Scarecrows - The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.

Scarecrows
USA 1988. Director: William Wesley
Cast: Ted Vernon, Michael David Simms, Richard Vidan

A gang of robbers armed to their teeth hijacks a plane in order to steal a huge amount of money and banknotes. However, one member of the gang, Bert, gets greedy and decides to escape with all the papers himself. He jumps the plane, landing in some old cemetary in a huge corn field full of scarecrows. The rest of the gang are not amused and decides to follow, taking the pilot and a stewardess with them. They all land in the same corn field and eventually ends up in an old abandoned house in the middle of the field. Eventually Bert turns up at the house too, half dead, messed up and stuffed with straws and cash. And what about all those scarecrows? They all seem so... alive.

Men of straw may have no hearts, men of straw may have no souls, but men of straw sure makes for a scary movie. And this slightly forgotten gem is one scary, if not perfect, movie. It has an atmosphere so thick you can cut it with a scythe and the whole damn thing takes place during the blackest of nights. Plotwise it's classic bottle storytelling, with a group of characters confined in a small area, trying to get a grip on what terror awaits them outside. There's not much logic nor explanation, though. About the characters we learn little, except that they're driven by greed, nor do we learn much about the family who lived in the house previously, except for an old picture of them on the wall, or why the scarecrows are attacking people. But it works, the unknowledge and the unexplained is a big part of what makes this film so effective and claustrophobic I think. It's all about here and now, about what may or may not hide within the dark in front of you. Why doesn't matter, let's just get the hell out of here. Not much fun staying around being stuffed with straws and cash. Scarecrows is a simple premise which delivers a great punch. A raw and creepy horror movie for people who like their horror movies to be just that. Recommended.