Director: Alix Moad, Evan Runkle
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Scarecrow Slasher
Plot:
After inheriting his family farm, a man becomes the sole heir to the property and brings his friends over for the weekend to help him put the house up for sale, but when they learn that doing so angers the scarecrow guardian of the house might fight off the savage being.
Review:
On the whole, this was a generally disappointing and barely worthwhile feature. One of the only positives to be had here is the folklore present surrounding the farm and the purpose for the world-building within this. It introduces the kind of folklore and everyday magic around the farm that would allow the scarecrows to come to life and do their bidding, enabling it to be realistic that the traditions of the house are being ignored and purposefully set up so that they can look over the property and perform the tasks they do. This makes the eventual discovery about the murderous scarecrow and different revelations about why they’re being brought to life feel rather natural and organic, so that the final half has some genuinely solid and likable elements present when the scarecrows start to intervene in his plans. It’s not groundbreaking or exciting by any means, but it’s still believable enough under the type of content found in the story so that the whole thing comes together well enough.
Outside of that, there’s very little to this one that works. The main element holding this one back is the lethargic and just plain dull setup at play here, where it’s so outright dull and low-key that there’s no chance to build any kind of excitement or enthusiasm for what’s going on. The entire first hour is spent on building up the relationship with the friend group and their plans to renovate the farm alongside the different relationship statuses in play, since there are multiple couples involved that need time to develop and spell out what’s going on. All of this is done at the expense of any kind of action, which leaves the film immensely lacking in terms of scarecrow slaughter, dealing with all kinds of drama within the group, which is then even more brought down by the incredibly low sound that renders everything so hard to make out there’s not much to hold it up. With the scarecrow-based action is rather middling as well, with the kind of lackluster stalking and slashing going on here being underwhelming as well, these all bring it down overall.
Overview: */5
A generally misguided and barely worthwhile effort, there’s not much about this one that holds it up, with the issues here being quite damaging, over the few positive points being overwhelmed on the whole. Those with an appreciation of this style will have the most to like here, as most others out there should heed caution.
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