Several times a year the Syfy channel releases their own horror themed movies, with many of them following the same story. A group of survivors must escape a certain threat in a specific location. Scarecrow is no exception to that and is a very cliche film with a formula that has been repeated numerous times and doesn’t offer a single new element.
The story revolves around high school teacher Aaron Harris (Robin Dunne) who takes six students to an old cornfield to dismantle a scarecrow as part of after school detention. While on the bus there, the students begin to tell an urban legend of how long ago the scarecrow became alive and killed several people. However most write it off as fictitious. Shortly after arriving at the site, Aaron runs into former girlfriend Kristen Mills (Lacey Chabert) and former friend Eddie (Carlo Marks) which creates uncomfortable feelings among them. However, everything is quickly interrupted by strange occurrences and then, the scarecrow reveals himself, forcing everyone to take refuge in an abandoned house as they try to determine how to escape the secluded old farm alive.
This is a film that consists of many flaws. The major one being the story, which several times over the duration of the film doesn’t seem logical or consistent. The fact that a teacher would bus students a great distance to do labor as punishment is ludicrous. A sole teacher can’t contain several disobedient kids. When they actually arrive, Aaron quickly stops monitoring the students activities after he learns Kristen is there and begins to pursue personal interests. The story itself is similar to other Syfy original movies, like Sharknado and Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon. They just simply change the threat and location.
And then you have the monster itself, the scarecrow. Upon seeing it, you’ll discover it looks absolutely nothing like a scarecrow. It looks more like it’s made of vines, and moves the same way the vines did in the 1981 horror masterpiece The Evil Dead, only it doesn’t rape people. It’s 3D animated most of the time it’s on the screen, but I did like its appearance despite it being called a scarecrow seemed misleading.
It’s logic is highly flawed. It seems to have the power to kill everyone quickly, but for whatever reason, it doesn’t. In one scene, the remaining survivors gain access to a police cruiser and drive off when the scarecrow appears in front of the car, causing them to crash and be knocked unconscious. But the scarecrow doesn’t kill them, instead allowing them to sit in the vehicle for awhile before only killing one of them after leaving the vehicle.
To give this film some credit, there are a couple good scenes with gore. The scarecrow with its vine-like abilities will puncture it’s victims bodies and slash their legs, torsos and other parts. But the majority of the deaths in this film are off screen which is disappointing. The performance given by the actors is unimpressive and often pretty bad.
The concept of this film seemed good and certainly had potential, but a flawed story and bad acting resulted in the creation of a very poor film. Syfy channel movies are notoriously mediocre with this being no exception. If you’re looking for a good horror film, there are certainly much better films worth your time and money.
MOVIE RATING
Reviewed by Ivan Karhoff
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