Curse Of The Scarecrow
Title Card: The legend of the scarecrow goes back generations. It is said the Scarecrow was once a man who was thought to be stealing from the locals in the 1800s. He was left out in the cold winter, strung up to a cross in the cornfield. The locals watched on while crows pecked him to death, watching his soul die in the fields. Some say the soul of the Scarecrow still haunts those fields. Some say every 20 years he rises once more, seeking revenge on those who walk the land. Mistaking them for those who did him wrong.
Curse of the Scarecrow
Proprtion Production are back again! Yes, after seemingly cashing in on the Pet Sematary hype with the unrelated Pet Graveyard, the company tap the killer scarecrow mythos, a genre trope that has been severly under utilised (in my opinion) in recent years, with Curse of the Scarecrow.
Twenty years after a traumatic experience with a scarecrow, a woman revisits her childhood farm for the first time with a friend and psychiatrist upon word of her brother's unexplained disappearance.
If this British strawman horror were smarter, ambiguity would surround the nature of its slashings. Instead viewers know before the opening credits that "scarecrow off'ed my parents" and then one very clearly kills her paranoid brother. The rest are four off-screen kills and actors speaking so deliberately it's as if they're sounding out lines phonetically. A great rural shooting location and well, that's about it. Why even have a scarecrow on the property to begin with if so terrified? Watched via High Octane Pictures's DVD.
Although this was low budget I was very scared watching this, yes the scarecrow moved - creepy, yes its an urban legend, yes its predictable, yet I had to put the light on and cuddle the dog when hubby said it was to slow and left me to watch this alone..how cruel...Still I bravely finished this through, if your a scaredy cat it will probably scare you otherwise it's just an average horror film which you tough bods will just laugh at, I believe it depends on previous experiences in life that help you be more scared of certain horror films, experience it in real life and your buggered up for life.
This is a micro budget UK production with only about a five person cast, one of them being the director, so it's hard to be overly critical. A little girl sees her parents murdered by a scarecrow. 20 years later said girl is understandably still getting over those events. Her therapist doesn't buy her story and wants to do some extreme therapy by taking her to the old farmhouse, the scene of the crime, and debunking this whole scarecrow thing. They are accompanied by her BFF (the director Louisa Warren) and soon find out that the scarecrow only comes alive every 20 years to do it's killing. Shit luck.
Probably overrating this one a bit, but after the string of outright duds from the Jeff-Scott crew, as well as compared to many of those directed by Warren herself, this fares a good bit better in comparison, mostly just by being a competently told film at all, showing just how low the bar has hit. It's basic by the book killer scarecrow shit, enlivened by a last minute twist that doesn't really do much with it by the time it's introduced, and it's as cheap and creaky as you'd expect, but it's a complete film at least. Beginning, middle, and end with even some degree of a character arc. Crazy, right? I wish if nothing else, they'd at least spend some time to make the monsters and killers in these things to look a bit more memorable. A little horror eye candy goes a long way to help smooth over the lack of imagination or excitement elsewhere.
Prince Justin is a minor character who appears in the books and movie. In the books, he is the brother of the King of Ingary, while in the movie, he is the heir to the throne of the neighboring kingdom. He is described by his brother as a brilliant general, and the King does not feel safe going to war without at least either he or his Royal Wizard. He has a tendency to be cursed.
Simply referred to as "The Prince," he is the prince of a neighboring kingdom to Ingary who was cursed into existing as a turnip-headed scarecrow , with a tendency to get caught upside-down and helpless. The kingdom thought the Prince had been kidnapped by Ingarians, and declared war on them. Though Howl Jenkins Pendragon and the Witch of the Waste can see through the spell, his true identity is only revealed to Sophie Hatter and Markl at the end, when a kiss from Sophie breaks the curse. He appears to have fallen in love with Sophie, though she is in love with Howl. Free of his curse, he returns to his home to help negotiate a truce with Ingary. But understands the heart can change.
The Witch of the Waste captures him here, and uses parts of his body for her creation, combined with Wizard Suliman. The leftover parts are used to create a servant with little memory who follows her around called Gaston. However, when he disobeys her in the hat shop a few days after May Day, she transforms him into a dog and leaves him tied in the hills outside Market Chipping. He is later freed by a cursed Sophie Hatter on her exodus from Market Chipping, and runs away into the hills to Mrs. Fairfax's house where he remembered stopping by as Prince Justin.
Eventually, he is sent to look after Sophie when Lettie learns she is now living with Howl. He asks Sophie not to tell Howl that he is a bespelled man, and becomes part of the family for some time, living with them as they go into hiding from the Witch of the Waste, who has put a curse on Howl.
Howl of course eventually discovers the cursed dog-man, and becomes angry with Sophie for not telling him. Lifting the curse, Percival is now himself again. Though he claims he does not remember much, when he is alone with Sophie, he explains that he worked for a bit with the Witch of the Waste, that he was there the day Sophie was cursed, and that he has been staying with Sophie's sister. However, he still does not remember anything beyond coming into service with the Witch of the Waste as Gaston.
After the war against Strangia has been won, Prince Justin is organizing men to search for Princess Beatrice of Strangia, Justin's intended, who has run away to avoid marrying Prince Justin. A djinn, who is later revealed to be Hasruel, appears before him, and declares that because Ingary won the war against Strangia because of unfair use of magic, he has kidnapped the Princess Beatrice, and curses Prince Justin, taking away his memories and making him believe he is a Strangian soldier. Prince Justin begins to steal from other men, and often flashes his coins everywhere to get men to attempt to rob him so that he can rob them.
High school teacher Aaron Harris later takes six students: Calvin, Daevon, Nikki, Tyler, Maria and Beth to an abandoned cornfield to collect the scarecrow for the 100th Scarecrow festival. Nikki and Tyler tell the rest that the place has a legend that resulted from the deaths of 30 people who used to live there. Tyler starts the local chant, "It never sleeps, it never dies, it can't be stopped, hear their cries. The Scarecrow lives to kill us all. Keep it buried in the fall..." When they arrive, Aaron sees his ex-girlfriend Kristen Miller and gets out of the bus to talk to her. As they talk, Nikki takes the keys left in the ignition lock of the bus and retrieves her mobile phone that Aaron took away earlier.
Meanwhile, Kristen tells Aaron that she invited Eddie, Aaron's former best friend who previously dated Kristen, to help with the scarecrow. Eddie arrives and tries to leave after seeing Aaron, but can't restart his truck. In the meantime, the students head to the scarecrow. As Aaron, Kristen, and Eddie meet up with the them, Calvin is tied to the scarecrow by Nikki and Tyler who are now missing. Kristen, Eddie and Daevon begin to untie Calvin when Beth is grabbed by an unknown force and dragged into the cornfield. Aaron tells Maria, Calvin and Daevon to stay where they are as he, Kristen, and Eddie goes to save Beth.
The remaining survivors barricade the farmhouse and Daevon finds a rifle which he gives to Eddie. Maria explains that Nikki took the bus keys so the only means of escape is Eddie's truck. Aaron decides he will make a break for the truck and drive to get help, but before he can, Calvin steals the keys and makes a break for the truck. As he tries to escape the scarecrow attacks him and kills him. Kristen attacks it with a Molotov cocktail which hits the truck and causes an explosion.
The group flees to the barn when the scarecrow blocks entry back to the farmhouse and quickly fall through the floor, where they find Marcy's remains and then Tyler's corpse hanging from the roof. They formulate a plan of escape and the group climbs a rope one by one as they hear a police siren approach them.
Kristen, Aaron, Eddie, Beth and Maria escape and attempt to drive back to town when the scarecrow once again attacks and forces the car off the road and it hits a tree. Eddie is mortally wounded and sacrifices himself so the others can escape by igniting the gas leaking from the car. The group is then split up and Maria goes to meet up with Kristen and Aaron while Beth selfishly runs to a close by farm.
The group catches up and Maria berates Beth for being a coward. The remaining survivors break into the farmhouse and are confronted by a farmer. They explain what has happened and he confirms that the scarecrow was buried to stop it from killing Kristen's family to avenge a vendetta. Suddenly dogs begin to bark and the farmer tells the group being around Kristen is dangerous. He is quickly killed after leaving the group. Beth wants to give the scarecrow what it wants, but Aaron and Maria refuse and Beth once again flees.
Aaron, Kristen and Maria decide to escape on a tractor when they hear Beth in the distance begging for help. Kristen goes to help despite Maria begging her not to. When Kristen finds Beth, Beth holds a blade to Kristen's throat and calls out to the scarecrow to come get her. As it approaches Aaron throws a rope around it and puts the rope into machinery which drags the scarecrow into a shredder. It grabs Beth's leg and pulls her to her death. 041b061a72