Scarecrow Slayer

Scarecrow Slayer is the sequel to Emmanuel Itier's cult horror movie "Scarecrow". This time around Itier has given the reigns to a new director and the result is not too bad at all. Forget the low IMDb rating, if you liked the first film or low budget horror movies in general, then Scarecrow Slayer is worth hiring.

Fans of the original film may be somewhat disappointed that this is a sequel in name only. Scarecrow Slayer does not follow the events of the first movie, so there is a new scarecrow victim and most upsettingly, no return appearance from scream queen, Tiffany Shepis. In fact, the only real link to the original is Todd Rex, who reprises his role as the scarecrow. Despite the new cast and storyline, this is not an awful sequel. Scarecrow Slayer definitely lacks the tastelessness and grim humour that made Itier's film a video favourite but it is 90 minutes of stupid, gory fun.

This time around a college student, Dave, is accidentally shot while trying to steal the scarecrow during a hazing dare. This results in Dave's soul entering the scarecrow with the intention of avenging his death and being reunited with his girlfriend, Mary. Dave even builds Mary a female scarecrow, so they can be possessed together after he kills her. Who says romance is dead. The plot of the movie basically involves the scarecrow chasing Mary around town, killing anyone who comes between them. The murders begin rather tamely but as the film progresses the gore factor increases significantly. I particularly liked the head squashing, which was very reminiscent of early Troma. The special effects are the work of Anthony C. Ferrante, who recently directed the atrocious ghost movie "Boo". Thankfully, his special effects are far better than his directing skills.

In addition to some decent low budget gore, the film also boasts a cameo appearance from Tony Todd - the "Candyman" himself! Tony gives a great performance as Caleb, the scarecrow's keeper. The other standout performance is given by Jessica Mattson, who plays the requisite big breasted bimbo with style. I'm surprised that her career has stalled, she definitely has the assets to be a scream queen. The rest of the cast is pretty ordinary but good enough for this kind of material.

Scarecrow Slayer is definitely only for fans of low budget gore. This is not high art, but you should know that from the DVD cover. I can't believe that people hire a movie about a killer bundle of hay and have the nerve to go online and write reviews lamenting the poor production values as if it were some kind of surprise.

I'm sorry if any of you liked it (I hope none of you can admit to that), but this was by far THE WORST horror film I've seen in a long time. It looks very convincing on a shelf and even the pictures on the back make the movie look quite menacing, but after the first 5 minutes into it its like you can't believe you threw about 3 or 4 bucks down the drain. In no way do you ever care about these characters in the least bit. The effects do not help advance the plot but rather make you wonder why they even used effects. And this movie is a lot like a teenager exploitation slasher film aside from the fact they decided to make it on the farm. How original. What got me the most was that I couldn't even laugh at any of it it was so bad. There is a line between funny and extremely awful and this movie has surpassed that line. If you are a veteran horror fan I do not suggest you add this to your collection or attempt to watch it. You will feel violated and sick after wards. The acting is appalling, the effects are worthless and the "monster" isn't even believable as far as costume goes. You feel like its some random snuff film compiled by some rich kids that don't know anything about film or cinema in general. Like someone just had money to waste. This movie was terrible and I hope you never get the pleasure of seeing it.

The friends Dave (Brett Erickson) and Karl (David Castro) are trying to join a fraternity in their college and they are assigned to bring a scarecrow from an isolated field. Meanwhile, Caleb Kilgore (Tony Todd), a deranged man who wrote several books about evil scarecrows, is being interviewed by a reporter nearby. Caleb sees the scarecrow falling over Dave and shoots with his gun, killing the student and somehow transferring his soul to the scarecrow. The scarecrow chases Dave's girlfriend, killing everybody around her, trying to bring her to the field to stay with him. "Scarecrow Slayer" has a horrible story, terrible screenplay, ham actors and actresses and dreadful direction. It is so ridiculous, that becomes a funny trash-slash movie. I laughed a lot with the story and the performance of the cast, highlight a certain David Castro, performing Karl. The guy is one of the worst actors I have ever seen, and his character is very suitable for the quality of his performance. The heroin, wearing shorts in the middle of a cold night, at least has beautiful legs. If you like very trash movies, do not miss this one. Otherwise, do not rent, buy or get close to this crap. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Espantalho" ("The Scarecrow")

How do movies like this get made?? Tony Todd was good, but the rest of the cast was sooooo boring!! A total rip-off of Dark night of the scarecrow w/ Larry Drake!! Looks good, but don't waste your time!!! Unless you're into boring, straight-to-video movies!! *Yawn*

Seeing the cover art and the fact Tony Todd was involved you would expect a better movie. The story is fairly good but combine bad acting and "terrible effects" and the movie loses all its steam. Die hard horror fans such as myself will be very disappointed with this movie. Very little blood, no real gore to speak of and a general lack of special effects leave the movie flat. Tony Todd gives a good performance but he alone can't save this movie. Nicole Kingston is a beauty to help dull the pain of watching this movie. This is another movie where the lack of a good budget hurts the movie to the point its almost a waste of time to have filmed it. If your looking for a hidden gem or a good scare pass on this one.