Living on a remote plain, a group of Vikings finds the heathen among them trying to stir up trouble with their clan and decide to expel him in a trapped scarecrow as punishment, but when he makes a deal with a witch to continue his killing inside the scarecrow they must find a way to stop him.
This was an overall serviceable if flawed feature overall. Among its better qualities is the central setup that provides a fine excuse for everything within here to take place. Not only quickly establishing the way of life within the village as the group hunts down the disgraced member of the village attempting to rape and pillage the chief's daughter but setting him out on a trek to seek vengeance with the banishment taking place leading to the group going through the process of removing him from their community, this gets a lot out rather quickly. Detailing the need for revenge against them for their rightful attack on the outside member of the group by taking on the form of a cursed scarecrow that haunts the village, this all gives everything the kind of simplistic formula to work with as a means of getting the rampage started. That is the other fun point here in that there's some fun to be had with the idea of the killer scarecrow going around knocking off the villagers in the woods. After the ceremony to transform his soul into the scarecrow and become the killing machine at the heart of the film, this turns into a plotless yet endearing series of encounters with the villagers being knocked off by the creature in some decent enough setpieces. Whether it be the regular villagers in the woods wandering around or the weapons-filled combat with the Viking fighters that are being taken down in some fun moments allowing the scarecrow the chance to utilize some fun ambushes around the forested parts of the woods leading to the final confrontation which employs a great touch about fulfilling destiny and the bounds of witchcraft to finally defeat him. These all manage to bring about some likable features in here although there are some big issues keeping this one down. The main detriment to this one is the excessive running time that manages to go longer than it needs to with egregious inserts and additional moments that it doesn't need. With extra scenes during the stalking scenes showing victims standing around waiting for the killer to strike them, useless moments wandering around for nothing to happen, or an especially useless sequence where a person stands around for twenty seconds with the killer standing behind them doing nothing only for the killer to still miss, it all leads to an immensely obvious running time that could've been trimmed down. On top of that, it's way too cheap and flimsy for its good, with obvious anachronistic tendencies, lousy choreography, low-key effects-work, and general production vibes that give away its origins pretty easily, being the main factors that brought this down.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.
