Scarecrow

Scarecrow (2013)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Better than average SyFy flick about three adults and six teens who travel to an abandoned farmhouse to tear down a scarecrow so that it can be used in a town event. Before long there's a scarecrow killing them off one by one. You know, scarecrows can be rather creepy and we've gotten several horror films about them but most have been rather unsuccessful with the exception being DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW. I really wasn't expecting too much from this film but it actually delivered as long as you don't take it too serious and don't expect any scares. I thought the story itself from writer Rick Suvalle was pretty good as it seems he has a knowledge of the genre and knows how to milk certain scenes. One fine example of this is the opening sequence with a couple teens sneaking into a barn for some sex but you know what happens. I really liked how the story took place at this farmhouse and barn and I think the film only really started to suffer when they moved off these locations. The performances were actually better than you'd expect for this type of film with Lacey Chabert, Julia Maxwell, Nicole Munoz and Richard Harmon all doing fine work. The scarecrow itself is a CGI creation and it's certainly not as horrid as I was expecting. If you watch these SyFy movies then you know the monsters are usually horrid looking but I thought for the most part that this one looked okay. The scarecrow in the field that we see early on is much more effective though. The blood/violence level isn't all that high but we get a couple nice scenes. SCARECROW eventually runs out of gas around the hour mark and gets slowed down but fans of the sub-genre should find enough here to enjoy.

A group of well-deserving teens (who look way too old, but that's nothing new) spend some quality detention time running through corn and hiding in a haunted farmhouse & legendary site of several murders. The legend isn't apparently a myth, and they pay for their trespassing. It's been done before, and definitely better, but not a bad Sy-Fy offering. Nice and Halloween-y, starring that guy who I finally recognized from "Sanctuary" about halfway through.

Random thoughts - Very good to see Lacy Chabert again. Why doesn't she do more? Why is there a ripe field of corn planted on what's supposed to be long-deserted land?

I find it kind of odd that people are overly negative about this movie. Sure, it is a SyFy Channel original movie, so you shouldn't get your hopes up in the likes of major blockbuster multi-million dollar glamorous Hollywood productions. But every now and again SyFy Channel does manage to hit a Homerus - and they did so with "Scarecrow".

The story is about a town that celebrates the 100th annual scarecrow festival, and apparently there is a grim tale about an animated scarecrow on a local farm. This turns out to be true, as a group of people come face to face with a grotesque and murderous entity.

Storywise, then "Scarecrow" was actually enjoyable, it had just the right amount of fun and thrills, though it wasn't a particular scary movie, unless you are easily scared, of course. But still, the story proved to be entertaining and well enough thought through.

As for the acting, well people were doing good jobs with their given roles and it was fun to see Lacey Chabert in a movie such as this. She did carry the movie well.

The effects in "Scarecrow" were actually quite good. Sure, this wasn't a CGI galore such as those over the top Hollywood productions, but the effects proved effective to what they were supposed to do. The scarecrow was nicely animated and had some great details, and it didn't actually look fake at any one point throughout the movie.

If you enjoy a good monster flick, that doesn't necessarily require much thinking from the audience side, then "Scarecrow" is a good choice. "Scarecrow" managed to squeeze a 6 out of 10 stars rating out of me.

Got to say it first: I enjoyed this Scarecrow look! At first I was thinking that it is indeed original, by far, afterwards, maybe a little dumb, but after hearing the explanation in the plot, of how it got that way, yeah, hands down to this concept! I approve!

So, Scarecrow 2013: a very nice and enjoyable movie, of course you must NOT expect too much, just some innocent fun, some almost scares, the most standard horror moves, "let's split off", "let's do that", "I can't believe it is real", and so on. But overall, better than those tryhard movies, that get lost in their own work. I approve to this one, for a cheesy cliché horror night!

Really, not much to say about it, either you love it, or not. But if you do lower your expectations, and just sit, watch, eat popcorn and make fun, you might be in for exactly what you have hoped for. Fun fun fun!

It might not be on the same level as bigger productions of the same genre. But thanks to it's consistent and equal quality in all aspects of the movie, it manages to not be as terrible as some other low budget movies. If you're having a day where you don't mind investing 90 minutes of your life and you're in the mood for a nice, easy, horror flick then I can recommend it. The VFX was actually much better than expected and elevated this movie visually which made every scene with the scarecrow in it quite enjoyable. The creature itself is quite scary and the way it manifest hasn't been done like that before so it felt fresh and interesting. 5 out of 10 for me.