Caccia a Scarecrow

Scarecrow Slayer is the sequel to Emmanuel Itier's cult horror movie "Scarecrow". This time around Itier has given the reigns to a new director and the result is not too bad at all. Forget the low IMDb rating, if you liked the first film or low budget horror movies in general, then Scarecrow Slayer is worth hiring.

Fans of the original film may be somewhat disappointed that this is a sequel in name only. Scarecrow Slayer does not follow the events of the first movie, so there is a new scarecrow victim and most upsettingly, no return appearance from scream queen, Tiffany Shepis. In fact, the only real link to the original is Todd Rex, who reprises his role as the scarecrow. Despite the new cast and storyline, this is not an awful sequel. Scarecrow Slayer definitely lacks the tastelessness and grim humour that made Itier's film a video favourite but it is 90 minutes of stupid, gory fun.

This time around a college student, Dave, is accidentally shot while trying to steal the scarecrow during a hazing dare. This results in Dave's soul entering the scarecrow with the intention of avenging his death and being reunited with his girlfriend, Mary. Dave even builds Mary a female scarecrow, so they can be possessed together after he kills her. Who says romance is dead. The plot of the movie basically involves the scarecrow chasing Mary around town, killing anyone who comes between them. The murders begin rather tamely but as the film progresses the gore factor increases significantly. I particularly liked the head squashing, which was very reminiscent of early Troma. The special effects are the work of Anthony C. Ferrante, who recently directed the atrocious ghost movie "Boo". Thankfully, his special effects are far better than his directing skills.

In addition to some decent low budget gore, the film also boasts a cameo appearance from Tony Todd - the "Candyman" himself! Tony gives a great performance as Caleb, the scarecrow's keeper. The other standout performance is given by Jessica Mattson, who plays the requisite big breasted bimbo with style. I'm surprised that her career has stalled, she definitely has the assets to be a scream queen. The rest of the cast is pretty ordinary but good enough for this kind of material.

Scarecrow Slayer is definitely only for fans of low budget gore. This is not high art, but you should know that from the DVD cover. I can't believe that people hire a movie about a killer bundle of hay and have the nerve to go online and write reviews lamenting the poor production values as if it were some kind of surprise.

I have seen both Scarecrow movies, and this one has different strengths and weaknesses than the first scarecrow film. This film's greatest weakness is its poor cinematography: poor use of computer effects, too many chroma-key shots, and sub-par lighting. The acting is next on the hit-list...it felt like there was no director at all. Even recognizable actor Tony Todd fell flat in this movie. It felt like half the cast didn't even try to act.

It's kind of a shame, since this film takes itself a lot more seriously than the first scarecrow movie, and had a somewhat more interesting plot.

This might be the worse film I have ever seen. Hard to believe something like this can be made. Has Tony Todd fallen on that bad of times he needs to do things like this? I could not put this with the bad its good or I laughed the whole time bad films was just bad!

The whole movie was full of stuff that made no sense that just made you think what the hell is going on now. I expect that from low budget strait to video but this was real bad. No point to most of it.

I did think that the scarecrow looked OK and could have been somewhat scary just in the wrong film with this.

Seems like the filmmaker has done or been involved in lots of stuff, none i have seen, I might not want to now. God bless much luck for doing something we all love.

I would avoid this at all cost free or for $1.00 not worth it.

The movie was so unbelievably bad that it was good. This is assuming that you are watching the movie with friends who will not just make fun of it, but rip it to pieces as you watch. This means that you shouldn't watch the movie with any of the stiffs who declared it the worst movie ever because of the terrible effects, acting, lingo, customs, lack of plot, and so on. They cannot truly appreciate a movie that was purposefully made so bad that people would not have a good time watching it, but instead would have an amazingly fulfilling experience making fun of it. If you like movies that make you feel like you could easily create a better movie in your backyard without even having a video camera then this is the movie for you. If you one of those people who limit the qualities of a good movie to having good plot, acting, effects, lingo, and so on; then you aren't worthy of the Scarecrow Slayer experience and should rethink everything about your movie watching life before it's too late. SCRARECROW SLAYER + FRIENDS = BEST MOVIE EVER!!!

This could have been a good movie and a potential new franchise,if it had a bigger budget and a different production company.The costume and make-up of the scarecrow was pretty well done.The acting was really bad,the actors didn't know how to act scared. The visual effects and murders looked like video game graphics.We need a good new horror franchise,but this isn't it.