Scarecrow (2001)

That was an excellent one.

Overrated

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

I love a good horror or thriller, no matter how long and dragging the dialogues, but this is not one of those. It's more of a drama with one of the most irritating protagonist I've had the misfortune to come across. Seriously, I wanted to slap the beejeezus out of her. But if you like squeaky, fickle-minded women who consistently makes bad decisions and runs like a lame chicken, you have a winner here.I was initially excited by the movie concept. Scarecrows are one of my top choices when it comes to horror "monsters", for lack of a better word. Early on, I caught the plot of the entire movie and the probable spin they'll make in the end. I thought it was nice, nostalgic even, since it reminded me a bit of Pet Sematary. Sadly, the movie did not rise to its full potential, but fell flat on its face with a loud thud.It was like they couldn't decide which direction to go, long-haired ghost woman or scarecrow zombies...in the end, it fell short on both.If you really want to believe the positive reviews, go ahead, but it would be wise that you don't spend hard-earned money on this. You just might bang your head on the wall right after.

Kakashi is not horror movie but it tries to be. It should be a werid Japanese drama. The movie has some great ideas but the director doesn't know how to finish them effectively. The movie if made again with all the great ideas could be a very effective horror movie. There some questions they never answered Why did Kaorus brother light his girl friend on fire? Why did the girl friend act so strange? Why was it so easy to find the village where Kaoru brother was? Why was the girl friend so powerful? and why did the dead become walking scarecrows? The movie was hard to understand. They really needed a screen writer to explain more and not go to fast. If the comic was this there's no way any Japanese person could understand what the hell was going on. Very strange can't recommend it but if screen writers are looking for horror ideas watch this movie.**

Kakashi, like quite a few other Japanese horror films, had an unresolved ending and an eskewed sense of logic. Considering a horror film about "kakashi"/scarecrows of all things makes one wonder what the film is like. How do they make scarecrows scary? That is what I thought when I got this film.However, the answer, in this case at least, is they can't. The scarecrows were easy to push away and tear apart even for the heroine, Kaoru, and they never once did anything that really showed any power to fear. In short, the monsters of the show were very weak. Excessively so.The main villain, a psychotically obsessive woman who killed herself, is mostly an evil spirit who can make Kaoru have nightmares, taunts her inside the house, and who later becomes re-born as a scarecrow and dies in a blaze of laughing mania. A possible high point of the story, and the scene that reveals that Izumi was dead and why she died, ends up less than scary and more or less creepy. The woman was pathetically obsessed and completely manic in her childish flaunts of over-dramatic and emo-tistic emotion. This woman has problems, obviously.In fact, it's safe to say that all of the characters involved in this story had some sort of problem. Kaoru had her incessant and obvious brother complex, Sally and Izumi's parents were obsessed with using scarecrows, and Izumi was... insane. Tsuyoshi was probably the least "humanized" of all the characters. Between Izumi and Kaoru, he seemed more of an object to be taken. Poor guy. All in all, this movie wasn't frightening even in the nightmare, diary, and scarecrow/escape sequences like it possibly could have been. It was unbelievable in both story and in how poorly it was done. If you're looking for a good horror to give you a scare or even challenge your mind, this is not it.

Although hampered by a budget that doesn't allow for sterling effects this is a creepy little thriller that works best when showing the least. The story has echoes of any one of a dozen other films from Spirited Away to Wicker Man, but there is something about the underlying tension and feeling that something thats not right thats makes the film watchable for me. Its the trip thats the joy here, not the destination simply because you'll probably know what that is way in advance of our heroine. As long as they keep the scarecrows in the distance this is a creepy little gem that should be seen by those who are willing to go with a good but flawed film.