Director: Louisa Warren
Year: 2018
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Scarecrow Slasher
Plot:
Trying to get past their trauma, siblings return to the farmhouse where their parents were killed years ago when they were kids and begin to go through a series of tactics trying to prove the incidents weren’t caused by a murderous scarecrow only to find out the stories were true.
Review:
This was a fairly solid if somewhat disappointing feature. One of the better factors with this one is the immensely solid and effective setup that manages to work nicely enough to get the storylines in motion. The initial idea of the couple being faced with traumatic memories of what went on at the house when they were kids and hoping that a return visit to the farmhouse looking to settle things once and for all as to why the visions are centered around a murderous scarecrow haunting her family makes this work rather nicely. It gets the kids out to the house in the remote part of the countryside, ties in nicely with the original as there are some connections made in that regard offers up some fine work here as to what they’d return and get caught up in the series of events that they do with the revelation about the house sitting on the cursed property and the rampage repeating every chance it gets.
When it came to the stalking scenes, there was enough here to make for a generally intriguing time. The original recreations of the accident when they were kids done through hypnosis sessions recalling everything that happened while brief images flash across the screen depicting the events offers a rather cheap yet intriguing way of going about this kind of sequence. The later stalkings around the property involving the creature taking out her friends as they try to engage in amorous activities at the house are decent enough, while the full-on finale offers the most scarecrow action with it coming to life and featured in some fun sequences where it hunts down the remaining group before the extended cat-and-mouse chase in the end. This is all enjoyable enough for what it is and provides some enjoyable features.
There are some big issues to be had here. The biggest drawback to this one is the simply lethargic running time in the first half where it takes far too long to get anything going in this one. Featuring far too much build-up about the different traumatic responses they had as kids, the different interactions with the friends around the house, or the few locals trying to convince her to leave the area all serve well enough to be worthwhile but also leaves the pacing to feel far too off for long in here. It doesn’t hurt that this is all pretty cheaply rendered with the whole thing being confined to one location, features no real expansive gore or effects work, and keeps everything grounded to a more realistic tone than anything which all manage to lower this one overall.
Overview: ***/5
A generally fine low-budget feature that has some issues, this one has enough to like that it’s a fun overall take on the genre that gets brought down by some pretty big issues overall. Those who appreciate this kind of indie fare or are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here while most others out there should heed caution.
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