Scarecrows (1988)

Scarecrows is a 1988 horror film directed by William Wesley. Seven people are trying to escape a dark eerie cornfield that has a very demonic history and whoever is killed by these scarecrows are going to be one themselves.

Plot
Scarecrows is about five bank robbers who steal three million dollars from Camp Pendleton and take two hostages, a pilot and his daughter. As the robbers fly towards Southern waters, one of the robbers steals the loot and parachutes into a dark eerie cornfield and the house had a demonic history of a cult. When Burt first lands in the cornfield, he looks around and finds an abandoned house and then goes inside and puts a bug swatter on a little pole hanging on the wall. When a dead crow and the bug swatter disappears, he then starts thinking "What the?" and then the criminals search the land. Curry said to look for the money, so they do. Jack says "Man, I wish I had my harmonica right now" and he finds his harmonica but is killed. The scarecrows are seen again, taking a look at their faces as they head back to the house. Roxanne sees Burt and Burt drops his gun and gets brutally beaten up by Corbin and they are surprised that Burt survived his brutal beating. Curry rips open his jumpsuit and sees that his internal organs and parts have been taken out and replaced with money. They try killing him and he survives but gets his head cut off by a machete and then his hand. They flip him over and start carrying him and he is as light as a feather. They start taking out the money and straighten the money, but they believe someone is trying to scare them into leaving but they don't. The pilot's daughter makes a run for it. Corbin chases her and she finds that her dad was murdered. Corbin comes and takes her away and sees that her dad was killed and they decided to leave. Roxanne is collecting the money and Curry stays behind to get Jack but he is already on his way and as Roxanne is still collecting the money, Curry starts talking about not collecting the cash. Then, Roxanne's hand is stabbed with a pitchfork and she tears her middle finger in half by pulling on it. Her head is then cut off by the scarecrows. Corbin and the pilot's daughter start heading for the gate but one of the scarecrows is following them. Corbin shoots the scarecrow but they are attacked by the two remaining scarecrows and back at the house, Jack still remains there. Curry gets a phone call from someone saying it's Burt. The refrigerator door opens by itself and Curry pulls the blanket off the stump and it's Burt's head. He then hears a noise and asks "Who is it?" and Jack shows up mutilated. Curry runs into the closet but the scarecrows are part of a cult. Burt's body was found and Curry shoots the body and runs outside and is stabbed by Jack and dies while Corbin and the pilot's daughter see the gate and get through the gate. The pilot's daughter sees the plane and the scarecrows see them as the two scarecrows stab Corbin's shin with a pitchfork. They intend to cut his shin but the pilot's daughter kills both scarecrows and they get on board the plane. Her dad hopped on the plane and almost kills Corbin by stabbing him but he is still alive. As her dad gets to the front he stabs his daughter's arm. As Corbin and the pilot get into a fight, Corbin kills himself with a grenade and the dog feeds on the remains. Then, you hear the news as the credits are on. The news says they tranquilized the dog and that the bodies have been dead for while.

Cast

 * Ted Vernon as Corbin
 * Michael David Simms as Curry
 * Richard Vidan as Jack
 * Kristina Sanborn as Roxanne
 * Victoria Christian as Kellie
 * David James Campbell as Al
 * B. J. Turner as Bert
 * Tony Santory as Jakob Fowler
 * Phil Zenderland as Norman Fowler
 * Mike Balog as Benjamin Fowler
 * Don Herbert as Radio Newscaster (voice)

Screenplay
William Wesley and Richard Jefferies co-wrote the screenplay for the film, with each writing drafts and then passing them between each other, making edits and alterations. The film marked Wesley's first feature, as well as producer Cami Winikoff. Wesley devised the story of three farmers who have died, and now act as sentinels of the field and farmhouse.

Casting
According to Wesley, he attempted to cast the film with local actors, but was unsuccessful; the majority of the casting process was completed in Los Angeles. Ted Vernon was the sole performer who was a local in Florida, and he was given his role in return for having financed $150,000 of the budget. Wesley stated in a 2015 interview that Vernon was unhappy with his lack of lines, which Wesley had mandated as Vernon was an inexperienced actor, and that this caused friction between them.

Filming
Filming took place over a period of 24 days in Davie, Florida in 1984. Though the bulk of principal photography took place in Florida, the exterior scenes featuring the airplane landing and taking off were shot in Mexico six weeks after filming ended. The farmhouse where the majority of the action takes place was a real derelict farmhouse on the edge of a swamp; Winikoff stated that the house proved challenging for the production team, as it was falling apart. The house was rented for three months at a rate of $250 a month, and the first month and a half was dedicated to pre-production.

Throughout the shoot, the cast and crew were plagued by mosquitos. During filming, the production ran out of funds, and further financing had to be arranged to finish the film.

Cinematography was by Peter Deming, who would go on to work on Hellraiser and Evil Dead 2. A total $5,000 was allotted for the special effects in the film.

Post-production
Wesley and producer Winikoff were scheduled to fly from Miami to Los Angeles to edit the film, and had tickets for Delta Air Lines Flight 191, on August 2, 1985; however, they inadvertently drove to the wrong airport, thus missing the flight, which entered a microburst in Dallas and crashed, killing 136 passengers.

Release
After the film was completed, it was sold to Manson International Pictures. However, seven months after the transactions, the company went bankrupt, stalling a chance at theatrical release. According to producer Cami Winikoff, the film was successful in the home video market, and grossed around $3 million.

Critical response
Time Out gave the film a mostly positive stating in its review for the film, "Although a little slow to get started, this better-than-average horror movie makes excellent use of its creepily-lit monsters, is reasonably well put together, and features some stomach-turning grisliness". Mick Martin and Derrick Bang of the Video Movie Guide awarded it a full four stars, praising it as "a truly frightening horror film, loaded with suspense, intelligent writing, and decent acting."

Steve Barton from Dread Central awarded the film a score of 3.5 / 5 stating, "As fun as it is over-the-top violent, Scarecrows is the perfect fit for viewers looking to strap in for some good old fashioned mindless mayhem". Terror Trap.com awarded the film 3/4 stars, commending its "claustrophobic atmosphere", slow pacing, special effects, and "allegorical plotwork". HorrorNews.net praised the film, writing, "Scarecrows is easily noted as one of the more scary releases to come out of the 80's. It proves to be suspenseful and inventive in its use of effects and shadow-lit attacks. Fans of the genre will get the best experience watching it in a dimly lit room to better effect the atmosphere of this movie." Andrew Smith from Popcorn Pictures gave the film 8/10 stars, writing, "Scarecrows nails the eeriness down to a tee and never once lets up in its attempts to get under your skin. You may not like it due to the limited characters and the lack of any real structured story but once you're transported into this cornfield, you'll never be able to forget about it. A true hidden gem of horror."

AllMovie gave the film a positive review stating, "Tightly paced and consistently tense, this low-budget film has slick production values (making it appear more expensive than it probably was) and only falters in some laughably overwrought performances". Ian Jane from DVD Talk gave the film a mixed review saying, "While the movie looks and sounds okay and is presented here in its uncut form, it hasn't aged all that well and the barebones presentation doesn't help anything. Scarecrows has got some solid gore and will definitely provide children of the 80s with a fun sense of nostalgia, but it's not a great film". TV Guide awarded the film 2/5 stars, writing, "The sense of foreboding is surprisingly high, though the performances are two-dimensional at best."

Home media
Scarecrows was released on VHS by M.C.E.G./Virgin Visi on September 28, 1988. The film was later released on DVD on February 19, 2007, by Jeff Films. On September 11, that same year it was released by MGM and 20th Century Fox. It was released on September 8, the following year by Video International. In 2011, MGM re-released the film on April 5 as a part of two separate multi-disk video collections. On September 13, later that year, the company released a "Checkpoint" version of the film. On September 4, 2012, it was released by Mill Creek Entertainment, as a part of a 12-disc "The Excellent Eighties" Collection.

The film was released for the first time on Blu-ray by Scream Factory on June 2, 2015. The film was released on Blu-ray in Australia by Import Vendor on February 26, 2016. On October 14, 2019, Scream Factory announced that their Blu-ray release of the film was officially out of print.

Circulation
This cult classic finally had a DVD release on September 11, 2007 by MGM/Fox. It was most recently aired on TMC on December 27, 2006. According to Fangoira and IMDB posts, the DVD is unrated and uncut in a 1.85 anamorphic widescreen presentation with no special features.