Scarecrow (2002)

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

Lester (Young) is in teenage hell as the kid everyone picks on. He lives with his single Mother who is screwing around with everyone. Lester makes a friend in Judy (Shepis) who feels sorry for him. Lester has romance on the mind but is killed by his Mom's boyfriend. Trying to make it look like suicide, they hang Lester in a cornfield where his spirit enters the nasty scarecrow hanging close by. A year later the scarecrow seeks revenge on all his tormentors. There is nothing new in this time worn story but the nasty Scarecrow played and designed by Todd Rex is one cool looking monster. What could have turned into a fun brain dead slasher film is ruined by a lousy script and the scarecrow talking in puns like a poor cousin of the most annoying version of Freddy Krueger you can think of. A few moments of blood help a little, but this script is so dumb it will eventually get under your skin and rub you the wrong way. This Scarecrow looked great and could have supplied some real scares, if it was in a different film.

There wasn't a day in 2002 where i wasn't chased by a scarecrow I felt that this film handled a serious issue wellIt brought back a lot of memories as it was so realisticEven today I have nightmares about corn on the cob, and can't even go near the tinned stuff in fear of my lifeI have to admit though, at one point in the film I did have to turn it off as it hit too close to homeFor those of you who have never been attacked by a scarecrow, by watching this film you could be educated about how it felt for us victims This film teaches us not to take life for granted or to mess with corn, believe me, I've been there and I have the scars Watch the film, its amazing and educational

I desperately want to give this movie a 10...I really do. Some movies, especially horror movies are so budget that they are good. A wise-cracking ninja scarecrow who can implement corn cobs as lethal weaponry...definitely fits this 'budget to brilliance' system. The depth of the movie is definitely its strong point and the twists and turns it implements, keeping the audience at the edge of their seats really drives the creepy...ninja... puberty-stricken... pre-thirty year old student...non-cowboy drawing...wise-cracking...son-of-a-bitch scarecrow into the limelight as the creepiest horror icon of the year. All I can really say is, 'can you dig it' and recommend watching movies such as Frankenfish if you enjoy this sort of hilarious horror.(WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY SMOKING!?'

"Scarecrow" is a halfway decent scarecrow movie.**SPOILERS**Back in Emerald Grove High School, Lester Dwervick, (Tim Young) is the stereotypical loner who the whole school picks on and makes fun of. Only Judy Patterson, (Tiffany Shepis) seems to understand him, but no one else does. While staying home one night, one of his mother's dates picks on Lester and he is accidentally killed in a cornfield next to a scarecrow. After this, there are some pretty violent murders in the town, which no one can explain. Judy feels she is somehow responsible for them, and as the townspeople start dying one-by-one, the police start to investigate the myth that Lester is a scarecrow, which no one believes. By now convinced a scarecrow is doing the killings, begin an all-out search before it kills again.The Good News: Scarecrow movies are a hard commodity to review. For one thing, scarecrows are just naturally creepy, and any film that exploits them will have a creepy looking lead scarecrow. This one proudly continues the trend with a creepy looking lead scarecrow. The mask is pretty well-done, with a series of stitched crosses in an elaborate patterns across the face that produces a pretty threatening looking design. His look is quite creepy, and really steals many of the film's scenes. The action is pretty nice, never really letting up and keeping a pretty consistent tone throughout. Mainly due to a series of attacks in the middle section of the film, it especially races rapidly toward the end of the film, making these last two sections fly by pretty quickly. The kills are plenty varied, and feature a great deal of originality. We get a decapitation with a scythe, beaten to a pulp with a metal tray, a corn-stalk into the back, having a series of vines impaled into the back and having a sharpened corn instrument thrown into the throat, among other equally impressive and innovative kills. To have them spread through a large body count makes the deaths all the better.The Bad News: In spite of what so many others have said, there was only two things about this I didn't really like: the martial-arts knowing scarecrow and the picked-on high school loser who becomes the protagonist. The fact that a scarecrow exhibits marital arts abilities, while a nice idea and quite original, just makes the viewer indulge in a series of eye-rolling whenever it happens. It doesn't make the scarecrow any scarier and just makes him laughable instead. There isn't enough to say about the cliché that is the high school loner who gets picked on. It's so overdone and useless that nothing can make it work well. It's a motive that really doesn't need to be used anymore. Despite that, there are parts that many might not like about it. I'll let you discover them, I won't spoil them here, but they didn't bother me all that much.The Final Verdict: So, the creature's actions are pretty laughable and it has a weak motive with the killer, it's still not that bad. It's not for everyone, though, so be careful with it. It's got enough to like, but still some for others.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, teenage drinking and drug use and off-screen noises from sex scenes