Going in I knew what to expect, yet the film looked quite good and boasted a lot of genre talent, so I watched it regardless.
Lester is an average geek found in any school in the world, he’s the kid that everyone loves to hate. Lester gets bullied for the first half hour of the movie and then is murdered by his mother’s drunken boyfriend. The murder is covered up but Lester is resurrected as the titular scarecrow….a wisecracking, acrobatic scarecrow who is handy with farming tools.
The scarecrow then plays selective death, as he kills some of his former tormentors and then turns his attention to the one person who truly disappointed him.
Storywise, Scarecrow has a very interesting premise, and in execution is not actually as bad as people made out, yet it does become a tad too comical towards the end of the movie.
Credit must be given to Director Emmanuel Itier, he did shoot the film in 9 days, which is not an easy task. The film is somewhat aesthetically pleasing and does provide some decent gore, however is hampered by too many unnecessary characters, some bad lighting and the occasional editing flaw.
Some of the cast members are remarkably similar looking, which meant that I was confused as to who was who, and I didn’t understand why the Scarecrow would only kill certain people? He was also very quick to explain who he was to his potential victims, and his wisecracking started to grate after a while.
On the plus side, Tiffany Shepis is always excellent in her roles, Roxanna Bina screams exceptionally well, and the scarecrow looks good and is brought to life well by Todd Rex. There are also some nice little in jokes mostly connected to ‘The Wizard of Oz’, and some gory humour to provide entertainment.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Straightaway the film suffers from a painfully slow opening sequence, and a slow first half, but is full of genre talent and good ideas. If only York Entertainment had not rushed the production, this could have been a very good little film.
