RiseoftheScarecrows

Rise of the Scarecrows (2009)

Three friends go on a road trip to distract one of them after a nasty break up with his girl. They end up in Adams, Massachusetts where their SUV breaks down stranding them. As much as they try they just can’t seem to get out of town. Whether it is the mechanic that refuses to fix their truck, the sheriff that keeps pushing them to stay at the local campground, or the locals that keep beating them up nothing is going right. But they aren’t the only new people in Adams, as we are also introduced to the sheriff’s new deputy, Officer Brown. Officer Brown notices that the sheriff is quick to dismiss the stranded men and the claims of a local man that there is something in the woods. Even after the man and one of the friends are both killed the sheriff works very hard to ignore it. Eventually Brown figures out that evil demonic scarecrows are dwelling in the woods around town killing off strangers. Not only that but to keep them in the woods the locals are feeding them the strangers!

I’m a big fan of independent low budget movies. But I’m realistic and don’t hold them to the same standards that I hold better-funded studio movies. My only requirement is that I’m entertained on some level by what you are showing me. I really wanted to like Rise of the Scarecrows for two reasons. First of all is how excited the director McGahee was about it and secondly growing up in the Midwest I find scarecrows to be really creepy. My problem with the movie is that I think it was just too ambitious for it’s own good. The movie is trying to be a scary little flick about scarecrows that wander out of the woods and butcher people. While I like the design and look of the scarecrows that is about all they had going for them. I never once found the movie to be scary, nor did I think it built any tension. Also there is a distinct lack of gore and the kills are all poorly staged. You actually have actors acting as if they were in slow motion, so as not to hit the actors portraying the victims too hard. These already poorly staged kills aren’t helped by the pounding metal music that so many low budget horror movies seem to fall back on in scenes like this. Even the shots of the bodies after aren’t that impressive. One of the friends is “ripped to shreds”, which boggles the mind since he sports just a bit of blood on his shirt.

In spite of my problems with the lack of gore and other technical bits there was still a glimmer of hope. The story is creative and had the potential to be something really cool. Unfortunately that was completely snuffed out by the structure of the movie’s plot, which runs on way too long (94 minutes) and sports way too many characters. The movie spends way too much time setting up the characters (the scarecrows don’t show up for 40 minutes) and not enough time killing off the cast (not literally of course!). But even after the scarecrows show up we get far too many pointless conversations between the sheriff and Officer Brown. This is all made even more frustrating when a random character (who is never seen again) shows up to explain the whole story to the three friends (and thus the audience) in a couple of minutes. I would have preferred to see the story unfold slowly and could have done without the wasted scenes and quick catch up.

This is a really hard movie for me to review because I’m not very fond of it. I like the director, Geno McGahee and dig what he was trying to accomplish with Rise of the Scarecrows. But as you can clearly tell from my above review it just didn’t work for me at all. Still if you are interested in checking out the movie it will be available from Tempe early in 2009. Check out their site at http://www.tempevideo.com/ for more information. I also recommend checking out McGahee’s site Scared Stiff Reviews to check out what else he is up to http://www.scaredstiffreviews.com/news.php

1 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer