Psycho Scarecrow (2000) (V)

User Rating:

2.6/10   

Director:

Steve Galler

Writers:

Alex Boon (writer)
James Cullen (writer)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

A tape recorded message from a murdered girl recounts the terrifying night her and some friends found themselves stuck in the middle of a haunted cornfield. |

Plot Keywords:

Crop | Group Of Friends | Corpse | Murder | Homicide

Cast

Douglas Kidd	...	Eric (as Doug Miller)
Richard Lee
Joe Parro	...	Jones
Tracy Rankin	...	Sheila
Lee Anne Simms
Mike Upmalis	...	Floyd (as Michael Upmalis)
Tim Vince	...	Hammond

Runtime:

USA:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The tape recorder which the cops use to play back the woman's account is in record mode, not play mode.

Quotes:

Sheila: The cornfield protects those who protect it.

Stay away

You know, I really hate films like this one. No, it's not the budget. No, it's not the cliché storyline. No, it's not the horrid acting. I hate films like this because I actually thought I was going to be surprised by how good it was after the first few minutes. The film comes on; there's actually some stylish and interesting camera angles of a bloody suicide. Artful and tasteful direction follows in the next few minutes, and I thought I was going to be in for a low-budget treat. Unfortunately, nothing ever topped the first few minutes of the film, and this was just a huge waste of time.

Psycho Scarecrow commits way too many felonies to mention in a review that can only have a maximum of 1,000 words, but I will just get the basics out of the way: Nothing is more irritating than the entire movie being spelled out in the first few minutes of film. You find out that this girl who killed herself in the first scene was the last survivor amongst a group of friends who were all killed off by the psycho scarecrow. So, there you have it, 10 minutes in and the whole film is already spelled out for you. Some could argue that this isn't such a huge crime, since a synopsis on the back of the box would probably give away half as much, but this is truly a terrible waste since it eliminates any surprise whatsoever. Plus, we have to endure endless scenes of cops talking to each other.

See, in this film, the girl who killed herself, supposedly, left a tape recorder, detailing what led to this point, and the rest of the film is told in a flashback as the cops listen to this. However, for whatever reason (to fill the time a bit maybe?), one of the cliché cops decides to stop the tape every 20 minutes or so and go, "THIS GIRL IS A LIAR. I DON'T BELIEVE THIS!" And then the two cop leads begin arguing for about 10 minutes. Pointless.

Anyway, the girl tells a story about this nerd who was abandoned by his family and stuff accidentally getting killed by one of his friends. So, her and a few other friends decide to hide his body in an old scarecrow somewhere out in the cornfield. Of course, some bizarre magic brings him back to life for a little revenge. He proceeds to go around and chase people. And chase more people. And chase more. And sometimes pull out his big axe.

Truly terrible. It's a boring movie, and boredom is pretty much the worst crime a low-budget horror movie can commit. Also, take into account the horrid acting, the little amount of blood, and you have a pretty uninvolved time on your hands. Usually with movies such as these, the more horrible you can get, the better. However, this just drags and drags and drags and beats the concept into the ground. I wouldn't be surprised at all to find out that this film cost $5 to make.

This film is noteworthy for only two very VERY brief scenes: the campfire acoustic song is pretty cool (no kidding; on the Brentwood release of this film on a DVD 4-pack, they use that music for the menu screens) and the last shot of the movie made me chuckle a little bit. Scarecrows + motorcycles = funny.

Other than that, avoid at all costs.