Scareycrows

While trying to grow up in life, a teen and her friends try to pass the time until a special townwide celebration involving decorative scarecrows can take place, but when they come to life at the behest of a scorned friend to do her bidding and seek revenge on the town must band together to get away alive.

Overall, this was a pretty decent if somewhat troublesome effort. Among the brighter features here is the way the first half builds to the eventual rampage of the creatures. Getting an in-depth look at the life of the friends in the town who are shown to have work and relationship issues, this all comes together for a generally light and breezy setup with just the right amount of comedic touches to keep the atmosphere light. That also goes along with the conflicting backstories here about the origins of the creatures and the purpose for the town's celebrations to put them up and celebrate the occasion which provides a fun start to things. With that setup featured here, the second half comes off incredibly well with this being a series of incredibly effective light-hearted stalking and confrontations throughout the town. As the town goes through several fun rampages through the community where they come to life against the unsuspecting victims while chasing the group around the town leading to some fun encounters along the park, the cosmetic shop, and the seemingly abandoned police station which also highlights the aggressive behaviors of the scarecrows rather nicely. As the finale takes place in the abandoned factory that has some tense encounters and the few instances of gore here, these are enough to make this likable. There are some issues holding this one back. One of the biggest factors here is the extremely overlong setup about the group of friends in the town which isn't necessary for a film this short. Dealing with each of the storylines as individual elements here works well enough but it takes a toll on the pacing here when it takes half an hour to even get the backstory of the titular creatures as the majority of the time here on many of the issues here. As well, there's very little to fear here about the lackluster motivation behind it which is immensely underwhelming and lame to have it carry out as it does, and combined with the low-budget feel here are what bring this down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

If you liked Hot Fuzz, that film with Simon Peg, Scareycrows is right up your alley. This is a fun filled comedy horror fest. It is 100% pure entertainment. Can't be sure who had more fun, me watching or the cast and crew making the movie. Speaking of the cast, all strong performances. The director does an excellent job of keeping the camp and slapstick out and a funny realism in. Two thumbs up.

Went in expecting it to be a laughably poor movie made by amateurs. Whilst the low budget was obvious, this movie actually turned out to be quite good. The special effects were a bit lacking in places, but the story was written so that effects were rarely required. The result was a decent film where everyone involved clearly gave it their all in making the best of the limited funds. It is a movie that won't win any awards, but is hopefully a taster of those involved going on to bigger and better things.

For now, if you want to watch a slightly silly low budget horror movie, then this is a good time.

For the sake of full disclosure, I'm an anglophile, and specifically when it comes to English humor: The Monty Python/Young Ones/Benny Hill trifecta are all long-term tenants in my comedy Pantheon. From the opening moments of Scareycrows, I excitedly realized that I had stumbled onto a comedy that would prove indigenously, stubbornly English: The jokes are as dry as they are knowing; there's a high degree of ridiculousness that must be joyously embraced; and the suspension of disbelief is a prerequisite.

For those requiring plausibility, look elsewhere, as Scareycrows isn't that kind of party. Director Lucy Townsend waves her magic indie wand over a story in which a hairdresser in training finds her charming little town infested by murderous..."scareycrows" (fabulous!). Townsend takes a script that revels in the smartly inane and does a superlative job blurring the lines between indie and lower-budget major studio by exhibiting her great choices in casting, cinematography, and actor direction.

This film is boldly tongue-in-cheek and unapologetically veers into goofball territory whenever Townsend wills it there (which is often). Those whose eyes require the homogenized sheen of major studio productions are encouraged to consider how sadly rare true absurdity is in those larger offerings. Scareycrows is gloriously ludicrous filmmaking which awaits your courageous embrace.

Some 'scareycrows' come to life and try to kill some terrible actors.