31 Days of Fright: THE SCAR CROW (2009)

As the air turns crisp and leaves begin to blanket the once green grass, certain autumnal images spring to mind... pumpkins, candy corn, trick or treaters, inept victims being chased by unstoppable killing machines... you get the picture. So you'd think that 2009's THE SCAR CROW would fill the bill for frightful viewing thanks to its bevy of busty babes and an iconic Halloween image – the scarecrow – taking a villainous turn. But, as longtime ER contributor and Divine Exploitation editor Douglas Waltz found out, sometimes boobs and gore just isn't enough.

In the year 1709 a woman is hanged as a witch, leaving behind three full grown daughters and a husband. The husband burns all of her belongings and has his way with the daughters. Well, two of them. He crosses the line when he attacks the youngest, Primrose, and is killed. They hide his body as a scarecrow, but he's not quite dead. He has time for a final curse upon them all. They shall never perish as long as he is the scarecrow. They attempt to bury his body, but every morning it hangs where they left it.

There is no escape from the curse.

Or is there?

Flash forward to 2009 where four buddies are on a team building exercise for their company when they stumble upon the farm where the sisters are still very much alive and looking for men to help them abolish the curse and free them forever.

Not looking too good for these fellas.

THE SCAR CROW reminds me of an old Hammer Horror film. The girls are all of ample bosom and not afraid to show them off. The blood runs red throughout the film from the first guy losing his penis to someone being gutted. The effects don't look too bad.

So, why is this thing so damned dull?

It just plods along to its inevitable, albeit bizarre, conclusion. I'm not even sure exactly what happened there.

The plot is overly simplistic so when they try to more with it you just nod and say, "Yeah, I get it." I said that a lot in this movie.

The DVD has a trailer that is pretty much the movie in short form. It gives away what plot there is along with all of the surprises as well. There is a behind-the-scenes featurette that I decided to skip as the movie did nothing to hold my interest.

And, finally, why THE SCAR CROW? I don't think it made much sense. It was a scarecrow in the flick, why not call it THE SCARECROW? I realize that there are a lot of scarecrow flicks out there. A quick glance at IMDB shows 16 of them. So what? Maybe it could have been GHOST OF THE SCARECROW or SCARECROW: RITUALS? Anything but THE SCAR CROW. It looks like they just forgot to put the 'e' in there.

In the end even the gore and boobs can't really make me recommend this movie – under any title. – Douglas Waltz

Douglas Waltz is the editor of Divine Exploitation and you can get the new issue by visiting the CreateSpace store. He is a longtime contributor to ER and recently wrote about REPLIGATOR, MOLD!, DROPPING EVIL and more in issue #52 (available at our website, CreateSpace and Amazon).

THE SCAR CROW is available from Amazon.