User Reviews

SPOILER! This movie is terrible. It was unavailable on DVD for a long time for this very reason. However some people, (I'm looking at YOU Internet), kept talking it up and ascribing to it some cult status. I hope the cult for this one drinks the kool-aid.

We're dumped into the action with no character introduction or explanation except for what we hear over the radio on WXPO, All exposition, All the time. Somebody double crosses somebody else and we find ourselves at a spooky farmhouse surrounded by spooky scarecrows, who are stood up in a forest with no crops in sight. I waited most of the movie for a hero or even a protagonist to show up, but no luck there. A lot of the dialogue seems to have been reintroduced in post production so a lot of times, people that are talking aren't even in the scene. Characters change depending on scene convenience, the one guy that poses the idea that evil scarecrows have come to life and want to kill us is the one who, when hearing a voice over the radio that nobody else hears, insists it's his friend and turns a gun on the only other survivors. The girl who was kidnapped and is being kept alive only because her pilot father is dead risks her life to save her kidnappers. Oh, and the plane has a wooden floor. Since, i'm a sadomasochist and I watched this til the end, the credits are finished out by dedicating this movie to the director's sister and mother. I wonder if he liked them.

And the worst thing about it is, all things considered, it's a fairly original idea. Scarecrows haven't been given much limelight. Anyone with a modicum of talent could remake this and just realize all the unrealized potential and have a neat little horror flick. Until that happens, I'd give this one a miss.

I watched SCARECROWS because of the buzz surrounding it. Well, I can't imagine anyone liking this movie because it's just bad, bad, bad.

It's obvious that whoever made this movie doesn't know a single thing about horror. The whole story is an unsuccessful marriage of two genres: action movie (guns and criminals) and horror (living scarecrows). When the criminals are killed one by one by the poky looking scarecrows, the two genres automatically cancel each other out because, first, they're criminals and who cares about criminals, and second, because they're stupid criminals to boot! Having zombie scarecrows go after them just doesn't work here. Where's the horror in that? I wanted the criminals to die horrible deaths.

But the story is so badly constructed that this marriage of genres, which could have been original if handled well, NEVER gels. We're simply left with is a bunch of super dense criminals and a bunch of scarecrows, which are 'alive' for whatever flimsy reason the filmmakers thought up. Making things even worse is the fact that the pitch black cinematography is terrible (TV like), worse offense of all, entire parts of the dialogue are heard on CBs/walkie-talkies, and we continuously hear the inane dialogue spoken over disconnected (super dark) images as if we're 'watching' some sort of radio show. This part was really BAD. The director should have been shot on the spot for coming up with such a stupid and poor concept! I can't tell you how annoying that was.

As I've already mentioned, the criminals in SCARECROWS are unforgivably stupid. For instance, when someone suddenly shows up, gutted and filled with money and straw (yep, straw) in a huge open wound, the others ask "What drug is he on?" after they shoot tons of bullets in him, unable to kill him (he's been "zombiefied" by the scarecrows. Don't ask...). Morons. I've never seen such stupid people in a movie. And then there's the girl. I wished one of the scarecrows had killed her quickly because she was a pain in the butt. When she finds her father nailed to a scarecrow "cross", she actually blames the criminals in an embarrassing scene (bad acting), even though the criminals couldn't have done it. What a dimwit! But the scarecrows themselves are the biggest weakness in this very weak flick. They're not scary. Nothing much is explained about them. They're just a plot device in this plot device filled movie.

Mr Wesley, filming the face of a scarecrow in a static shot for 30 seconds nonstop doesn't elicit anything but sheer boredom. And that scene with the talking head in the fridge. Thanks for the laughter.

All in all, this had to be one of the worst movies I've seen recently (and I've seen a lot of movies these days!) Between the equally woeful SILO KILLER or SCARECROWS, I'd rather watch SILO KILLER again. Yep, SCARECROWS is that bad.

If you enjoy movies with repetitive shots of scarecrows, and the standard knife entering torso death scene, than this move is for you.

This movie contains absolutely zero character development, and while all of the characters die the same, you can't really find much of a reason to stay hooked to this move. Even the make-up effects were non-existent, I didn't expect too much, but be cautious while reading the other reviews, this movie isn't scary, funny, or even close to being so bad its good.

A heist nets 3.5 million dollars, but when one of the crew absconds with the money, the others give chase. No need, because the traitor reappears of his own accord, dead, reanimated and eviscerated. He doesn't die again easily however, so his comrades shoot him repeatedly and lop off his head. Full of wonderment over this, the crew cuts him open (a curious lot they are) and finds him stuffed full of cash. Ode to joy. So, there's the money! How did get there? No worries. His friends pull bloody cash out of every orifice, since he has more than any person should be rightfully entitled. Yep, this one's a real knee slapper. A Horrible flick. Bad dialogue. Worse acting. Was going to bring to a friends house for Halloween. I'm glad I previewed it first. Too bad too, because the premise is interesting and the scarecrows are cool looking.

However, you mostly see the scarecrows when they're hanging on their posts. Not much happens for a good 80 minutes. Clearly this was a straight to video release. I have seen tons of horror flicks from the 80's during the 80's and I don't remember ever seeing this one advertised. Heed the warning of the one star reviews unless you have really low standards for your horror flicks.

If SCARECROWS was cut down to the opening 3-minute credit sequence with the shot of the scarecrow and the foreboding piano score, this would be a really creepy film. Unfortunately, there's another 80 minutes to wade through after that and it feels more like 180. Take into account that the end credits are almost 10 minutes long and that about 20 minutes is devoted to close-ups of scarecrows hanging on crosses, a picture on a wall or just random shots of things,and what you're left with is about 50 minutes of awful dialogue, zero character development, bad acting, limp directing and unintelligible editing.

You don't even get to see the robbery at the beginning. You hear about it on a radio broadcast. In fact, most of the dialogue in this film isn't even said on screen. You hear it over a radio or what people are thinking or someone is talking just off screen. Since all the males sound alike you don't even know who's talking half the time...not that you care about these paper-thin but fully annoying characters.

Nothing really makes sense either. There's very little spatial coherence when the characters are outside. The explanation behind the scarecrows is hinted at but never fully explained. That's okay. Sometimes explanations in horror films are worse than just hinting. However, character motivations and actions are another thing. One minute someone says, "Screw the money!" but the next they're outside scarfing it up off the ground only to get gutted. One guy sees a team member get killed by a scarecrow and 5 minutes later he's screaming that the guy's coming back to the farmhouse for his gun. What? There's also a phone call that's supposed to be scary, but it was just dumb.

The only positive thing I can say about SCARECROWS is that the Scarecrow effects were good but that doesn't make SCARECROWS a good film. I wanted so badly to like this movie.

It's one of those films that I've read about in various movie review guides and assorted cinematic horror articles over the years and I put it on a personal list of films to see that "are not currently on DVD." Unfortunately, for all the talk, it had many more similarities than differences to the things we've grown to dislike bout the '80's horror film.

The scarecrows' (and their victims') actions and motives seem to change as needed to fit the story's progression. The characters' question fairly ordinary things yet completely accept some very bizarre supernatural events. Admittedly spooky and atmospheric setting (which is lessened by repeating footage of the scarecrows and the nocturnal surroundings shot in flood lights) but that alone can't carry the film. If you saw this years ago and have fond, scared memories, keep it that way and do not rent.

BOTTOM LINE: Make like a crow and fly as far away from these scarecrows as possible!

Five people rob the Camp Pendleton payroll, kidnap a pilot and his daughter, who are forced to fly them to Mexico.

Enroute a double cross has one of the thieves parachute with the loot into an abandoned graveyard surrounded by strange scarecrows.

Two of the team jump after their loot and their former partner. Everything happens during the course of one night.....

If you yearn for Army versus Scarecrows, you've got the movie you wished for. Everybody else, this is a mundane excuse for a horror film, and probably one of the first instances where gore favours the scares.

To be honest the film is really pants and nothing happens. Every five or ten minutes we are treated to a decent shot of a scarecrow, and someone gets killed or stuffed.

Repeat this for eighty minutes and you have a bad, boring, bland film, with only a dog with cataracts as the redeeming part of the film.

I saw this round about 1989 at my sisters house and the one thing i can always remember about this movie was the fact that it was too dark. Yeah that's right, i'm moaning about the really poor lighting. I got the chance to view it again after all these years and my memory is totally correct. It's too dark even with the brightness turned up a notch. This movie is shot entirely at night but that's no excuse because other films have been but they've been OK. It's sometimes hard to see what is going on.

*SPOILERS*

I am a big fan of 'Dark Night Of The Scarecrow' which is an excellent movie so when i originally saw 'Scarecrows' i thought it would be kick ass. Unfortunately it wasn't. It has a crap story with crap actors and takes an eternity for it to get going which is pretty stupid for a movie which is on for only 79 minutes. When things do liven up there's not that much to see as there are only about 4 killings and one of them is off screen. The killings are over all too fast with little build up to most of them. The characters are pretty stupid too. When Jack is on the roof of that house and he see's through his night-vision a snarling scarecrow in the distance he panics for a few seconds then is OK and proceeds to go outside to search for the lost money. Er i wouldn't have stepped foot outside till day break! What a dumbass! Also, when the robbers know that something is severely wrong do they barricade themselves in the house? Nope, they leave the front door wide open. When Curry realises that bullets don't work against the scarecrows do they think of using fire against them? Nope, they obviously go with the simple solution of using exploding shells, duh! If you can't tell, i'm being sarcastic.

But the scene with the night-vision that i just mentioned is extremely cool and scary. That scarecrow really looked nasty and evil. The few gore effects were good as well. The idea of the scarecrows gutting a human and stuffing their insides full of straw is pretty twisted. The trouble is...why? We learn next to nothing about who the scarecrows are (we're supposed to assume they are the three guys in the picture, i think) and why they are doing what they are doing. One of the robbers comes up with an half arsed assumption which we the viewer are supposed to accept as gospel. The background story is sketchy at best. And why did that guy Bert decide to turn on his comrades at the beginning? He didn't seem to have too much of a plan and the guy is a stupid wimp so why did he fancy his chances on the run?

All in all a scaryish film which relies more on its twisted nature than its scare factor. That scarecrow in the night-vision shot was excellent though and the zombie/scarecrow Jack at the end wasn't too bad either. Yeah, watch this even if the character who is going to survive this is painfully obvious straight from the beginning. An averagely bland horror movie with a couple of cool scenes. Way too dark though. 6/10

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

I bought the unrated video. There's nothing I like more than to sit down and watch a Heist/Killer Scarecrow movie. It's amazing how well these two genres meld together. A bunch of robbers skydive into a haunted cornfield. They are looking for their money. The scarecrows are looking to fillet and stuff them. The thieves will have to do battle with the scarecrow crew if they want their loot back. Let the battle begin.

I enjoyed this film. The version I saw had plenty of good gore effects. The scarecrows are lonely monsters who want their intruders to enjoy the benefits of a good stuffed torso. If they get their hands on you, it's stuffing time. They usually do get their hands on people because the thieves just can't bear to let the money go. I guess if they weren't greedy, they wouldn't be professional crooks. Overall, this is a solid B-movie. Blood, guts and stuffings. It's worth a look.

Scarecrows is one of those films that, with a little more acting, a little more direction, and a lot more story logic, would have been quite compelling as a horror entry. As it stands, it is still a creepy film that has solid make-up and gore effects, and a premise that sustains the mood of terror in spite of itself. And hey, there are no teenagers getting killed one by one--just dumb adults, so that is a refreshing change of pace. And the plot line is amazingly similar to Dead Birds, with a precipitating robbery, an abandoned spooky house in the middle of nowhere, and demonic monsters. But just like Dead Birds, the adults are still witless, they run around cluelessly before getting slaughtered one by one, and they ignore the obvious danger.

In Scarecrows, though, we never really find out the supernatural why, and that sustains the atmosphere of creepiness. And like clowns, scarecrows can be very creepy; unless they look like Ray Bolger, of course. Escaping in a hijacked plane with the pilot and his daughter, after a robbery netting millions, a para-military bunch is double-crossed by one of their own; a very nervous guy named Burt. He jumps out of the plane with the big, and heavy, box that holds the money with apparently no plans as to how to move it around once he is on the ground. Being the dumbest of the bunch, he is murdered first. But not before he happens upon the Fowler residence, nestled snuggly amid lots of really creepy-looking scarecrows, and surrounded with a wooden fence encircled with barbed-wire and lots of warnings to stay away. And the weird weathervane on the roof, with the pitchfork and pterodactyl, should have been a warning sign, too. The inside of the house is also quite foreboding (to us in the audience, anyway).

Annoyingly, we must listen to Burt's thoughts in voice-over, as he walks around and mysteriously comes across the key to the decrepit truck in the yard. The way the key pops up would be enough to have my pants--with me in them--flying out the door. Perhaps it's just me, but I really enjoy watching people's lips move on screen, even when they are just thinking out loud. It helps to intensify the action, and gives the actor more to do than just look like what the voice-over is saying. Burt hoists the box onto the truck and makes his getaway. Sure why not? decrepit trucks always have lots of gas in them, especially with today's prices, and the battery? no problem. Now, I did mention that Burt was the dumbest of the bunch, and here is why (in addition to the above, of course). Wearing night-vision goggles to walk through the foliage and find the house, he takes them off to drive the truck away, and instead, turns on the headlights to see where he is going. Of course, the crooks still in the plane spot the headlights of his truck, and know where he is headed. Brilliant. He deserves to die. Definitely. I am not sure why he needed night vision goggles in the first place, as every scene is brightly lit, from the interior of the plane, to the night-time outside scenery, and the house. The cinematographer was either a. myopic, b. just out of school, or c. dealing with really cheap filmstock.

Burt meets his demise when the truck dies in the middle of nowhere. Go figure. One very nice touch, and there are, I must admit, a few in the film, is the fact that when he opens the truck's lid, there is no engine. Creepy, to be sure (and insert pants comment again here). The story logic fails when dead, now-stuffed-like-a-flounder-with-money-and-straw-Burt returns to the house. The rest of the bunch are there, rough him up, then realize that he is indeed dead, and was gutted and stuffed like a flounder with money and straw. Dead Burt does manage to put up quite a fight, though, and grabs one fellow by the mouth, pushing him through a window, causing him to bite off more than he could chew in a gorylicious scene. At this point, you would think they'd would be racing out of the house and back to the plane--but noooo, they decide to stay and look for the rest of the money. In fact, the whole Burt is dead episode is treated rather matter-of-factly, although one bright bulb in the bunch does argue, "Burt was walking around dead, for chrissakes!"

The stolen money suddenly appears on the grounds outside the house, and the crooks blithely go for the bait. Soon, another one of them, Jack, is dispatched, and again the scene is well done and horrific, involving a dull handsaw and no anethesia. Now there are three scarecrows going about wreaking mayhem, and one of them needs a hand, literally.

When one of the crooks sees the scarecrows and Jack getting scarecrow-ized, he starts screaming, running away like hell, and shooting off his gun in typical para-military fashion. So much for all that training under pressure crap. He meets up with the others and stops in his tracks to explain why he is screaming, running away like hell, and shooting off his gun, even though the scarecrows appear to be chasing him. Again, that script logic thing... Dead and gutted, Jack returns to the house, and goes after the screamer with the usual results. If you listen to Jack's demonic growl, by the way, you may notice, depending on your age, that it is the same monster-growling sound heard often in the Lost In Space TV episodes.

The last two survivors race away from the house and back to the plane, barely escaping. But do they? You will have to see the film to find out.

Hello, what do we have here? Could this be a genuinely CREEPY 80's horror flick that somehow became forgotten over the years due to the genre's offer-overload? It sure looks like it, since "Scarecrows" is a truly atmospheric and well-made film with the exact right proportions of suspense and bloody make-up effects. Yet you'll never see it listed among anyone's decade-favorites and that's a real shame. "Scarecrows" can be categorized as typically low-budget 80's film-making, but it most certainly outshines the majority of movies in that bunch thanks to the stylish directing by William Wesley (who?), the original setting and the splendidly written script. An assembly of well-organized robbers manages to escape on a hijacked plane with a loot of over 3 million dollar and two hostages. One of them – Bert – plans to double-cross the others and dives off the plane with the money and lands in an open field near a deserted farmhouse. The cornfield is dotted with mysterious and uncanny-looking scarecrows that come to live and start terrorizing Bert – as well as his companions that come after him – in the night. It may sound unbelievable but these scarecrows look genuinely creepy and sinister! Unlike I feared, they're NOT grotesque or absurd looking monsters, but menacing entities that briefly appear in flashes or off-screen. The screenplay also never gives a definite explanation of what they really are, which only increases the morbidity. Apparently the whole cornfield is a cursed dimension and every trespasser is doomed to turn into a scarecrow, yet this theory is never confirmed. Another great story-aspect is the development of the characters. Once in the cornfield, robbers and hostages are somewhat forced to work together in order to survive. The switch from hostility to dependence is powerfully & plausibly illustrated in the script and stressed by the surefooted director William Wesley. The film also benefices from very adequate acting performances, an eerie soundtrack and professional camera-work. Actually, the only slight demerit of this cool movie is the running time! Too short? A bit overlong, actually, although barely 80 minutes... This story would have been even MORE effective if it were part of a typical horror-anthology movie (like "Creepshow" or "From a Whisper to a Scream") with a playtime of approximately half an hour. The chases through the corn are occasionally overwrought. Nevertheless, "Scarecrows" is a very good movie and recommended highly to any horror fan who's tired of re-watching the same old mainstream classics.

Maybe I went in expecting too much. I read a review of this film on here where the guy gave it a 10/10. He stated that it was much better than any Halloween or Friday the 13th any day. I admit, most Friday the 13th movies blow. This movie was equally horrific. It is slow paced, dark, and not filled with many quality kill scenes. It also has an ending that will make you want to blow yourself up with a grenade. There has to be a better way to end the movie. Give me the budget for this film and I will at least generate a legit 5/10 movie. I have seen hundreds of cheesy horror films, especially ones from the 80's. Comparatively this one ranks way low on my list.