Stephen Root’s forgotten ’90s slasher Night of the Scarecrow deserves a modern remake

Apple’s excellent new horror-comedy Widow’s Bay stars Stephen Root as Wyck, a prickly old man who stands as one of the main obstacles in the way of Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) and his scheme to turn their sleepy (and haunted) New England island town into a tourist hot spot. It’s both a pretty standard and a totally unexpected role for Root. It’s standard because the beloved Hollywood “that guy” has made a name for himself with pitiful comedic characters like Milton Waddams in Office Space, Gordon Pibb in Dodgeball, and Bill Dauterive in King of the Hill. It’s unexpected because Root has rarely dipped his talented toes into the horror genre, and Widow’s Bay has genuine moments of horror alongside its laugh-out-loud comedy.

Root’s most memorable horror performance is probably in Get Out, where he plays a blind art dealer who buys the rights to put his brain into the body of a young Black man (Daniel Kaluuya). However, there’s one other notable scary movie in Root’s filmography, and it came up when I spoke to him over Zoom for an interview that was supposed to be focused on Widow’s Bay.

When I ask the cast if they have any favorite horror movies that informed their performances, Root jumps in with an outrageous non-sequitor.

“I did a half soft-porno film called Night of the Scarecrow, where the way I got killed was, the scarecrow comes over to you and looks at you and goes [Root holds up his palm and blows into it] and all the splinters go into your face,” he says.

Then he adds, almost apologetically: “No one ever has to watch it.”

Of course, that’s exactly what I did.

1995’s Night of the Scarecrow isn’t available on any traditional streaming service. You can’t even rent or buy it from digital storefronts like Prime Video, although you can purchase the VHS tape on Amazon for $93.88 (used, but in “good” condition). However, a quick internet search reveals that at least one fan of schlocky B-movie horror has uploaded the entire film to YouTube, and nobody seems to care enough to get it taken down. Do with that information what you will.

The story takes place in a small, nondescript American town that’s suddenly terrorized by a murderous scarecrow. Possessed and animated by the ghost of a vengeful, horny, evil sorcerer, the scarecrow stalks and kills the town’s mayor and his extended family, including his brother, the local sheriff (Root).

Image: Steve White Entertainment

Why? Because about a century ago, when the town was first founded, the population suffered from a terrible famine. Then a sorcerer showed up and offered to save them, in exchange for total immunity to do whatever he wanted forever — which mostly involved corrupting the locals into participating in his hedonistic orgies. Eventually, the townsfolk, led by their mayor (whose ancestors still run the town in the present day), turned against the sorcerer and killed him. Many years later, a drunk construction worker accidentally breaks open the stone coffin the sorcerer was buried in, which allows him to return in the form of a scarecrow.

Image: Steve White Entertainment

As for Root’s claim that he made a “half” softcore porno, that’s a bit of an overstatement. Night of the Scarecrow is firmly in R-rated territory. There are a couple of boob shoots and one brief, tastefully shot orgy (in black and white, as part of a flashback sequence), but nothing that would push the movie into pornographic territory, soft or otherwise. It’s also a fairly stupid film, with plenty of the kind of bad acting, writing, and directing that’s fun to laugh at. In one early scene, for example, a minor character gets scared by a strong gust of wind and starts rolling on the ground while screaming — except there’s clearly no actual wind, so director Jeff Burr (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III) does his best to compensate by shaking the camera wildly enough to induce light nausea.

The movie’s one redeeming quality (aside from Root’s presence, of course) are its impressively creative kills. The scarecrow does a real number on the mayor and his family. In one scene, he stitches a man’s lips together with a needle and thread. In another, he shoots vines into his victim’s body until hay and wood bursts out of their mouth, ears, nose, and eyes. And then there’s the kill Root described, where the scarecrow blows in the character’s direction and his face is suddenly torn to shreds by a hundred wooden splinters. In each case, Burr relies on practical effects to effectively sell these ghoulish murders.

The fact that Night of the Scarecrow never got a sequel in an era where that was virtually a given for any new horror flick (Burr’s credits also include Stepfather II, Pumpkinhead II, and Puppet Master 4 and 5) probably says more about the film than this article ever could. While the kills are fun, there’s barely enough narrative meat on the bone to sustain one movie, let alone an entire franchise. Then again, with Root returning to the horror genre with Widow’s Bay, maybe it’s time to resurrect this story for a new generation. Someone call Blumhouse, it’s time for a Night of the Scarecrow reboot.