October Edition #14: SCARECROWS

Director: William Wesley
Screenplay: William Wesley, Richard Jeffries
Starring: Ted Vernon, Michael Simms, Richard Vidan, B.J. Turner, Victoria Christian
Release Date: 1988


SCARECROWS is a surprisingly effective, distinctly moody little movie that follows a group of five commandos on the run from the U.S. Army after a heist at Camp Pendleton. They kidnap a pilot and his daughter, forcing them to fly the unit to Mexico in a cargo plane. En route, one the five pulls a double cross, parachuting with the money into an isolated cornfield and retreating to an abandoned shack surrounded by scarecrows. The rest of the group lands the plane and follows their former partner into a total nightmare, as they slowly come to realize that the scarecrows are living, breathing terrors with an insatiable blood lust.

I love you thiiiis much!

This flick is unusually short, barely cracking the 80 minute mark, yet in that brief running time very deftly gets its nasty business done in appropriately tense and gruesome fashion. While completely different in tone, the entire setup of the plot reminded me very much of RESERVOIR DOGS, in that the story is limited to a small group of characters confined to a single location and deals with the aftermath of a heist that was apparently a bloodbath, but which we only ever hear about, and never see. It is this simplicity in the storytelling that lends the supernatural elements more weight once the proverbial shit hits the fan.

So what we’ve basically got is a story of a group of people who have just performed a heinous act, believing they have gotten away scot-free, being forced to atone for their sins. The first act of the movie follows the criminals as they track Bert (Turner), the saboteur, through the woods unsuccessfully. He finally shows up at the cabin, totally catatonic, oblivious to the vicious beating heaped on him by his former cohorts. Eventually they discover that Bert isn’t exactly Bert anymore, and has in fact been completely disemboweled,  his hollowed-out torso stuffed with straw and the money from the heist. A quick glance out the window reveals that the rest of the cash has been casually strewn about the lawn, leading off in various directions into the dark heart of the forest. From this point on it is a matter of staying alive until dawn, as the commandos quickly come to grips with their situation and are forced to decide whether the money is really worth losing their lives.

You want me to stick it where?!

The premise of demonic scarecrows might sound a bit silly, but the doom-drenched atmosphere created by the dark, gloomy cinematography goes a long way towards selling the terror of the situation. It is obvious that the movie had a miniscule budget, as evidenced by the fact that we only ever see one of the scarecrows in action, and my God, the one we do see is such a hideously spectral nightmare that one is all we need to see. The make-up effects on the re-animated scarecrows are only seen in brief snippets, but it’s enough to get the point across, and the gore effects, while sparse, are absolutely brutal, ranging from grisly disemboweling and the ensuing spilled intestines, to a hand sawed off slowly with a rusty hacksaw, and a particularly nasty bit involving a hand skewered by a pitchfork that is then split in two.

The characters are not the most memorable lot, but they are given enough depth that I wanted to see at least some of them survive. The commandos apparently killed a lot of people during the heist, but they aren’t portrayed as absolute dirt bags, showing at least some concern for the welfare of their hostages. None of the performances are anything to write home about, though I did note that the acting got better the further into the movie I got, particularly during a nice monologue from the groups’ leader Curry (Simms), in which he slowly disintegrates into madness, seriously considering the possibility that they’ve all died in the heist and are now in Hell.

If I only had YOUR brain.

I won’t spoil whether or not that’s where they really are, suffice to say that we never do get any kind of explanation as to how or why any of the supernatural occurrences happen, save for a recurring shot of a photograph of  a trio of grizzled hicks, the Fowler clan, apparently the prior occupants of the shack. I kinda dig that no explanation is given. Sometimes bad shit just happens and, realistically, if any one of us were to find ourselves in such a situation the odds are stacked against us ever piecing together the information needed to figure out why. Blood and guts aside, a lot of the time ambiguity is a good thing when it comes to tales of the macabre. Too much explanation takes away the mystery, removing the creepiness inherent in not knowing what the hell is going on.

In case you couldn't tell by now, this movie has scarecrows in it.

SCARECROWS is extremely successful at establishing a particular mood of nearly-suffocating dread that pervades the flick until the final frame. I like a good, brainless hack and slash flick as much as anybody else, but it’s a nice surprise when a horror movie can also really get under your skin while getting its job done as quickly and efficiently as possible.  SCARECROWS has the basic ingredients of ghastly grue and brooding atmosphere that make up the best horror tales. Check it out.

My Rating:
7/10