Review of Scarecrows (1988) by Michael T — 28 Jun 2015

Scarecrows is a film that probably seemed great in concept but didn't seem as great in delivery. The idea is pretty solid, a group of ex-military Special Forces types who were imprisoned by the military steal a military payroll, hijack a cargo plane and force the pilot and his teenage daughter to fly them south towards Mexico.

Then a member of the team decides he wants all the money for himself and parachutes off the plane with the loot, into an overgrown cornfield surrounded by sinister-looking (you guessed it) scarecrows.

The idea of a sinister, murderous scarecrow is intriguing. We are never told why the scarecrows attack the amoral commandos and their captives; or who the three strange guys in the photograph in the farmhouse are, or why long shut-off electricity and long abandoned and dilapidated trucks conveniently work when they need to.

I don't need to know everything in a Horror film but a hint at an explanation would be nice. The supernatural scarecrows are a pretty effective monster, some of the gore effects were inventive, and I like the cross-genre approach of the military-style commandos coming up against something bullets cannot solve (Predator was a more effective use of this trope).

Still, the script needed several re-writes and the no-name cast was ineffectual. Its really a two star movie but the scarecrows were so effective, I gave it an extra star.