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.

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*

I have seen both Scarecrow movies, and this one has different strengths and weaknesses than the first scarecrow film. This film's greatest weakness is its poor cinematography: poor use of computer effects, too many chroma-key shots, and sub-par lighting. The acting is next on the hit-list...it felt like there was no director at all. Even recognizable actor Tony Todd fell flat in this movie. It felt like half the cast didn't even try to act.

It's kind of a shame, since this film takes itself a lot more seriously than the first scarecrow movie, and had a somewhat more interesting plot.

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.

Let it be known, that I enjoy bad movies. I really do. I am an actor, and screenwriter, and have many talented film-making friends. A few of us truly enjoy watching bad movies due to their skill in teaching us how not to make bad movies. But I am afraid I must speak candidly about this "Motion Picture" (for lack of a better term). This is the single worst picture that has ever been projectile vomited onto the silver screen. Within the course of my good friend and I watching this film, we were stunned at the sheer "Badness" of the picture. Keep in mind this is not "Bad" as in Michael Jackson's "Bad", but "Bad" as in: maggots eating a delicious decaying corpse would actually stop gorging themselves, stare in unbelief at the television screen and instantly learn the English language just to be able to say "Please someone kill me now". My friend and I actually lost all of our talents & abilities for a short time watching this movie. We were actually so sapped of strength, that we forgot how to make movies, or how to act or how to create anything because the "Black Hole" of all bad movies had risen in our midst and we began to be stretched out into pencil thin rails as we were slowly and systematically obliterated from existence. The only thing that saved us was the shared experience of seeing the pinnacle of bad movies. Even wading through the immense landfill of "Hammer" films we realized that they could never compare to what was happening to us at that moment in time. At the very least Hammer films are entertaining. They at least gave us something to laugh at until we couldn't keep food down. Please do not get me wrong. This movie must be applauded for its sheer Ability to destroy anyone who watches it. They have succeeded in making a film that realistically could kill you in 7 days if you watch it too long. I gave it a rating of 1 only because -1 was not an option that was given to me.