Scarecrow Gone Wild (2004) Reviews

• Things I have learned from SGW

  DarkYoshi132006-01-05

  The things I have learned from this movie are remarkable, things I never would have guessed otherwise. I do warn you though, there are spoilers. 1) Spring Break doesn't consist of many people on a beach, but instead a small group friends... 2) Daylight is a tricky thing and can disappear to night, then dawn, then night again within a period of five minutes. 3) Scarecrows can whistle. 4) Scarecrows can whistle under water. 5) Scarecrows can drive trucks. 6) Boom mikes are not obviously visible while shooting or editing, but very visible when watching the movie. 7) Mirrors don't show your outer appearance, but instead what you are on the inside. 8) Scarecrows are weak against defibrillators. 9) Scarecrows lose track of people very easily on an open beach. 10) A wrestler is no match for the mighty power of a scarecrow. 11) Being lightly slapped can knock you unconscious. 12) Drunk people like terrible guitar solos. 13) When a spear-like object stabs through someone, it sticks through them at a completely different angle. 14) If you are being dragged along a beach, screaming for help, no one will help you, despite there being two people on the same side of the beach as you.(Check the background beach around when the girl finds her dead boyfriend, where could those two people go to in a matter of minutes?) 15) When you spill your innards, they rest neatly on top of your skin. 16) Finally, people don't show any signs of worry when their friends disappear for many hours without explanation. This movie is very informative, I hope you have learned something from it. So Yeah.

• What's up with all these scarecrow movies?

  moviemanic072004-10-02

  The spirit of a comatose hazing victim inhabits a scarecrow and takes revenge on his tormentors. First question: What's up with all these scarecrow movies? I think I missed the beginning of the trend. Are they all inspired by the opening sequence of 'Jeepers Creepers 2'? Sadly, none of the ones I have pulled down from the shelves of my local Blockbuster have lived up that sequence. This one, however, seemed to start well. The opening sequence, where a young woman is stalked in the cornfield by the scarecrow works reasonably well. It is helped by the fact that the scarecrow is only seen sparingly. When used sparingly, the scarecrow makeup works well, but, as a result of overuse, it begins to look like a cheap mask. It looked as fake as the breasts of the woman who plays the nurse. Gratuitous nudity aside, this film has little to compliment. I was inclined to praise the video photography until I watched the 'making of' documentary that revealed it was shot on film. For video it looked good. For film it sucked. The performances were both overwrought and overripe. Granted, there really wasn't much actors could do with the script. It was stupid. The overheated relationships were never believable. Still, it might've worked on the most visceral level if the film was scary, but it wasn't. One of the things that hurt it was a whistling theme that revealed the presence of the scarecrow. At first I thought the theme existed only on the soundtrack, but later characters in the film started hearing it. I found it funny, and I would start snickering every time I heard it, which effectively undermined all the thrills. This might not be the worst horror film out there, but it does lurk dangerously near the bottom of the barrel.

• The perils of the undomesticated scarecrow

  Leigh L.2005-06-09

  If I'd only known that this was the third in a series when I picked it up, I might have held back until I'd had the chance to study the first two instalments in some depth and subsequently come into Scarecrow Gone Wild fully prepared to appreciate all it had to offer. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson from the whole Kickboxer 4 farce (who is this feckless boy-child? Where's Jean-Claude? Why is Tong Po half his previous size?) - but no. Ah well, not to worry - at the end of the day I can safely say its charms weren't entirely lost on me. In spite of several dull stretches as the film tries to make the lives of its mouth-breathing teenage sickle-fodder seem deep and involving, SGW is ultimately brimming over with so many top-quality "what the..." moments that it's impossible not to have fun with the damn thing. The Scarecrow drives! The Scarecrow hits the waves! The Scarecrow inexplicably gains the power of electrocution! The Scarecrow's head appears to be made of cast iron when someone clouts him with a fire extinguisher! It's all good stuff. And I'd never even heard of Ken Shamrock before this, but now I think he should be in every film ever made (alongside Christopher Lambert and Steven Seagal). What's particularly endearing about Scarecrow Gone Wild is that everybody involved plays it as if they've been told it's some kind of intense art-house drama, although we do get the occasional flash of momentary self-awareness (the "watch out for the homicidal scarecrow" line near the end comes to mind). All in all, definitely one to remember, and roll on 10,001 Scarecrows... I think.

• I've finally found a movie that I thought was worse than Napoleon Dynamite

  WeezeL3652006-05-18

  My roommate and I have another friend that works at a local Blockbuster Video. He finds truly awful movies for us and tells us about them. One of them was a "Christmas Horror" film starring former professional wrestler Bill Goldberg as a killer Satna Claus. We didn't watch it immediately, but we didn't think there could be anything worse. Apparently, we were wrong. We were shown this slasher film "starring" Ken Shamrock versus a murderous scarecrow. At first we thought Ken would actually BE the killer scarecrow, and that's why we wanted to watch, but he wasn't, and that made the movie even worse. What absolutely RUINED the movie was the teen drama. If you want to save your brain cells from trying to escape from your head, NEVER EVER WATCH THIS MOVIE.

• Scarecrow at the beach

  Dr. Gore2004-06-21

  *SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT* "Scarecrow Gone Wild". What insane B-movie fan could resist a title like that? I haven't seen the other two Scarecrow movies but when I saw the Scarecrow hanging out by the beach, I knew it was time to party. I envisioned the Scarecrow with a hand-held camera filming topless college girls sunbathing. Then the Scarecrow would hang out with a bunch of frat boys chugging a keg of beer. Chug! Chug! Chug! Well, "Scarecrow Gone Wild" goes about as wild as a movie with a $500 budget can go. The baseball team decides to do a little hazing on the new kids. This leads to death and Scarecrow rejuvenation. The gang heads to the beach to forget their troubles. It must have been a private beach because there was no one else around for miles. Soon the Scarecrow will bust up the party and get wild on these melodramatic, whining, screaming idiots. "Scarecrow Gone Wild" has some good points. I counted three naked breast scenes. Those are always good. You can't go wrong with topless women. Never. Impossible. Cheapest, (and best), special effect you can buy. There were also some good death scenes. The guy playing the guitar had a hilarious death as did the woman who came between the Scarecrow and his pick-up truck. But the movie started to drag me down with its nonstop drama. Hints, accusations, betrayal, lies, regret. These are all emotions that shouldn't be anywhere near a maniacal Scarecrow movie. The Scarecrow should have been partying down more instead of listening to these guys yell and scream at each other. A surfing Scarecrow scene would have been nice. How about a scene with the Scarecrow doing some body shots off of one of the topless chicks? Oh yeah. What a party it could have been. "Scarecrow Gone Wild" needed a little more wild and a little less drama. It was still a good B-movie. I enjoyed myself.