Review of Scareycrows (2017) by The All-Seeing I — 14 Jan 2019

For the sake of full disclosure, I'm an anglophile, and specifically when it comes to English humor: The Monty Python/Young Ones/Benny Hill trifecta are all long-term tenants in my comedy Pantheon. From the opening moments of Scareycrows, I excitedly realized that I had stumbled onto a comedy that would prove indigenously, stubbornly English: The jokes are as dry as they are knowing; there's a high degree of ridiculousness that must be joyously embraced; and the suspension of disbelief is a prerequisite.

For those requiring plausibility, look elsewhere, as Scareycrows isn't that kind of party. Director Lucy Townsend waves her magic indie wand over a story in which a hairdresser in training finds her charming little town infested by murderous..."scareycrows" (fabulous!). Townsend takes a script that revels in the smartly inane and does a superlative job blurring the lines between indie and lower-budget major studio by exhibiting her great choices in casting, cinematography, and actor direction.

This film is boldly tongue-in-cheek and unapologetically veers into goofball territory whenever Townsend wills it there (which is often). Those whose eyes require the homogenized sheen of major studio productions are encouraged to consider how sadly rare true absurdity is in those larger offerings. Scareycrows is gloriously ludicrous filmmaking which awaits your courageous embrace.