Review: ‘Scarecrows’ is Formulaic and Forgettable

December 7, 2018

Young couples looking to party and cut loose for a weekend head to a remote location, only to find themselves pursued by something evil. What follows is sex, drugs, and a helping of coed murder. Sound familiar? Well, it’s the tried-and-true set up to many, many horror movies because frankly, it works. Then again, sometimes it doesn’t. Canadian slasher film, Scarecrows, is an example of a film that follows that formula, but unfortunately falls short of carving a unique place in the genre.

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Two teen couples, Ely and Ash (the goody-goodies) and Farbsie and Devon (the wilder couple) head out to a desolate property to find a rumored lagoon for a day of partying and debauchery. When their car goes missing, they find themselves the target of a spooky farmer guy who’s turning trespassers into scarecrows. Typically, this kind of plot description is music to my ears, but the sad fact is that this movie is largely forgettable. The film takes a bit to get to the point where the terror ensues, and that stretch of the film is arduous, but it certainly picks up once the teens find themselves in danger.

Scarecrows borrows heavily from other films of the same ilk, such as Just Before Dawn, Wolf Creek, and the remakes of Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. While it was very slickly produced, shot, and edited, the plot and events of the film don’t introduce anything particularly unique to set it apart from the scores of films in the same vein. Scarecrows could have done itself a world of good by introducing a bit more camp to its approach to the story. Fans of campy horror will find that the film takes itself far too serious for how ineffective the scares are. That’s not to say there is no humor at all, a handful of funny moments are high points in the movie.

There are some things to really enjoy about Scarecrows, as well. For one, the scarecrow designs are rather well-done. Once the victims are transformed into helpless scarecrow dummies, the final products rather frightening-looking. As a concept, victims being turned into scarecrows is pretty scary, and the way they look truly sells that fact. I also found myself enjoying the soundtrack. There were a few songs featured in the film that I found myself bobbing my head to. The score itself was nothing remarkable, but the songs from bands and solo artists featured would make a fun playlist. Also, without giving anything away, I felt that the film wrapped up satisfyingly on a grim and interesting note.

Scarecrows is a film that works better as a plot synopsis than as a feature. It’s disappointingly derivative, low-impact, and doesn’t really wow viewers with anything they haven’t seen done more effectively numerous times in films of the same category. That being said, fans of films about horny, drug-using, hapless teens in peril will probably find something to enjoy here.