MovieChat Forums > Scarecrows (1991) Discussion > Massively overrated action-horror hodge-...

Massively overrated action-horror hodge-podge.


I recently saw this on a bootleg DVD-r from the Laserdisc edition.

I had wanted to see this movie for many years as the premise sounded excellent for a horror film. Also, the hype from hardcore horror fans - who are the worst when it comes to overrating films - made me all the more eager to see it some day.

I love all genres of Cinema and even seek out obscure short films, documentaries, from all over the World and I love low-budget horror and sci-fi. So I know what I like and I didn't like Scarecrows. I was very disappointed.

The main problem with the film is the clash of genres: macho-action and slasher-horror. These genres rarely lend themselves to cinematic alchemy and Scarecoews may be a key example to me now. All of the characters are unlikeable. Even the attractive young girl. Her father should never have been killed off so early. The prologue is weak: we really should have seen the actual robbery and kidnapping, instead we are thrust into the story onboard an aeroplane - where are we? Who are these characters? Where in Mexico are they planning to land? How are they avoiding radar detection?

Once this yarn gets underway, there is, granted, a spooky atmosphere, but the pacing ruins any revery that could have ensued. The death scenes are brief and unoriginal. Seven Friday the 13th films and a glut of other slasher films had been made by 1988 and many ingenius ways to mame and murder had been thought up, but no imagination is on display here, unfotunately. Had this movie been made ten or fifteen years ago by any of the horror maestros - Bava, Argento, Fulci or even Amando de Ossorio (Tombs of the Blind Dead) it would have been more impressive. But by 1988, action movie elements were moving into horror and sci-fi and it has subsequently diluted the once-great genre. Atmosphere (as well as a good script, of course) is the key to horror and fantasy stories and although Scarecrows has some spooky scenes, technical deficiances, inane, unfunny dialogue and illogcal plot devices undermine the film from start to finish.

This could have been a true horror gem, but it is simply another uninspired low-budget 80s horror disappointment. The music is good however, with echoes of the Adagio from Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta which was, of course used in Kubrick's, The Shining to great effect.



"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain silent." - Ludwig Wittgenstein

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Overrated? The IMDB score tells a different story and whoever you spoke to obviously enjoyed Scarecrows. So much for 'overrated' it's simply a case of differing opinions.

Go back to doing whatever you were doing before you decided to become a second-rate tin-pot film reviewer. Knob-neck.

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Thanks for taking the time to set me straight, boselecta. However, I stand by all I said about this film. Yes, I have a different opinion of the film to you. Neither of us is "right" about the film being good or bad, objectively. Why you felt it necessary to attempt to insult me, perhaps only you will know. Such behaviour only makes one come across as arrogant and irrational. For my own good, I avoid such behaviour.

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Lol my apologies I'd forgotten I'd written the above! I must have been in a bad mood! No offence :)

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just saw it the other night...weak horror film. Shooting an entire film at night is generally a bad idea.

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Agreed though I'd not even grant this movie appraisal of it's atmosphere. It even lacked there.

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