Night of the Scarecrow (1995) (Blu-ray Review)
Directed By: Jeff Burr
Starring: Elizabeth Barondes, John Mese, Stephen Root
Rated: UR/Region A/1:78/1080p/Number of Discs 1
Where to get it: Olive Films
An evil secret that a small town has hidden for generations has come back to haunt them. A monstrous demon has been set free – unspeakable, unstoppable, and hell-bent for revenge. Before the night is through the Scarecrow will sow the seeds of terror, then reap the grisly harvest in a bloodcurdling trail of death and decay that leads from the backwoods of horror to the bowels of hell. When the Scarecrow starts stalking, don’t bother running. just pray that morning comes before the Scarecrow does. Stylishly directed by horror veteran, Jeff Burr (The Offspring, Stepfather II). The great cast of character actors includes Stephen Root (Office Space), Bruce Glover (Diamonds Are Forever), Gary Lockwood (2001: A Space Odyssey) and John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone).
Jeff Burr has been popping up a lot on this site as of late and with good reason. This, like many of his other films we’ve reviewed here are is very well done and packs a whole lot of fun. I’m not sure if the Scarecrow here was ever meant to start up a new franchise or not, but for a one off you could have done a whole heck of a lot worse than this film here. The movie offers up a pretty odd ball of a plot, but the key to this film is the fun and violence factor of it. There is some really awesome kills here and they could rank up there with some of the best we’ve seen in other more well known slasher flicks. I’m not going to say that we pack the best cast of characters to work with here, but what we get helps cover that up and the Scarecrow goes a really long way for watching value here.
1995 wasn’t a good time for horror. Heck, I’d say the first half of the 1990s was all questionable. This came right before Scream came out and switched things up and while it does pack some of the stuff that people didn’t like from the usual early 90s horror flick, it does pack some stuff that the others didn’t have. There’s a style to the madness here and I think a lot of the credit to that could be given to the fact that the man behind the camera was Jeff Burr. Who is the same man that could make a kids horror film watchable, so I consider him a bit of a horror witchdoctor of sorts. As for the transfer, it is about as solid as you’d want from a film from 1995. Details are there and there is only brief moments of grain or damage. Overall, if you like slashers, you should like this easily.
- Audio Commentary
- Featurette
- Gallery
