The concept of what films fit into the category of cult classic is certainly debatable. Night of the Living Dead, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Plan Nine from Outer Space, all of these I would put into the cult category as some have redefined film making and ideas, others are just so bad you can’t help but love them. There are people that for some reason see the movie Scarecrows as a cult classic, but this is one of those occasions where I have to strongly disagree.

Based simply on the title alone, you can guess who or what the antagonist of the film is, but of course there is a little more to the background of the movie than just this. A group of armed robbers has just pulled off a daring robbery and stolen $3.5 million, then taken a pilot and his daughter hostage and are forcing them to fly them south of the border. One of their associates, Bert (B.J. Turner) has ideas of his own and has decided to take the money and run, parachuting down over a small farmhouse in the dead of night. His fellow robbers aren’t too pleased with his actions and set out to find him, dead or alive, but there is something more sinister lurking on the grounds of the farm.

Bert soon is found dead, but it wasn’t any of his friends that did him in, it was something else. As they begin to explore the surrounding are, something just doesn’t feel right. There are bad vibes that some of the men are feeling and others swear that they’ve seen something moving out in the fields; the scarecrows. It could be their imagination, but then again, it might not be.

I can handle horror films that are a bit far fetched, most are actually, but Scarecrows goes above and beyond what is seen, and definitely not in a good way. There are far too many plot holes left in the movie, and too many more thing that just don’t sit right with me, the first being the dialog which is a true abomination. While I can understand how there is apparently an effort to capture that “cheesy horror” mentality, the dialog spouted off by the character is truly ridiculous. A “demonic demon”, give me a break, and that’s just one of the many laughable moments found in the movie.

But, with any horror villain, or villains as the case is here, there is usually some kind of background given, but Scarecrows really lacks that. The only thing we really discover is that apparently the family that used to live in the farmhouse was involved in satanic practices, but that’s really all that is uncovered. Why does Bert manage to drive a car that has no motor for instance? Unless I missed something, that is never explained, nor is the presence of the scarecrows or their ability to come to life. Apparently the scarecrows are the result of practice in the dark arts, and these killer straw men also can bring anyone they murder back to life as a scarecrow. But as far as why, well that much isn’t really explained, and I suppose it doesn’t need to be.

Scarecrows really becomes a quite predictable film, and as far as who the survivor will be, that is very apparent within the first few minutes of the film. Horror movies have traditionally shown us that those who do bad thing (or do drugs or have premarital sex) are going to meet their end before the closing credits, so when you have a band of robbers present, we already know what is going to happen with them, it’s just a matter of when and how, and Scarecrows at least delivers some decent gore, but not really enough to make up for a rather lackluster product.

For a movie that is considered by a number of fans to be a cult classic, they are going to find that Scarecrows offers up quite a bit of disappointment as far as bonus materials. There are no extra features at all found on the DVD. With the amount of people who really love this movie for whatever reason, I find that leaving out bonus material of any sort if really just a slap to the face and quite a bit more could have been done in this area.

Scarecrows might be just the thing for some, and although bad horror movies don’t necessarily bother me, this is a movie that left me more than a little disappointed. So much more could have been done with the movie, but the sub-standard plot, bad acting, and worse dialog keeps Scarecrows from being fun and instead just offer another low quality, forgettable B horror movie that is best left in the fields than in your DVD collection.

-mike-