Scarecrows

Scarecrows (1988)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Fairly entertaining horror film has a group of robbers forcing a father and his daughter to fly them to Mexico but along the way the gang leader jumps out of the plane with the money. Soon his "co-workers" go after him and they all find themselves in a strange field with countless scarecrows that come to life. SCARECROWS isn't exactly going to win any major awards but I think horror fans who enjoy some gore should find it of interest. In its uncut form the picture actually offers up some very memorable death scenes ranging from decapitations to bodies being sliced in half and there are some even more memorable ones where the gore factor is pretty over-the-top. It's certainly easy to see why two versions of this was released as the uncut one features enough red stuff where there was no way the studio could have gotten it past the MPAA. These effects certainly help the film move along as do the great looking villains. The scarecrows are pretty much what you'd expect them to look like but I really loved them. I thought each of them in their own way looked terrific and really gave the film some much needed atmosphere. The performances were also above average for this type of picture and there's no question that director William Wesley managed to build up some good atmosphere. The biggest problem is that between the fifty and sixty minute marks there's really nothing going on and the film grows a little boring before finally picking up in the final act. The various shots of the airplane flying was also annoying and especially when they just used the same shot over and over again. Still, with the memorable death scenes and great looking monsters, SCARECROWS offers up enough to make it worth watching.

A lot of horror fans seem to love Scarecrows, so I won't be very popular in saying that I found it to be rather boring. The idea behind it was interesting, but it seems to drag so much. I think the main problem is that it is all set in darkness. Sometimes horror films set in darkness can work (such as Humongous), but Scarecrows is in darkness for the whole film. A lot of the time it's hard to figure out what's actually happening, and although some shots of the scarecrows were creepy, most were hard to even see. If a little more lighting had been used, perhaps it could've been better.

There's not many films involving killer scarecrows to my knowledge, apart from Dark Night Of The Scarecrow, which is much better. I would recommend that over Scarecrows any day.

After a brazen robbery at Camp Pendleton, a gang of crooks force a pilot and his daughter to fly them to Mexico. Unfortunately for the bad guys, one of their number takes the money and parachutes out of the plane! Not wanting to let him get away with the loot, the rest of the team soon follows him. Landing near an old farm, the hunt is on.

Unbeknownst to these miscreants, something about this particular farm just isn't right. There's a small army of real "stuffed shirts" in the cornfield who have been waiting for a few visitors to drop in, so they can "stalk" them. Within a short time, the criminal crew is up against a seemingly unstoppable force of eeevil. A gore-drenched attrition problem soon follows. Will anyone escape, or will they all become "husks" of their former selves?

SCARECROWS is one of the better late-80's horror films, that would have been the perfect addition to any Saturday night, creep fiesta! Owing much to a multitude of zombie epics, the story is simple, but eerily effective. The title entities are suitably mysterious and gruesome. The woo-woo music fits the grisly action, and overall, the low-budget is well-spent.

EXTRA CREDIT FOR: Many horrifically hilarious lines of dialogue!

EXTRA-EXTRA CREDIT FOR: The grimmest of finales!...

Mindless and acceptable horror thriller packed with chills , intrigue , terror and lots od interminable screams with no much sense . Including a large number of sinister scenes that usually are frightening and terrifying to spectator. Decent chiller about a gang of delinquents who hijack a plane to go to Mexico . One the the robbers flees and parachutes to a cornfield , then the others land on the location to find him . But there they are mercilessly pursued and massacred by various scarecrows . As they carry out a relentless criminal spree , an implacable slaughter on each person, one by one , with plenty of nighmarish scenes and extreme terror .

An intriguing and gory tale of terror and survival , the picture displays restless horror and great loads of screams , blood , guts and usual weird appearances by surprising scarecrows at a corrnfield , manifesting themselves with creepy threats , violent attacks , grisly murders and anything else . It is produced in limited but well used budget , including nicely recreated special effects , make-up enough and disturbing , shocking gore . The story begins little by little , but when the appearance of the eerie scarecrows takes place the films gets its adequate developing. The cast , though unknown , provides appropiate interpretations fitting to their funcional roles , such as : Ted Vernon, Michael Simms , David Campbell, Victoria Christian , BJ Turner . This Terror subgenre about Scarecrows has the best film titled "Dark night of the scarecrow" 1981 by Frank de Felitta with Charles Durning , Ernest Borgnine , Robert F Lyons , and others as "Scarecrow" 2013 by Sheldon Wilson with Lacey Charbet , Robin Dunne , " Children of corn" by Fritz Kiersch with Peter Horton , Linda Hamilton and its several sequels .

It contains a nice cinematography by Peter Deming, this cameraman has expanded a long and succesful cinematic career over thirty years . This Scarecrows 1988 is a passable terror movie being professionally written and directed by William Wesley . This director has made a few but acceptable short budget movies as Cinema as TV such as : Apolo Z , Monsters , Rout 666 and this Scarecrows at his best.

A Joe Pesci look alike and his military friends rob and kidnap a father/daughter combo, escaping in a jet airplane. During flight, one of the robbers grabs the loot and parachutes onto a farm haunted by demonic scarecrows. They land, and it becomes obvious that the human characters here don't matter, scarecrows are the main draw.

It's super low-budget without showing too much, and the acting is very b-movie in an enjoyable way. Unfortunately, the story is just a set up to have guys with guns get sneakily picked off by alie.. I mean predato.. I mean scarecrows.

But the simple plot works through decent effects, competent direction, and the scarecrows themselves. (They're near invulnerable, wield knives, pitchforks, cleavers, and sew people full of leaves to make them into zombified slaves.)

There's some genuinely creepy moments and some laughable schlock. If you don't go in expecting much, this can be a fun ride.