Movie: 4/5 I have vivid memories of walking down the video store as a kid, and hiring a movie called scarecrows. The movies tagline was ‘trespassers will be mutilated’. It was released on the premier video label, I remember hiring it but remembered very little details of the movie. The many years this little gem was unavailable, and in extreme frustration no legit copies were available until late 2000’s. In Australia we never had a release since the 80s video tape. Today Cinema Cult are here to rescue this call classic, and expose it to the audience it deserves. To begin the titles “scarecrows” sounds pretty corny, you think a movie about killer scarecrows would be a mindless slasher. That isn't the case, scarecrows is an intense, character driven ride of a movie. That leaves you wondering and guessing throughout the entire film. Written and directed by the insanely underrated William Wesley, this film stands as a high achievement of the late 80s horror era. The film involves a group of Military thieves who take off with $3.5 million in cash from a military base; holding hostage the a pilot and his daughter. There are five military members including one female. One of the robbers jumps out of the plane, betraying his fellow team members, He then lands in a field which is inhabited by the scarecrows sitting on crosses. The traitor soon discovers a house, the is house completely abandoned in the middle of nowhere, inside the find a photo of three men presumably taken in the 1920s. Already the film has an amazing southern gothic vibe. The film never feels boring with the pacing being very tight, even moments when they're trying to track down the traitor who took off with the money, leaves us on the edge of our seats seeing if he will get away. He finds a truck and takes off, while the hostage daughter and female military member find the old house and stay in there, while the others are out looking for him. Eventually the truck breaks down; but here's the twist, the truck never had an engine. This is when the film delves into the surreal and invites the viewers to the nightmare. The traitor feels as if he's going insane, trying to escape the money, he then gets cornered by the scarecrows. From here on the scarecrows begin to pick off each robber one by one on this abandoned property. What makes Scarecrows so unique is its atmosphere, the whole film is a mystery, why are the scarecrow is coming to life. The great thing about the film is that it leaves you wondering what the cases, are they going insane, is there a supernatural element, were the previous farm owners devil worshippers? These ideas get played out. One of the military robbers eventually come up with a theory to why this is happening to them. It is such an eerie moment that it will send shivers down your spine. In terms of characters we discover each of the military robbers personalities, in the end of are they really bad people? By the way do you like gore? Because scarecrows has buckets of it. Cinema Cult thankfully presents us the unrated version of the film; which involves dismemberment, guts coming out of a bag, decapitations and so on. But the gore is well spaced out; so when the moment so horror to come it takes you off guard. Scarecrows is a brilliant little forgotten late 80s gem which was sadly straight to video; it got lost in the piles of rubbish direct to video movies of the time. Please seek it out and you'll discover a eeire, character driven, amazingly paced gorefest. On the Blu Ray: 3.5/5 Cinema Cult present Scarecrows original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 , it is a very strong transfer taken from the 35mm print. There is no damage on the print and it is extremely clean, no specs or dirt to be found anywhere. The film also has very rich black levels which is important because most the film takes place at night, to transfer so good you can see every bit of detail in the dark, This film has amazing cinematography which adds to the freaky nature, Cinematography was by Peter Deming, who also did Hellraiser and Evil Dead 2. Audio wise Cinema Cult present a English (DTS-HD 2.0) track. No pops or crackles to be heard. Being low-budget film the score is very important, and it comes out clear and crisp as an orchestral piece. The Blu-ray comes housed in a traditional Cinema Cult casing, with stunning artwork and nice hard slipcover. We also have a trailer for the film and a few other trailers for other cinema Cult titles. The fact that we have this movie now on blu ray in Australia is a good enough reason to pick it up alone. Our local release is the way to go value wise. Do yourself a favour, pick up and discover a truly forgotten horror gem. Overall: 4/5
1 Comment
12/4/2017 03:56:33 pm
Cool review, just stumbled on it looking for a poster of the film to add to my bio. This was he first film I worked on graduating college in Miami. Many fun memories with the cast and crew while I worked on the set as a Production Assistant and filled in as Boom Operator for a bit. Some of them I worked with again later, others moved on to other projects. I still have the movie poster from the video store when this came out and I talked them out of it, as well as one or two VHS copies when I saw them in the used video bin. As you mentioned, I did get a bootleg DVD version, but it never played correctly. I may need to hunt down this DVD to add to my own personal film collection.
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AuthorJames Ackland and John M loves cinema, records, and guava! Archives
November 2017
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