by Ed Travis
The plot description for Scarecrows, not to mention the era of its creation (1988), made this a must see. Although it doesn’t bode well for the movie when you realize a few minutes into it that you’ve most definitely seen it before and forgotten about it so fully that said plot description suckered you in again without triggering any memories of your previous viewing at all.
SCARECROWS (1988) Official Plot Synopsis
After a band of ex-military criminals pulls off a multi-million dollar heist, they hop aboard a plane headed for Mexico. But when one of their own betrays them, they suddenly find themselves on the ground and on the run through a field of scarecrows near an abandoned farmhouse. And as night sets in, the real nightmare begins. The men discover that there’s a reason the farmhouse is empty… and now those who thought they were the hunters are being hunted by an unimaginable and malevolent force!
Between the mixing of action and horror genres, the completely insane concept of haunted scarecrows taking out an elite mercenary force, the cover art and that remarkably helpful timestamp of 1988, Scarecrows feels like a no-brainer (Oz pun as fully intended as humanly possible). But the completed film plays out its wacky concept in such a perfunctory way, it feels like a slog while actually clocking in at a brisk 83 minutes.
There are flourishes of coolness sprinkled throughout Scarecrows. Enough, in fact, to understand why the film has a cult following strong enough to warrant a pretty luxurious release from Scream Factory. For one thing, the supernatural cause for the murderous anthropomorphic scarecrows is never spelled out or over explained. Our mercenaries just skydived into the worst possible derelict farm imaginable in which the former residents seem to have practiced some form of Satan worship and have long since vanished. I don’t need more explanation than that, but most horror movies feel like they have to spell these things out for their audiences. The lack of clarity about the killer scarecrows’ origins actually increases their effectiveness as horror symbols. More interesting than the monsters themselves is what the monsters seem to be doing to the human fodder… I mean characters… in the story. Once dispatched by the creatures, our characters are hollowed out, stuffed and hung on crucifixes, and this is where the movie finds its quickest pulse. At one point a character is moving and talking but found to be hollowed out and stuffed with straw and the team’s stolen money. The visuals are effective and practically done with impressive make-up. The monsters get inside the heads of our characters and slowly drive them mad. Another character back from the dead appears totally faceless and again the look of this monster is so strong that you wish the movie surrounding it would be better. Norman Cabrera’s special make-up effects are the star of the film, even if all his best gags and visuals aren’t the scarecrows themselves.
Other than the premise and those killer practical creatures, the reality that Scarecrows is little more than a student film from young writer/director William Wesley sets in hard. We’re brought up to speed that our team of mercenaries pulled off a giant heist and are now on a plane escaping through the most heavy-handed “news footage” exposition imaginable. And once teammate “Bert” (B.J. Turner) betrays them all and parachutes out of the plane with all the money, the team begins communicating via these earpiece walkie-talkie devices which become a frustrating device for communication in the movie. Wesley himself in the commentary on this disc notes that he was horrified to find the movie was almost silent for the entire first third of the runtime when he first assembled a cut. So he added in an overabundance of radio chatter that borders on the ridiculous. If I had a dollar for every time someone on the team said the name “Bert” over the radio and then said some vaguely threatening thing about how they are going to kill him, I’d definitely be able to buy this Blu-ray at full price. This is just one specific problem that is symptomatic of the whole film. Lots of insulting and extraneous exposition makes Scarecrows guilty of the most egregious “telling not showing” problems. This is a stark contrast to the film’s seeming comfort with not explaining the scarecrows origins, which in turn makes that feel more like an accident or oversight than an actual choice to the film’s credit.
People keep turning up dead, loyalties are tested, greed is exposed, and eventually there are only a few cast members left; all of which feels mandatory to the genre and not particularly inspired or interesting. Beyond make-up effects above the budget or experience level of this team, and a premise with huge potential and little payoff, there isn’t much to recommend in Scarecrows.
The Package
As mentioned earlier, this Blu-ray release from Scream Factory gives a pretty royal treatment to this artifact of the 1980s which doesn’t quite deserve it. This was another case where I wasn’t digging the film very much, but the bonus features and supplemental materials gave me a more full perspective on it and at least made me appreciate how young this filmmaking team was and how much they accomplished with so little. It didn’t make the film a total “win”, but it certainly makes an impression when you realize that someone like make-up artist Norman Cabrera (the real star of this film), was only 18 when doing the make-up effects for this film.
Fans of Scarecrows will be hugely impressed with dual commentary tracks, including a new one recorded for this release, and a couple of newly produced interview featurettes with Cabrera and star/executive producer Ted Vernon. The movie itself is shot almost entirely at night and looks like the low budget film it is. The high def transfer felt fine to me but I didn’t notice much to set it apart, which is likely the fault of the mediocre film itself and nothing to do with the transfer. This is an obvious buy for established fans, as it is a top notch release. But to anyone reading that tantalizing plot summary and contemplating a blind buy: I’d say rent before you buy.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Audio Commentary with director William Wesley and producer Cami Winikoff Audio Commentary with co-screenwriter Richard Jefferies, Director of Photography Peter Deming and composer Terry Plumeri The Last Straw — an interview with Special Make-up Effects Creator Norman Cabrera Cornfield Commando — an interview with Actor Ted Vernon Original Storyboards Still Gallery
Theatrical Trailer
And I’m Out.
Scarecrows hits Blu-ray June 2nd from Scream Factory.