Scarecrow

Released by: SyFy
Released on: February 25, 2014
Director: Sheldon Wilson
Cast: Lacey Chabert, Richard Harmon, Brittney Wilson
Year: 2013
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The Movie

A group of delinquent teens go on a field trip with their teacher to a local farmhouse on the 100th Anniversary of their town's Scarecrow Festival, only to be murdered by, you guessed it, an unstoppable killer scarecrow, in this surprisingly decent SyFy Original Movie from director Sheldon Wilson (Mega Cyclone, Snowmageddon).

After a brief prologue where two teens are killed after trying to go for a roll in the hay, the movie introduces us to our cast of scarecrow fodder: a teacher, his ex-girlfriend, her ex-boyfriend, and a group of teens stuck in detention for the day. Almost as soon as the group arrives to the farmhouse, they are attacked in the surrounding cornfields by an unseen presence. Taking refuge in the old farmhouse, the teens and their teacher board up the place, Night of the Living Dead-style, and try to fight off the murderous creature.

All the characters immediately jump into action like they already know they're in a scarecrow slasher film, and this works in the movie's favor. It doesn't play coy with it's subject matter and gets down to business expediently. Only moments after being attacked in the cornfields, the group almost immediately agrees that they are being attacked by a killer scarecrow, even before the scarecrow has actually been revealed. While it doesn't make for the most believable plotting or characterization, it means that the action comes quickly and the pacing never slows down for very long, which works for a low-budget made-for-TV horror film like this.

The performances in Scarecrow are serviceable. The cast are a group of vaguely attractive twenty and thirty-somethings, typical for a SyFy production like this, but they commit to their roles in a way that lends Scarecrow a level of credibility it might not have had otherwise. Lead actress Lacey Chabert (Kristen) carries the movie throughout its second half and into the final act. She was the voice of Zatanna in Young Justice and in the Injustice: Gods Among Us video game, and a couple of the cast members have regular TV gigs on Bates Motel, so you may recognize some of the cast. You might not recognize or remember any of them after the movie's over, but they're not annoying and they keep the plot moving, so they get the job done.

Once the scarecrow does appear, the creature design is revealed to be pretty unique in that it doesn't look like a scarecrow at all. Unlike other films where the scarecrow is a stuffed scarecrow come to life, or a living corpse dressed up like a scarecrow, this monster is a living twisted mass of broken branches covered in pitch, with a sunken-in face and long claw-like fingers. The scarecrow is realized mostly using CGI, although in close-ups its hands and tendrils are occasionally created with practical effects. For a movie with such a low budget, the CGI is effective and the scarecrow looks natural in its surroundings and interactions with the environment.

There are some pretty decent kills throughout Scarecrow. Most of these occur off-camera, but when the corpses are revealed the practical effects are well done and there is a nice attention to the gory details. For example, one character is found pinned to a wall and missing the lower half of her disemboweled torso; another is discovered with his spine dislodged and partially ripped out of his back. The scarecrow never kills its victims in the same way twice, and this unpredictability is another point in the movie's favor. With the body count rising every fifteen minutes or so, and the creature always changing up its attack, Scarecrow never settles down enough to be boring in its 86 minute running time.

Audio/Video/Extras

Scarecrow is presented on DVD in 16:9. Picture quality on this disc is good, and there is a nice level of detail for a movie that was originally shot for television. Colors look natural, fitting the realistic style of the movie and its rural setting.

The only audio option on this DVD is a 5.1 English Dolby Digital track. Occasionally character's voices were pushed to the back of the mix and sounded occasionally quiet in comparison to the score, sound cues and musical stings. Keep your volume control close by if you are watching the film with a 2.0 setup. There are no subtitle options or closed captioning available.

There are no extras on this disc.

The Final Word

Scarecrow is better than your average SyFy Original Movie, but it's not quite on par with classics of the killer scarecrow subgenre like Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981) and Scarecrows (1988). However, Scarecrow does enough things right with the tropes of the subgenre that it should keep horror fans happy for its full running time. Add this one to your queue next Halloween season if you're a fan of scarecrow films and you're looking for something new.