Scarecrow & Scarecrow Slayer

Scarecrow (Emmanuel Itier - 2002)

Scarecrow Slayer (David Michael Latt - 2004)

Bought this box with containing a series of three Scarecrow movies. It was a disappointment to see that all of the entries were crammed into one disc. The quality was similar to a divx-file created back in the days when bandwidth still was an issue. 

The plot is all too familiar: The schools misfit is picked on and eventually killed. The he returns as a scarecrow to get his revenge. The scarecrow costume and mask looks really good. It’s a good chill reminiscent the uncanny Husk (2011), but a major disappointment lies ahead: Scarecrow starts wisecracking before the kills and spins around in the air and fights with fancy martial art moves. The horror goes down the toilet and we have a straw packed and evil version of Toxie.

Still the first film was to some extent enjoyable. Budget restrictions are very apparent, but there is some efficient storytelling going on.

The sequel is a couple of steps down. There has been done some effort to make a more complex plot, but somewhere in the process all the marbles have been spilled on the floor. It has become an incoherent mess, the actors are clueless and the whole thing is badly put together. It’s marred with incompetence and bad taste (the barracks with the “wannabe marines”, what was that?)

There is a third entry with the promising title Scarecrow Gone Wild (2004), but two of them in one sitting was enough for me. 

Watched on Echo Bridge Home Entertainment's Midnight Horror Collection: Scarecrow/Scarecrow Slayer/Scarecrow Gone Wild.