MY REVIEW OF IT!!!!

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SCARECROWS(1988)

(Directed by William Wesley)

"Demonic demon scarecrows vs.....The Stupids"- Signed by MartialHorror

Plot: A group of bank robbers take a pilot and his daughter hostage in an effort to make a getaway using a plan. However, one of them betrays the group and parachutes out the plane with the money….in a very ominous looking field. When the others decide to follow, they start being picked off by killer scarecrows…..Demonic demon scarecrows(that's actually taken from the dialogue).

Review:

I remember seeing this movie a few years ago on TV. At the time, this hadn’t really been released on DVD and was considered to be a rare movie to find. When I saw it, I was very impressed. I found it to be scary, atmospheric and I was quite enthusiastic. Apparently I wasn’t a very good critic though. Now that I’ve re-watched it on DVD(it finally got distribution), I can see lots of problems with it.

The movie begins with our “heroes” a group of bank robbers who had just successfully robbed a bank and are using a plane(they took a pilot and his daughter as hostages) to make their getaway to Mexico. Everything seems to be going well, until one of the robbers(Bert), jumps off the plane with a money after dropping a grenade into the plane. The robbers are able to throw out the grenade(the explosion is a pretty weak effect, but considering the budget this is acceptable) and decide to go after Bert.

So the crew begins to hunt Bert, who in a few shots looks like Jean Claude Van Damme, but when strange things begin to happen. I won’t spoil exactly what, but the impossible becomes possible here and they all find themselves hunted by scarecrows. Furthermore, these scarecrows don’t seem to want to die, as bullets have little effect on them. Uh oh.

What attracted me to this movie was really how spooky it was. It’s very atmospheric, creating a sense of dread that emanates from the field. Then we have the scarecrows themselves, which look great. They are wonderfully designed, showcasing a raw kind of terror that simply wouldn’t exist in movies today. You see, if they remade this, the scarecrows would be some crappy CGI effect like something from “I am Legend”. I also loved the still shots of the faces of some of the scarecrows, which are very goose bump inducing as well as the shots of the house. The photography is great, which is a rarity for a low budget horror film.

Now, one of Wesleys weaker areas was the suspense. It’s hard to explain, but the buildups generally felt cliché or the payoff(the first murder) was kind of weak. I hate that blurred kill crap! However, I think the overall level of suspense was pretty high. The movie, in many ways, is similar to “Night of the Living Dead”, in that the cast has to lock themselves in a house. The rising dread from all that that ends as a shriek, so I guess you could say that in the long run, Wesley nailed the suspense. But short term suspense wasn’t his strong suit. We’re also given very creative, graphic and believable murder sequences. The effects in these regards are marvelous.

The movie does suffer in a lot of ways though. I felt that the dialogue was very inane, often feeling forced. But worse than that, there was TOO much dialogue. I felt that this would’ve been scarier if most of it was cut out. I’d especially say this during the earlier scenes when the crew is speaking over the radio. Certain scenes would’ve been scarier if that was simply not there. They also repeat themselves a lot. How many times must we hear something like “I wish I had my harmonica”, “I’m going to kill you Bert!”, or “Forget the money, get to the plane!”. Jesus, cut all that out! Silence is golden in a horror flick.

Yet perhaps the worst offender in this movie is the stupidity of the cast. I wonder if this movie was pitched as “A bunch of morons have to battle scarecrows in a large, abandoned field”. I mean, let’s begin with Bert. When he escapes, someone refers to him as “simple”. Okay, so he’s doing all these semi-stupid things that I would do differently. Then he starts randomly shooting at the scarecrows during a panic. Maybe if it was done in a way that the scarecrows looked more human, so he would think they were the people hunting him down…but you never really get that. Later on, we find out he actually planned the entire robbery, so he can’t be that stupid. What else do they do? Oh yeah, a character sees a growling scarecrow in his night vision rifle scope, but drops that issue pretty quickly(this is before they know the scarecrows are after them). One guy finds his harmonica and plays it while casually searching for the money in amidst of all this horror(oh yeah, he was also the one that first sees the scarecrows coming to life.). Characters search for the money in general in the most ridiculous moments. I didn’t buy it when a person snaps, thinking a friend is still alive when he just witnessed him being cut up. Oy, this is ridiculous.

So while the film has some of the most moronic characters to appear in film as well as too much inane dialogue, it is pretty good for a low budgeted horror flick. It is kind of scary, has awesome makeup effects, awesome gore effects and some decent action. It’s not a good movie, but it is good for what it is. At least it's better than the similar "Night of the Scarecrow".

The actors all struggle with the dialogue. Ted Vernon(Corbin) does okay. Michael David Simms(Curry) was pretty intense, but his overacting kind of annoyed me. Kristina Sanborn(Roxanne) is actually pretty believable as a badass woman. Victoria Christian(Kellie) struggled the most. Richard Vidan(Jack) does fine, but his character was probably the worst of the lot. I actually liked B.J Turner(Bert) in his limited screen time, although his voice-overs reeked of bad exposition.

Violence: Rated R. HEAVY R! People get cut up, stabbed in the face, stabbed with pitchforks and filled with straw. It’s gross.

Nudity: None.

Overall: Watch “Scarecrows” only as an impressive low budget horror flick. I thought it was kind of scary, with some sequences of great atmosphere. If you can get past the fact that the protagonists are all morons, and that the dialogue sucks, you will like this.

3/4 Stars



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