in 1981, and it creeped me out big time.

It was the first horror movie I watched; I was 8. I loved it, and was very happy to see that it still holds up all these years later.

I don't think I could watch this sequel, even if it looked good.

[BudBaxter]

Looks utterly terrible, but unlike the original, it looks like it might actually have some killer scarecrow action in it...

Don't get me wrong, the original is a classic, but the title was very misleading.

[KillerCannibal]

How so?

Some of it takes place at night; it's dark. There's a scarecrow.

It isn't called "Killer Scarecrow", y'know.

I think the original is one of the best made-for-TV movies I've seen, and I watch it yearly on Halloween. MVD sent me this sequel a couple weeks ago and I'm eager to watch it despite the evidence it'll be bad... but I gotta know for myself.

[dubhousing]

I've watched the movie. Yes, it's pretty awful.

[Show spoiler]Unlike the original film, this one leaves nothing to the imagination. You know it's the scarecrow murdering people this time, because you see it depicted on screen.

The scarecrow is as much a killer in a slasher movie, here, as it is an avenging spirit. In the original, the scarecrow only killed the men who lynched Bubba. This one opens with the scarecrow murdering a farmer who has done nothing wrong except act a little gruffly. Later, it kills the innocent farmhand suspected of killing the farmer. He didn't do anything wrong, either. He tries to set the scarecrow on fire, but only because he suspects something's not right with it. He's not wrong there.

As the film progresses, the scarecrow eventually follows the "avenging spirit" line of the original when a single mother who lives in the area inexplicably talks to it. Similar to Marylee in the original, but Marylee is an imaginative young girl. No, it doesn't make any sense. The script is so incoherent that you have two contrasting motivations here, depending on the scene - righting wrongs versus killing for no reason.

There is a 60-something female character whose purpose and relation to anyone else in the film is unclear at best. She may be controlling Bubba - yep, the movie spells out this time that his spirit is the scarecrow - or maybe she isn't. She has a strange relationship with the single mother's son, as a kind of surrogate mother, but it doesn't make any sense, either, and nothing in the script builds the relationship.

I also picked up the impression that this woman might be Marylee from the original; there's a bit of dialogue that mentions Marylee is still alive. But this character has a different name, and the math doesn't work out - Marylee would only be in her 40s. The movie's so unclear on this point, and not in an evocative, intriguing way, that I stopped caring.

Besides the "shot on a iPhone" look of the movie, the special effects are atrocious and cheap-looking. There's one brief shot of a character burning to death that is unintentionally hilarious, because it is so fake-looking and was obviously composed with a software program.

There is one scene that I thought worked very effectively. A cop pursuing the innocent farmhand comes across the scarecrow in a cornfield, and examines it. Most of this scene is shot wide, unlike the rest of the movie (which is mostly close-ups and medium shots). The cop and the scarecrow stand at the center of the screen with the cornrows in the background, and they're practically silhouettes due to the way the scene is lit. It's a good gem in a pile of coal.

[jaws3dfan]

I just bought this used on ebay for $7.99. I figured at that price why not give it a try.

[HorrorBlu]

This is free on Tubi.

[Nitroes]

4K Blu-ray