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 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.
VCI Entertainment is planning a special edition DVD release of Dark Night of the Scarecrow to be released around Halloween 2010. 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.
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