| Enter the LaNd of your nightmares! |
| ScareCrow |
Scarecrow (2002)
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Reviewed by FreD
Directed by--Emmanuel Itier
Company--York Entertainment
Tagline--You’ve never been STALKED like this...
Starring:
Roxanna Bina--Stephanie
Mark Irvingsen--Farmer Hailey / Burt
Nicole Rayburn--Jenny
Todd Rex--Scarecrow
Jen Richey--Morgan
Tiffany Shepis--Judie
Tim Young--Lester
Synopsis:
The film Begins (rather abrubtly after an artsy credits sequence) with three guys exchanging horror stories in a corn field. They’re your basic group of burn-outs and skeptics. After some “witty” dialogue the head guy, Mitch, begins to tell the tale of the scarecrow. It goes like this.
Lester Dawrvick is a shy, artistic kid from a white trash background. He’s tormented by teachers and peers alike, at school and at work. Their favorite insult is calling Lester “ScareCrow”. It seems that only “popular person” out of this group that gives Lester the benefit of the doubt is Judy, even though her friends give her a hard time about it. After a day of pure, unfiltered abuse, we get to follow Lester home, where we find out that his home life is no easier than his school life. His mother is the stereotype “drunken white trash slut”, and everybody knows it. It doesn’t seem to make his life any easier. From there, we follow Lester to work (“The French Bulldog” restaraunt).Lester, like usual, is getting tormented by a group of jocks, but this time Judy stands up for him. From this small seed, Lester begins to get slightly infatuated with Judy, and they become friends (kind of...). That night, through a series of strange shots an a dream sequence, we the audience really get to see what kind of shape Lester’s psyche is in from the daily abuse. We start getting worried at this point.
To show his graditude of what Judy did for him by standing up to the jocks on his behalf, he takes it upon himself to draw her a picture of a bird-angel-thing. While this is going on, Judy ends up at a party that her jerk friends are throwing, and gets drunk and a jock takes advantage of the situation and makes out with her. much to her dismay, Lester happened to be walking down the street at the time and witnessed the whole thing. She instantly regrets it, and Lester runs off. On the way home, a shattered Lester confides in a lifeless scarecrow. Noticing that the scarecrow isn’t listening (duh), he goes home, only to find his mother having sex (in plain sight) with her redneck boyfriend. In the fight that ensues, the boyfriend “accidentally” chokes the life out of Lester, and sets it up to look like Lester hung himself.
Time passes and we see that a ScareCrow has come to life and is wreaking havoc and killing off those who spurned poor Lester. That’s right, Lester has come back to life in the form of a jumping, flipping, one-liner spewing scarecrow. It gets formuliac from there, with the scarecrow taking out the jerks (snobby girls, jocks, and red neck boyfriends) in a plethora of scarecrow-y ways (stabbing with ears of corn, hand sythes, and many, many more). He also spews one-liners every time he kills, acting as if he's the bastard son of Freddy Krueger.
As you’ve probably guessed, the last person on the list is our heart-breaker Judy. A battle ensues, but will Judy end up on top? If she does, will she ever be the same? I won’t give it away, but watch out for, not one, but two twist endings! They won’t disappoint, although they may seem a bit “corny”.
My Thoughts:
This is a straight-to-video film, and it has the feeling about it in every aspect. The highlight is obviously our hero, the ScareCrow. He’s does flips and acrobadics that make the audience wonder why films like the matrix have to use cables and wires and such. Not only that, but he has a flavor of everyone’s favorite nightmare enducing maniacal madman, Freddy Krueger, what with spewing one-liners at every oportunity. Aside from these aspects, he looks cgood, which is a plus. Stunt man Todd Rex not only played the ScareCrow, but sculpted the costume as well. Much props to him on that. Another plus is the soundtrack. It’s moody at times, and rocks at times, and it’s pretty good, even though most of the bands are independent and will never be heard from again. The downfalls? Well, some of the students (Lester and Stephanie being the most obvious) look to be in their late 30’s/early 40’s. A minor prob that isn’t too much of a distraction. The acting is also sub-par, but what do you expect from a director and lead actress who learned their craft working for Troma.
Final thoughts?
Well, this film is fun, and that’s what it’s all about, right? If you want some good action sequences, some good low budget special ef-x, and you don’t mind iffy casting and poor acting, then check it out. it’s definately a renter, but, I, as a lover of shlock cinema own it and I’m proud. Props also go to the film makers for not relying on cheap T-n-A to sell the movie. It’s good to see that sometimes. Another note : This was York Entertainment’s first attempt at a horror film, as they’re famous in the underground for making urban and black-sploitation films.
3 out of 5 stars for a solid fun ride
Helper Characters!!!!
"The Plot is pretty straight forward, but, what with 75% of the girls looking the same, it's hard to keep track of who's dead and who's alive" - IP-TOR
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