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Film: Dark Night of the Scarecrow
Format: Streaming video from Kanopy on Fire!

A lot of American horror movies take place out in the middle of nowhere. There are naturally millions of Americans who live in the country, of course, but Americans are by and large urban and suburban people. I live in a farm community in large part—we’re also home to a large university, but this town made its bones in the agricultural world, and it’s still more or less suburbia. In the summer, you can find corn or soybeans within 15 minutes of my house in literally every direction, and yet I’d be hard-pressed to tell you I actually live in the sticks. The sticks can be scary, and that’s what we’re going to be exploiting in Dark Night of the Scarecrow.

This is very much a Southern Gothic tale of murder and revenge from beyond the grave. I have to say that, good or bad, that’s the kind of thing that I’m going to find interesting. There’s a long history of this kind of horror film. There’s something dangerous out there in the corn fields (or whatever they’re growing in this small Southern town), and it comes from murder most foul and prejudice.

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Film: Trap
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on basement television.

I wonder sometimes how many chances someone should get. I’ve given M. Night Shyamalan a bunch of chances based on the strength of a couple of his movies. The Sixth Sense was great for the time, although I have since discovered that I like Stir of Echoes much more. He’s had a few good movies, though, but has also had some legendary stinkers. I went into Trap knowing that reviews were mixed (at best), but having at least respected both Split and Knock at the Cabin. And, truthfully, any good will he earned from those movies he has lost with this one.

The set-up for Trap is an interesting one until you actually discover what the set-up is. The tag line is “30,000 fans. 300 cops. 1 serial killer. No escape.” What that sounds like to me is that there’s going to be some sort of massive concert (check) where a serial killer is operating, suddenly presented with a huge number of possible victims (not so much). That’s a movie I would find interesting to watch. Trap is not that. Instead, what this movie includes is a massive concert where a serial killer is in attendance with his daughter and somehow the cops know he’s there and are working to catch him while he tries to get out undiscovered.

What I've Caught Up With, February 2025

It’s been a difficult month for my family; my mother is very ill right now, and it’s difficult to deal with because of the diagnosis she has received. I also was down myself for a week with a superficial blood clot in my right calf—nothing serious, but scary, given my genetic history. Because of that, my focus has necessarily been elsewhere. I did watch a few movies of various vintage, though, and most of my viewings were better than average.

On the television front, I did a lot of work on shorter series including The Queen’s Gambit, which was a darling during lockdown. I went back to Marvel shows as well, getting through Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Echo, which respectively were quite good, good until the last episode, and should have been better. I’ve spent a lot of time with Danny McBride shows in February, finishing The Righteous Gemstones and watching all four seasons of Eastbound and Down.