Scarecrow

Plot synopsis:
The story revolves around the relationship between two vagabonds: Max Millan (Gene Hackman), a short-tempered ex-convict, and Francis Lionel "Lion" Delbuchi (Al Pacino), a childlike ex-sailor. They meet on the road in California and agree to become partners in a car wash business, once they reach Pittsburgh.
Lion is on his way to Detroit to see the child he has never met and make amends with his wife Annie, to whom he has been sending all the money he made while at sea. Max agrees to make a detour on his way to Pittsburgh, where the bank that Max has been sending all his seed money is located.
While visiting Max's sister in Denver, the pair's antics land them in a prison farm for a month. Max blames Lion for their being sent back to jail and shuns him. Lion is befriended by a powerful inmate named Riley (Richard Lynch), who later tries to sexually assault Lion, and while he does not succeed, physically savages and emotionally traumatizes Lion. Max rekindles his friendship with Lion, and becomes his protector, eventually exacting revenge by beating up Riley. After being released from prison the two continue to have a profound effect on each other, although they have both undergone personal transformations and their roles have shifted--with Lion still traumatized and no longer carefree and clowning, nor able even to laugh or even smile, and Max loosening up his high-strung aggression (at one point doing a tongue-in-cheek striptease to defuse a fight at a bar, and to attempt to make Lion laugh again).
When the duo finally make it to Detroit, Lion finds a payphone and calls Annie, now remarried and raising their five-year-old son. Annie is still furious at Lion for having abandoned her, and lies that she miscarried their son (adding spitefully, knowing Lion is Catholic, "He never even got born. Never got baptized. You know what that means; his soul can't go to heaven. That's what you did for your son's soul, you bastard. You sent it into limbo. That soul cannot go to heaven"). Lion is devastated, but when he gets off the phone, he snaps into a manic state, expressing joy to Max at that he has a son. Shortly afterward, Lion has a breakdown while playing in a park with neighborhood children and becomes catatonic. Max promises Lion, now in a psychiatric hospital, that he will do anything to help him, and boards a train to Pittsburgh with a round-trip ticket.

Tags: revenge, cult, murder, violence

Review:
Well, here's another amazingly original story: High School student (occasionally seemed like collegego figure) has whore for a mom, lives in a trailer park, and is an "artist" who is ridiculed for his "being all different." Well, of course, this poor ridiculed boy is eventually killed and, here's the original part, his soul inhabits a scarecrow (beneath which, he is killed by his slutty mama's latest john).
One person is stabbed with a corncob.--Sounds like they put some effort into the musicbut it doesn't really fit the movieand isn't all that good.The Bad:--Terrible, terrible acting.--Another slasher let-down with sexy womennone of them removing clothing.
When did that cease being a staple of low-brow slashers??--Ridiculous story.--The scarecrow vomits up one-liners that would make Freddy Krueger and Arnold Swartzenegger blush.--Standard underlying love story goes nowhere, and is poorly done.--Some of the people killed seem like they were chosen at randomyou never really know who anybody is and then they're killed.
And you only assume that they must've had it coming.The Ugly:--Extremely average slasher fare, just with a murdering scarecrow instead of well, all that other crap.--Nowhere near as interesting as Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Pinhead, Chucky, or even Angela from the "Sleepaway Camp" seriesall of which are better than this atrocity.--The absolute worst dialogue I have ever heard in my LIFE.
Don't get me wrong, though, it's funny as hellbut I've never heard more asinine bantereven in "Slumber Party Massacre III." This film makes "Jason X" look like Shakespeare.--The man who kills the boy that becomes the scarecrow: Worst wig ever.
Huh huh."Acting: 3/10 Story: 3/10 Atmosphere: 2/10 Cinematography: 1/10 Character Development: 2/10 Special Effects/Make-up: 5/10 Nudity/Sexuality: 1/10 (No nudity, Mom's a whore, girls wear no bras) Violence/Gore: 5/10 (Low quality, mediocre amount) Dialogue: 0/10 (Extremely ridiculous, blatant, over-the-top and painfully funnyso bad it's good.
My first rating for dialogue in any film!) Music: 5/10 Direction: 2/10Cheesiness: 10/10 Crappiness: 9/10Overall: 3/10Another one for just people like me who enjoy watching pure crap.
There are inherent constrictions in a B-movie: Budgets are tight, Time is precious (Scarecrow was apparently shot in 8 days) and the actors are often green and inexperienced.
Scarecrow doesn't seem to care.The "story" of Scarecrow goes something like this: Lester is a high school kid (played by and actor who'd I'd peg to be in his early 30's) who is picked on by the other kids.
One of her reprobate boyfriends makes fun of his drawings (by calling him a "faggot" for drawing birds instead of "monsters and cowboys." If you have a high school student still drawing cowboys I'd think him to more likely be gay than a high school student who draws crows) and later, kills Lester, in a cornfield, under the titular scarecrow.
The scarecrow then goes on to kill those who tormented him, those who smoke pot in the corn field, those who dig graves, boyfriends of daughters of gravediggers, pretty much anyone who showed up on the movie set.The bonus feature on the DVD should be mentioned.
The director (a Frenchman) does an impromptu version of rap music, admits he enjoys not having executives around on set so he can screw his wife while working and gives a quote to live by (and I'm paraphrasing): "Life ez a bitch, but et has a great ass"Number of Beers I drank while watching this movie: 5 Did it help: No Number of Beers needed to enjoy this movie: Whatever it takes to get to blackout drunk level..
(and that statement comes from a person who very much enjoys bad movies) the real problem here is that it wasn't so bad it was funny...it's just so bad that it's bad.scarecrow is the story of a 35 year old high school kid who gets picked on by a bunch of 27 year old high school kids (who inexplicably call him 'scarecrow').
anyway the kid (lester) has a miserable life, is a bad artist, and i'm thinking is mildly retarded.everyone hates him and makes his life rough except for judy (really the only good thing about the whole movie--and not for her acting ability).
lester gets upset and is seen for a brief disconnected moment hitting a scarecrow that looks like a person in a plastic suit, yelling "i whish i was like you so i didn't feel anything." why did he do this?
because apparently all the kids in this town hang out in cornfields with scarecrows...who else was he to take his frustration out on?one night lester's mother's new boyfriend gets mad and kills him in a cornfield right below that same scarecrow.
--and i could be wrong here, but the whole killer scarecrow thing seems like it was done before...oh yeah in jeepers creepers 2.anyway, lester (as the scarecrow) comes to life every once in a while and does acrobatic flips and then kills people.
it would make sense that he should kill all the people that wronged him while he was alive, but rather he kills just random characters that have nothing to do with the story.as a matter of fact, they introduce characters like the gravedigger and his daughter's boyfriend (who have no ties to the story whatsoever) just to be killed.interestingly enough the really old high school kids all of a sudden are not in high school, the town "has a sinister evil," and somehow these things lead the world's worst sheriff to the conclusion that lester is the scarecrow.too bad he dies before that could even matter.unprovoked the scarecrow attacks judy (the only person who was nice to him while he was alive and the only person who went to his funeral), blaming her for his death.
and then there is a surprise ending that makes even less sense...coming as no surprise at all.what is really striking about the whole thing is that this film was made completely straight faced.watch the 'making of' featurette.the whole cast is talking about effects and acting and plot points as if this movie is to be admired for it's technical prowess.
now this is by no means up to the caliber of a troma film, but at least i can see where they were going...(how could tiffany shepis be in this movie?) at least troma movies are funny and clever in a sort of tasteless way, this was just miserable.the acting was terrible, dialog atrocious, editing uber-crappy, effects nearly non-existent....but worst of all this movie was boring.
and that is a b-horror movie sin.i think the icing on the cake though, was the fact that this abomination was dedicated to dario argento, george romero, stephen king, wes craven, and more.if any of these people ever saw their names at the end of scarecrow, they'd kill themselves just so that they could roll in their graves.this movie makes roger corman look like alfred hitchcock..
And most of the time, horror movies other people say are bad, I like.
From the trailer trash redneck to the high flying martial arts moves of the Scarecrow, this is truly a b-movie gem.
All I can really say is, 'can you dig it' and recommend watching movies such as Frankenfish if you enjoy this sort of hilarious horror.(WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY SMOKING!?'.
Spirit of a murdered high school geek animates a scarecrow which then takes revenge on everyone.This movie really annoyed me.
it is about this kid who gets pushed around and then this redneck guy who looks like mario(maybe the only entertaining part of the movie, if you like funny stuff) strangles him and 'SOMEHOW' this "nerd's" soul gets transfered into a scarecrow.
they are, john carpenter as director, use AT LEAST 8mm or super 8 and not f***ing digital cameras, and lose the acrobat sh** where the scarecrow does flips and that is just stupid.i had to put these films two spaces down from that review so they wouldn't get contaminated with this...
What a disappointing movie.As others have noted, Lester, the main character, does look like he is 30 instead of in high school.The soundtrack is horrible.
The guy who plays the mother's boyfriend looks like he just stepped out of a 70's porno flick.
Other than the scarecrow's make-up the only thing about this movie that I liked were some close up shots of the moon.
There was a lot of character development which made the film better to watch, then after the kid came back to life as the scarecrow, there was a mindless hour and ten minutes of him killing people.
In general I don't see the point of horror movies but I was shocked to find myself actually enjoying "Scarecrow."  Alot of the humor is tongue-in-cheek and I found the gore to be absurdly entertaining.
The plot, I imagine, is somewhat secondary in B-movies like this but compared to Troema and Roger Corman's stuff I thought "Scarecrow" was great!.
GEEZ!) BUT, I will say that in my very lowly and wretched opinion I personally think that if they had just kept the Scarecrow bloody SILENT and menacing and dropped the truly HIDEOUS dialog when he killed people, I REALLY, REALLY think that would have gone a long way to making him way more menacing and scary.
We're talking SO seriously bad that it makes Freddy Kruger sound like Shakespeare!I think this director, especially how he goes on and on and on about how his idols are all the great Horror directors, particularly Argento, he REALLY needs to know when to get a bit more serious, mainly in how he directs the killings and DEFINITELY drop the stupid dialog which GREATLY dilutes whatever horror he has worked so hard to build...Otherwise, yeah, lots of fun, amateurish to be sure, but there are a LOT worse films out there....
This is a silly movie from french director with silly script too and all shoddy acting with many idiots actors, most notably from "Scarecrow", It's a really bad , So bad film.always I like to watch about killer scarecrow movies, but with this Scarecrow the matter so different with the more recent Scarecrows, specially when I have read the french director "Emmanuel Itier" that claims he has been influenced by the Italian director "Dario Argento" !
trust me watch it!i laughed so hard at so many parts of this movie the worst acting ever made is very funny!
hopefully another killer scarecrow movie comes out, just not like this one..
I'll start with the bad points of t he movie, which pretty much covers the entire film.
So if you want to see a scarecrow killing people with corncobs, or in the sequel, 2 scarecrows going at it, then these movies would be for you..
Here's pretty much what it's about...Some kinda nerdy kid with no friends gets picked on, gets killed, and comes back as a scarecrow for revenge.
If you haven't seen this movie don't waste your time watching it.
Also, the second one isn't much better, so don't bother watching that either...I rated this movie a three because I liked the scarecrow's outfit, not because there was anything good about the movie.
However, I appreciate the time and effort that is put into making these types of movies.SCARECROW is by far and large a bad movie.
This movie isn't the most amazing thing created.It has some really bad acting and a very weak plot line that gets confusing at times.
Besides that i enjoyed it...i like b grade movies...i don't know if the directors were going for the b grade aspect when creating this piece of fine art but i seemed to enjoy myself watching it.The actor playing the scarecrow did an amazing job and must have some mighty fine gymnastic experience and basically steals the movie, though its wouldn't be that hard considering he is the main character in the title.The movie isn't that bad...its just b grade...there are some laughs and some gross out bits...not for everyone.I enjoyed it.
A high kill quotient that basically makes no sense but to thrill the pea-brained violence junkies who exist on make-believe mayhem in video games and these type of trash movies.
We're treated to excellent kills that usually have the Scarecrow jumping or twirling before they're done, which is then followed by some oddball one liner.There's really not much to review about this film.
If you're some dorky kid that thinks he's the god of all horror movies and must only watch serious flicks, then avoid this at all cost.**** out of *****.
What could have turned into a fun brain dead slasher film is ruined by a lousy script and the scarecrow talking in puns like a poor cousin of the most annoying version of Freddy Krueger you can think of.
This Scarecrow looked great and could have supplied some real scares, if it was in a different film..
After the death of our main character his spirit in transfered into an above Scarecrow.As the Scarecrow, Lester extracts revenge on those in his way without revealing his identity...The Scarecrow is amazingly humorous and played by the creature's designer Todd Rex....I think the Scarecrow design is great and looked like he belonged in the line-up of Rock band SLIPKNOTOverall the movie is good but far from great, but better than some...The performance of Tiffany Shepis, has spawned an interest, for me to check out even more of her films.Rick Blalock.
Basically dedicating this movie to those great directors is like giving your mother a piece of sh*t for Mother's Day. The first thing they did wrong was the casting.
I recommend this film to anyone who likes scarecrows a lot and to any b movie fan.
Over the movie has a lot of Arnold rip offs, with one liners you'll definitely laugh at like stick around and he kills the sheriff with a stick.
However something magical happens (no, the film doesn't suddenly become good), Lester's spirit gets transfered into the corn fields scarecrow which he then uses as a body to gain revenge on those who tormented him & made his life hell...Co-written, co-produced & directed by Emmanuel Itier who according to the IMDb credit list also has a role in the film as someone called Mr. Duforq although I don't remember any character of this name, I suppose anyone who ends up looking at the IMDb pages for Scarecrow will probably already be aware of it's terrible reputation & I have to say it pretty much well deserved since it's terrible.
The film has terrible character's, awful dialogue, an inconsistent & predictable story, it has some cheesy one-liners like when the scarecrow kills someone with a shovel he ask's 'can you dig it?' & the so-called twist ending which is geared towards leaving things open for a sequel is just lame.
To give it some credit the actual scarecrow mask looks really good & he looks pretty cool but he is given little to do except spout bad one-liners & twirl around a bit.
There's no nudity & the gore isn't anything to write home about, there's a decapitation, someones face is burnt, someone is killed with a stick of corn, someone gets a shovel stuck in their throat, some sickles are stuck in people's heads, someone has their heart ripped out & someone has a metal thing stuck through the back of their head which comes out of their mouth.With a supposed budget of about $250,000 this was apparently shot in 8 days, well at least they didn't waste any time on unimportant things like story & character development.
The acting sucks, the guy who played Lester's mum's bloke is wearing the most stupid looking wig & fake moustache ever because he played two roles in the film & the makers needed to disguise him but they just ended up making him look ridiculous & don't get me started on his accent...Scarecrow has a few fun moments & the actual scarecrow himself is a nice creation with good special make-up effects but as a whole the film is poorly made, badly acted, silly, too predictable & very cheesy.
His victims "haven't been stalked like this before..." (Scarecrow's official tag line)To make matters worse, this movie was filmed in a whopping 8 days.
(They're spoilers, so I won't spoil it for you, if you actually want to see this crap.) I could have somewhat forgiven the bad acting, the horrible special effects, the abysmal script, and the bad camera work, but I simply have no respect for lack of effort on that level.This movie isn't nearly as good as I'm making it out to be.
The plot/dialogue is like a collage of of bits stolen from every B horror movie ever made.
(SPOILER: At the end, when they chant Lester's name and he reappears, the black guy and Scarecrow are both laughing, probably out of relief they were on their last scene, and at the cheesy dialogue.).
So the Boyfriend chases the kid into a cornfield and strangles him to death, then makes it look like he hung himself.
Now I know the stereotype- Most horror movies with cool looking box covers like this one usually suck harder than a hoover on NOS, but such was not the case with this one.
The movie centers around a nerd like kid named Lester.
But all in all, despite its flaws of a bad script, bad acting (with the exceptions of Todd Rex and Tiffany), it has some cool effects, some killer one-liners (all from the scarecrow) and its a decent way to kill 90 minutes.
While staying home one night, one of his mother's dates picks on Lester and he is accidentally killed in a cornfield next to a scarecrow.
To have them spread through a large body count makes the deaths all the better.The Bad News: In spite of what so many others have said, there was only two things about this I didn't really like: the martial-arts knowing scarecrow and the picked-on high school loser who becomes the protagonist.