Espantalho Assassino

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.

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!

Canadian TV movie about a bunch of high school kids helping out on a farm as a detention for their bad behaviour, only to become victims of a demonic, indestructible scarecrow. As a horror movie it is quite well paced, packing in an adequate amount of kills, gore and scares throughout its 83 minutes. As a scarecrow movie the creature looks more like something from the depths of the Abyss rather than from the middle of a corn field. Plus it is CGI, something that I am not a fan of. Acting is reasonable, though there are several unlikable characters and some of the actors are obviously older than the parts they are playing. As already mentioned there is a fair amount of gore but I felt that its UK 18 rating to be a little harsh. I picked this up cheap on DVD, I won't watch it again but felt that I got my monies worth.There are much better scarecrow movies out there.

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.

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?