Easily my favorite made for television horror film; Dark Night of the Scarecrow kicks ass folks. It is really that simple. It's creepy as hell without buckets of gore, profanity, or over the top CGI. In other words they don't make them like this anymore. Charles Durning usually typecast as the grumpy gramps character plays one twisted letter carrying bastard. Underneath the calm surface of his kindly smile swims the unspeakable twisted secrets of a murderer who loves his work. Besides his work in O' Brother where art thou, this is Durning's best work.
Larry Drake plays poor Bubba Ritter the poor bastard who is the victim of The Postman and his three witless cronies. Bubba returns as the retarded avenging angel, who in death possesses the cunning he never possessed in life. All you fiends will recognize Bubba in future films as Dr. Giggles and Durand in the Dark Man films.
Why in the name of all that is unholy does not CBS put movies out like this anymore? Do we really need another fucking CSI spin-off? What do I know? I am just a schmuck. Anyway on to the quality of the video, and audio.
Video: 4 out of 5
VCI Entertainment showed this movie the love it deserved. I watched this film in 1080i format versus the usual 1080p, but it was beautiful. Every scene is clean, and sharp. This obviously was shot on film meant for television thus the 4 rating, but VCI kicks ass here boys and girls. Dark Night of the Scarecrow will surprise the fans of this old film with its restoration. Larger studios could learn a hell of a lot from VCI Entertainment, and the attention to detail.
Audio 3 out of 5
Dark Night of the Scarecrow was kind of soft in the audio department. It does present a 5.1 audio performance and will probably never sound better. A 1981 television show was obviously broadcast in mono, and if not for diehard fans of this horror gem this film would have vanished long ago. Again VCI Entertainment did good work with old material.
Do yourself a favor folks, pull out your credit cards, pull up Amazon, and order this movie right now. Not later, right frickin now! You'll thank me later, trust me I am Herr Doktor!
Easily my favorite made for television horror film; Dark Night of the Scarecrow kicks ass folks. It is really that simple. It's creepy as hell without buckets of gore, profanity, or over the top CGI. In other words they don't make them like this anymore. Charles Durning usually typecast as the grumpy gramps character plays one twisted letter carrying bastard. Underneath the calm surface of his kindly smile swims the unspeakable twisted secrets of a murderer who loves his work. Besides his work in O' Brother where art thou, this is Durning's best work.
