Movie Review: Scarecrows (2018)

A group of young rascals go in search of a remote lagoon (seriously, is that a thing that college kids even do???), and along the way a thumb falls from the sky and collides with their car. Why does this happen? Well, the answer is one that these boobs and most of you could never guess (unless you read the film’s title and watched it’s cold open…fuck, okay…you could have guessed it, but the characters couldn’t)…and that answer is that a crow was feasting on a living scarecrow hanging in the field of a demented farmer and dropped that shit like a thumb turd on the hood of said automobile. Anyhow, our heroes find the lagoon, they splash around, their car gets stolen, and they of course run afoul of that freaky farmer which makes their life choice of not being turned into scarecrows a bit complicated.
Scarecrows is a film of flip-floppin’ paradigms, and at that game, this fright flick is pretty damn successful. The first portion of the film follows our horny heroes and is actually quite hilarious in spots, as the group has nice comedic timing, a great chemistry, and are genuinely fun to watch (even those whose characters are meant to ingratiate). Then as the story progresses, and things get gruesome, we have the enigmatic, silent farmer character and his entertainingly outrageous (revenge) plot to torture folks (presented with well done practical effects) and hang them in his fields as living scarecrows. This is a unique motivation for a maniac, and I welcomed the change of pace from the normal hack n’ slash routine…and speaking of unique, the corn fields and swimmin’ holes made for a breath of fresh air from the normal deep woods locales that are often the settings for these affairs. All in all the two distinct halves work well together and made the film a great time in the ol’ horror biz!
Now for the dicey portion of our revoltin’ review; as you know I, like many of you fine fiends, enjoy a good lookin’ lady, and on this front I’d be remiss not to mention the stunning Maaor Ziv as Devin; this woman’s backside becomes a character unto itself, but her nude scene features one of the most obvious uses of a body double I’ve seen in a damn sight. While the laughs in the rest of the film are intentional, this brings a guffaw that isn’t.
Pound for pound, Scarecrows is a mighty fine fright flick; the cast is game, the killer is memorable and has a one-of-a-kind modus operandi, and the laughs and lacerations come in equal measure!