Husk

Horror, I find is the one genre, where the bad films are more popular than the good ones. Something about people wanting to hate that they love them or something. So while they're busy spending hours on end watching brain-eating zombies and giant insects, good ones like 'Husk' are often neglected. I'm a huge fan of the genre and hadn't even heard of this flick, until it appeared on my suggestions column.

'Husk' is a film that mixes elements of monster horror and ghost horror, that I appreciated for a change. Because on their own, they often tend to become a little predictable and ultimately, not scary at all. 'Husk', however had it's spine chilling moments, and few that made me jump. Clearly not a very high budget film, it makes good use of it's resources. There were no major effects on screen and no real gore either. It was done tastefully.

The characters were quite one dimensional, but I appreciated that the underdog was given the main focus, rather than the hot chick or the jock. In addition to this, Husk successfully maintains a level of mystery throughout the flick and it wasn't a very obvious twist. However, the one issue I had with the film was the climax. Compared to the rest of film that explained every little detail and left no loose ends, the ending was a huge question mark. If it was meant to be one of those 'you decide' kinda moments, then it was done poorly. It felt abrupt and was a little disappointing compared to how well executed the rest was.

Overall, it was a good flick, especially if you're someone who misses old school horror and good old scary scarecrows and mass murderer ghosts!

I viewed the trailer for Husk a few months back and remembered that it looked impressive. Considering there hasn't been many decent slasher releases for some time (excluding Scream 4) I was excited. So on finding the DVD at my local rental I jumped at the chance of renting it.

Plot:

A group of friends look for shelter in an old farmhouse after becoming stranded after a bizarre car crash near a vast cornfield. The teens soon discover an angry spirit haunting all those who enter the fields.

Hot or Not:

Disappointing!

Thats all I can say, the film wasn't bad, but was a let down overall. The film looked decent and is shot reasonably well and there are creepy moments, however I feel it lacked any originality, which isn't always a problem if their is a strong script however a strong script is what this film lacked.

Another problem for me was that the farmhouse just seemed to be just picked up straight from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre films, and many of the scenes also seemed borrowed especially when walking around the house walking around in the house.

I think the killer in the film although looked great, but wasn't menacing, he seemed to have a comic aspect even though that wasn't the intention. There was far too much quick editing in the corn scenes, this meant the film couldn't create the right mood and in places it was liked they were being stalked by roadrunner.

Bird and the Bees:

Nothing here, in a film that could of maybe done with some.

Acting:

Scott (Devon Graye) I hated, he was annoying and stuck up for the very annoying Brian (Wes Chatam) who played the annoying brainless meat head! The best actor and the best developed character was Chris (C.J.Thomason) I also like Natalie (Tammin Sursok) Shame her role wasn't bigger.

Overall:

This film is less than memorable and I'm yet to see a decent scarecrow film. It had potential and I do appreciate they tried to do something different with he story, but the script was week and the random flash back were very poorly shown and they felt they were just put in randomly to explain the plot.

When I marked this movie to record, the 1988 Scarecrows came to mind, and made me come up with a small checklist of things which I would like to see: the scarecrow would have to have a good design (they have to look pretty decent, or no one would take this movie seriously), and a decent plot and back-story. More so, the main characters have to be realistic enough as to not make me sigh in pity for the movie. The camera angles aren't too crucial, nor the music, but they do have the potential to add to a movie. This movie had all the requirements I would have liked, though some of them could have been improved.

The scarecrows had my approval of being threatening, malevolent beings. Their make- up/costume was pretty cool, I think. The back-story behind the scarecrows was interesting, though why only the nerdy characters could see the flashback, I don't know. Also, for the most part, the actors played their parts pretty well. One of the things I think that this movie does quite well is the avoidance of the normal cliché slasher-movie characters. There's no blonde-haired girl who's messing with three guys' affections or a shy, well-behaving female who survives the onslaught. This just has four males and one female, and they all get along with each other decently well.

I found this rather nice for a change. As aforementioned, I didn't care too much for how we found out about the origin of the scarecrows (via flashbacks that only one character could see), but I can try to look past that. Also, the chess analogy with such little evidence concerned me a bit, but it wasn't too big of a plot point, so I can deal with that also. Gore-wise, this had some pretty painful-looking deaths and injuries, but as I only saw an edited version, I don't know how much total bloodshed this had to offer.

Overall, I feel that this movie is something that a horror movie fan should be able to watch without grimacing. 7.5/10, rounded down to 7 to fit IMDb.

I would at one point refuse to watch movies, but i have become a real movie fan and i always give more positive reviews than i should.

I would say this is a good movie but i had a feeling it could of been a lot better i felt that the film was lacking something, it lacked something that really good movies have.

I would say this film is just to pass time and not to just sit down and watch a really epic movie.

I would say watch it if you have nothing else to watch, you will be slightly entertained.

I give this movie 5/10

Peace from the U.K

Husk – CATCH IT (B) Husk is a combination of Jeepers Creepers and Children of the Corn (Kind of). The film follows five friends on a weekend holiday who become stranded in a secluded farmland after wild crows attack their SUV. The friends soon realize that the cornfields are inhabited by reanimated, vicious human scarecrows who produce their offspring by killing anyone they get a hold of and force their undead victims to join their ranks. Even though the story and characters are cliché there is a good screenplay to it. C.J. Thomason as Chris, Devon Graye as Scott, Wes Chatham as Brian, Tammin Sursok as Natalie and Ben Easter as Johnny did a decent job. Overall, I had fun time getting scared of the Husk, it's not something out of the box but it's not mediocre either. Good time pass.