Scarecrows

After a brazen robbery at Camp Pendleton, a gang of crooks force a pilot and his daughter to fly them to Mexico. Unfortunately for the bad guys, one of their number takes the money and parachutes out of the plane! Not wanting to let him get away with the loot, the rest of the team soon follows him. Landing near an old farm, the hunt is on.

Unbeknownst to these miscreants, something about this particular farm just isn't right. There's a small army of real "stuffed shirts" in the cornfield who have been waiting for a few visitors to drop in, so they can "stalk" them. Within a short time, the criminal crew is up against a seemingly unstoppable force of eeevil. A gore-drenched attrition problem soon follows. Will anyone escape, or will they all become "husks" of their former selves?

SCARECROWS is one of the better late-80's horror films, that would have been the perfect addition to any Saturday night, creep fiesta! Owing much to a multitude of zombie epics, the story is simple, but eerily effective. The title entities are suitably mysterious and gruesome. The woo-woo music fits the grisly action, and overall, the low-budget is well-spent.

EXTRA CREDIT FOR: Many horrifically hilarious lines of dialogue!

EXTRA-EXTRA CREDIT FOR: The grimmest of finales!...

Man, what a horror movie! The idea about killer scarecrows may turn a lot of people off by sounding cheezy, but this is talented filmmaking by people who knew what to do, and, best of all, what NOT to do. The dark, quiet, breezy cornfields of a deserted-looking rural area, with no one around for who knows how many miles, is served with some great creepy atmosphere. The music helps, with a lot of the soundtrack's more sedated moments being the creepiest of all. The gore and visual shocks are very detailed and well-done, but they are kept to a minimum for a lot of the running time. Still, as they say, when it rains, it pours! The acting is great, and the writers did the right thing when they knew NOT to try to give any explanation for how the killer scarecrows came to be other than as much as the characters can figure out (a cleverly vague theory about a family that had been living on the farm who were probably in league with Satan). A lot of great powers are wielded by the scarecrows, including the exact imitation of victims' voices and the ability to reanimate their victims for use to their own fiendish means. There is some humor, but it's character-to-character banter rather than any type of comedy. This is no goofy movie by any means. It really also creeped me out about how the scarecrows move with a sort of stealth, and silently run right up behind a character and off them in seconds, without warning. I had some serious trouble sleeping after this one, but that is a compliment. Not many movies have been able to do that with me, and even fewer are ones I still found enjoyable enough to search down in a used video store and shell out ten bucks to buy. I would only recommend the unrated version, but this is one of those movies that is hard to find in its rated version, so if you come across it, it will probably be unrated. Creepy, creepy stuff, the best way to describe this sadly overlooked masterpiece of horror cinema.

Scarecrows (1988)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Fairly entertaining horror film has a group of robbers forcing a father and his daughter to fly them to Mexico but along the way the gang leader jumps out of the plane with the money. Soon his "co-workers" go after him and they all find themselves in a strange field with countless scarecrows that come to life. SCARECROWS isn't exactly going to win any major awards but I think horror fans who enjoy some gore should find it of interest. In its uncut form the picture actually offers up some very memorable death scenes ranging from decapitations to bodies being sliced in half and there are some even more memorable ones where the gore factor is pretty over-the-top. It's certainly easy to see why two versions of this was released as the uncut one features enough red stuff where there was no way the studio could have gotten it past the MPAA. These effects certainly help the film move along as do the great looking villains. The scarecrows are pretty much what you'd expect them to look like but I really loved them. I thought each of them in their own way looked terrific and really gave the film some much needed atmosphere. The performances were also above average for this type of picture and there's no question that director William Wesley managed to build up some good atmosphere. The biggest problem is that between the fifty and sixty minute marks there's really nothing going on and the film grows a little boring before finally picking up in the final act. The various shots of the airplane flying was also annoying and especially when they just used the same shot over and over again. Still, with the memorable death scenes and great looking monsters, SCARECROWS offers up enough to make it worth watching.

Mindless and acceptable horror thriller packed with chills , intrigue , terror and lots od interminable screams with no much sense . Including a large number of sinister scenes that usually are frightening and terrifying to spectator. Decent chiller about a gang of delinquents who hijack a plane to go to Mexico . One the the robbers flees and parachutes to a cornfield , then the others land on the location to find him . But there they are mercilessly pursued and massacred by various scarecrows . As they carry out a relentless criminal spree , an implacable slaughter on each person, one by one , with plenty of nighmarish scenes and extreme terror .

An intriguing and gory tale of terror and survival , the picture displays restless horror and great loads of screams , blood , guts and usual weird appearances by surprising scarecrows at a corrnfield , manifesting themselves with creepy threats , violent attacks , grisly murders and anything else . It is produced in limited but well used budget , including nicely recreated special effects , make-up enough and disturbing , shocking gore . The story begins little by little , but when the appearance of the eerie scarecrows takes place the films gets its adequate developing. The cast , though unknown , provides appropiate interpretations fitting to their funcional roles , such as : Ted Vernon, Michael Simms , David Campbell, Victoria Christian , BJ Turner . This Terror subgenre about Scarecrows has the best film titled "Dark night of the scarecrow" 1981 by Frank de Felitta with Charles Durning , Ernest Borgnine , Robert F Lyons , and others as "Scarecrow" 2013 by Sheldon Wilson with Lacey Charbet , Robin Dunne , " Children of corn" by Fritz Kiersch with Peter Horton , Linda Hamilton and its several sequels .

It contains a nice cinematography by Peter Deming, this cameraman has expanded a long and succesful cinematic career over thirty years . This Scarecrows 1988 is a passable terror movie being professionally written and directed by William Wesley . This director has made a few but acceptable short budget movies as Cinema as TV such as : Apolo Z , Monsters , Rout 666 and this Scarecrows at his best.

The plot in Scarecrows is extremely generic, cardboard, and simple. If you want a movie that will have you thinking for hours on end, the Scarecrows will not suite you fine at all, period. However, if you are a person who would rather watch a movie for the sheer atmosphere, then you have found a nice little gem.

Scarecrows is far from perfect, the plot is extended out to nothing, which takes away any chance of this movie being gripping at all. The characters are also paper-thin, and have no personality whatsoever. The actors were also pretty bland. The script was poorly written, and extremely forgettable.

The only redeeming aspect is the fact that this movie has a great amount of sheer atmosphere, and the fact that the scarecrows are extremely creepy. If it wern't for the terror in the atmosphere of the film, then this movie would resemble a 1980s House of the Dead.

If you want a creepy movie with a plot that you don't really have to get into, then Scarecrows will fit you.

Recommended to B-Movie enthusiast only.