Scarecrow

Supposedly this “scarecrow” creature (that doesn’t die and seems hellbent on rendering the Millers ancestry extinct) was held captive in a built trap underneath a barn, let out by a teenage couple wanting to make up in said barn. The creature is of legend, a boogeyman to scare children around a campfire and what a nearby town commemorates through the making of a special scarecrow. That is what a group of teens (responsible for an illegal internet school prank) are supposed to do as “punishment”…go to the old Miller farm (and surrounding cornfield) to build themselves a scarecrow for the festival in town, and not very long after fall prey to “monster bark”. The “scarecrow” of the film looks like a monster made out of tree roots twining into a something very, very ugly. It “eats” from the backs of its victims, which seem to provide it with sustenance.

Robin Dunne (of syfy shows Sanctuary & Defiance) is the teacher who bus drives the kids to the Miller Farm. Lacey Chalbert (of Party of Five & Black Xmas) is the remaining Miller the monster wants to kill. Of the young cast, many will recognize Richard Harmon of Bates Motel as a douchebag bully who vanishes from the film early and Brittney Wilson (also of Bates Motel) is the main antagonist besides the monster. Wilson’s Beth is only out for herself the entire film manipulating a slow-minded young man named Calvin (Iain Belcher), who can be easily persuaded, into going after a truck to return and rescue her (instead of going herself of course). Beth is vocal about Chalbert’s Kristen being served up to the monster to save her own skin. Beth, holding a knife to Kristen’s neck in one moment, is fed to a tractor when the monster itself is pulled into it thanks to Dunne’s Aaron. It was well deserved, the bitch.

 Anyway, the kids of the film have very little personality or development. Nicole Muñoz is the shy, quiet, unassuming Marie, Julia Maxwell is ruthlessly cruel Nikki (as equally repellant as Harmon’s Tyler), Reilly Dolman is the James Dean wannabe Daevon (his heroic shotgun advance on the creature in a farm house to save Aaron is short-lived), and Carlos Marks is the adult Eddie, once in love with Kristen and at odds with Aaron in the classic love triangle (any tension is quickly abandoned when the monster wreaks havoc).

When describing the monster, think Groot of Guardians of the Galaxy, except not at all lovable and quite hideous. Its face has a crater-sized mouth and sockets but no eyes. The creature kind of carries the look and movements of an arachnid sometimes, even slithering about, except it is born from the alchemy of Mother Nature’s rage. Imagine a never-formed tree always coming at you…that’s kind of what this is.

Chalbert is the key name/face of the film. Still quite lovely and talented enough to convey all the necessary emotions required when the plot, Chalbert is fitting for a bad syfy schlockfest. Besides her and Dunne, the only other actress with a character that stands out at all is Wilson, because she is such a loathsome, cowardly sort. The film itself looks for ways to dispose of the cast, including those supposedly close to Chalbert. Mostly the wooden hands burst through folks…and out of them. When Miller says that burial is the only way to rid it from them for good, I laughed at this because the creature keeps creeping of the ground!

The Monster is the real star to me. I think it is really quite an oddly designed creature, but monstrous enough and intimidating enough to leave an impression. I have seen syfy with some shit creature designs in CGI, but this one actually among my favorites. The plot is shit, though, and the idea that an exploded ship would bury away the scarecrow and Chalbert could defeat it when so many others were such fodder to it is preposterous. Where this thing came from and why the Millers were its target remained a mystery never explained.

I loved a couple of moments. There’s this dead body towards the end with quite a devoured face that had been operating a machine near the body of water where an old ship (later blown to bits) is. There’s a badly mangled torso of a beauty seen at the beginning who was stuck to the wall of the barn. Also there are some fine facial scars to victims as a result of the scarecrow’s abuse. My favorite could be when Daevon believes it’s gone, and it is actually above him, attached to the ceiling.

Despite some minor pluses, the film has the typical character stupidity (throw a Molotov Cocktail at the truck that is perhaps your only transport, run for the barn that has no luxury of protection to keep out the creature after you) and a plot that reeks. Still, I didn’t get bored from it…some sort of consolation, I guess.