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Night of the Scarecrow
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Wikipedia article
'Night of the Scarecrow' is a 1995 American horror film directed by Jeff Burr.
Plot
In order for a town to prosper and have a successful harvest after a drought devastated the town, the citizens made a deal with a warlock that he can do whatever he wants and has complete immunity of all his actions in the town in exchange for his magic to enable a bountiful harvest for the town, desirable weather conditions and wells full of water. At first, all was well as the town prospered but the warlock eventually corrupted the townsfols with sinful hedonism. The first mayor and founder of the town, Silas Goodman and many people realized that they had made a pact of a devil but decided to brush it aside due to benefit of his magic to the town. However, when Silas's own daughter being seduced by warlock into doing sinful act of orgy, Silas finally had enough and conspired with the uncorrupted townsfolk to dispose him for good. After stealing the magic book of the warlock and learning about his magic, the mayor and the townsfolk drugged the warlock and crucified him until he succumbed to starvation and dehydration after two days. The townsfolk finally burned his corpse and put the charred bones of the warlock in a coffin and buried the warlock under the cornfield before imbedding a charm on the coffin to make him a living fertilizer to make the cornfield forever bountiful. Silas then marked a page in the spell book that shows instruction of how to destroy the warlock if his spirit ever being released as pre-caution and created an edict that all his descendants must enact a scarecrow in their generation to remind them about the warlock.
In the modern day, Mayor Goodman who is the descendant of Silas decided to demolish the cornfield to make way for a mall. In a night, two drunken workers drive the bulldozer and accidentally break the stone coffin that contains the Warlock's body causing the spirit of the warlock to be released and possessed the scarecrow. The Scarecrow then goes on a killing spree to retrieve his magic book to regain back his body and get revenge on the town. After the Scarecrow murdered one of Claire Goodman's uncle, the pastor of the town who is also Claire's uncle then revealed the history of the town to Claire and her boyfriend and lamented that the present day townsfolk that should not have forgotten the past to unleash the warlock's spirit. The Scarecrow attacked the mayor at his house and demands to know where is book is, which the mayor adamantly refused as he knows the consequences of letting the book into the hand of the warlock again. After he and his wife are killed by the scarecrow and Clair discovers her father's death body, Sheriff Goodman comforts Claire and reveals that Mayor Goodman actually aware and cautious toward the warlock the whole time as all first born of the Goodman family are given the magic book with all its secret and told him that if anything happens to him, anyone in his family should look for the attic as it contains something extremely important. As they look at the attic, they realize that the magic book of the warlock has been hidden there the entire time.
The Sheriff tries to defend his family and enable for Claire and her boyfriend to escape but got killed in the process. Reading through the book, it is revealed that there is a bookmark on the spell book that reveals the connection between his spirit and his body to be used in case the warlock's spirit is released, which shows that the only way to destroy the scarecrow is to destroy his bones. At first they try to use acid to melt the bones of the warlock but failed as the boyfriend accidentally spills the acid before he could dose into the bones. Clare finally defeats the scarecrow by putting the bones of the warlock underneath a rock crusher, causing his bones to be pulverized, destroying him once and for all.
Cast
* Elizabeth Barondes: Claire Goodman
* John Mese: Dillon
* Stephen Root: Uncle Frank/The Sherriff
* Bruce Glover: Uncle Thaddeus
* Dirk Blocker: Uncle George
* Howard Swain: The Scarecrow
* Gary Lockwood: Mayor Goodman
* John Hawkes: Danny Thompson
* William Joseph Barker: Kyle
* Martine Beswick: Barbara
* Cristi Harris: Stephanie
Reception
While 'Variety' wrote that the director "has more luck with physical scenes than he does with coaxing inspired performances out of his actors", 'Blu-ray.com' wrote that the director "stages things very effectively and gets some good performances out of a game cast." A reviewer for 'DVD Talk' did not like the "inept circa-1995 CGI".
Jeffrey Kaufman of 'Blu-ray.com' compared a violent scene in the film to a scene in another horror film with a murderous scarecrow, the television film 'Dark Night of the Scarecrow'.
Eric Hansen of 'Variety' wrote of the film and its original VHS release, "A moderately exciting, average monster movie with good production values and a few good ideas, Night of the Scarecrow looks to have its longest life on homevideo." A review for 'TV Guide' says, "A healthy dose of directorial style and energy makes this prosaic low-budget chiller a tense, entertaining diversion."
Adam Tyner, writing for 'DVD Talk', said "It's kind of interesting seeing some of the familiar faces in the cast, and Night of the Scarecrow does trot out a few really nice looking setpieces, but none of that's enough to salvage this limp, lifeless, uninspired, instantly forgettable slasher flick. Skip It."
Home media
The original video release was in 1995 on VHS, distributed by Republic Pictures. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Olive Films in 2013, with the same special features an audio commentary with director Jeff Burr, a making of video, and a picture gallery.
See also
* 'The Night of the Scarecrow'
* 'Dark Night of the Scarecrow'
* 'Scarecrow'
* 'Scarecrows'
References
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