With horror industry heavy hitters already in place from the 1970s, the 1980s built upon that with the rise of brilliant minds in makeup and effects artists, as well as advances in technology. Artists like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Tom Savini, Stan Winston, and countless other artists that delivered groundbreaking, mind-blowing practical effects that ushered in the pre-CGI Golden Age of Cinema. Which meant a glorious glut of creatures in horror. More than just a technical marvel, the creatures on display in ‘80s horror meant tangible texture that still holds up decades later. Grotesque slimy skin to brutal transformation sequences, there wasn’t anything the artists couldn’t create. It Came From the ‘80s is a series that will pay homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
If there’s one thing that 1988’s direct-to-video Scarecrows proves, it’s that the world could really use more horror movies about killer scarecrows. There really aren’t that many of them, far too few to really warrant their own sub-genre, but spooky enough to remain effective any time one pops up in horror. Scarecrows is a flawed film with a sort of wacky premise, but it works well because it managed to nail its special effects and cinematography.
Co-written/directed by William Wesley, who never really did much else, the plot sees a group of bank robbers who kidnapped a pilot and his daughter to escape by plane. One of the robbers steals the loot and parachutes into a dark, desolate rural field, causing the rest of the group to follow in pursuit. Naturally, that bit of land is inhabited killer scarecrows, who pick the group off one by one. Though it sounds like a pretty great setup, there are some overwrought performances among the cast of unknowns, and between the low budget and inexperience, Wesley makes some odd directorial choices.
The first third of the movie is devoid of dialogue, so Wesley decided to fix that by adding in voiceover dialogue and radio chatter among the robbers. The inner voice-over dialogue that we get from the backstabbing robber is clunky and weird, which is further compounded by the remaining crew consistently talking to each other by radio, though we never actually see them speaking. The whole disembodied voices thing gets a bit jarring, but that’s ok, because once the plot really kicks into gear, it gets much more entertaining.
Shot on a very low budget, with actor Ted Vernon providing most of the film’s backing (therefore getting top billing in the cast as lead robber Corbin), Scarecrows has two tremendous aspects that elevates the film from schlock to worthwhile watch; cinematography by Peter Deming and special makeup effects by Norman Cabrera.
Save for a handful of recycled shots of the titular scarecrows, the cinematography really contributes to a creepy atmosphere. The use of dark shadows, the isolated setting, and the angled shots gives the film an uneasy atmosphere that can be attributed to Deming’s talent. Fresh off his role as director of photography of Evil Dead II, the only other credit in his career at the time, his work here makes it no surprise that he’d continue to a very productive career with work in films like Lost Highway, From Hell, The Cabin in the Woods, the new Twin Peaks revival and so much more.
While Deming brought the tension, Cabrera brought the scarecrows to life with his makeup effects. Each scarecrow was distinct enough on their own, but Scarecrows introduced a mythology in that each victim of a scarecrow would essentially become a soulless, killer scarecrow. It’s a mythology that’s never quite explained beyond the surface level, but the concept alone meant that Cabrera came up with amazing designs for the victims’ return. I should mention that Cabrera was only 18 at the time. At 20, Cabrera would go on to work with Stan Winston on Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Harry and the Hendersons, and Men in Black 3, before moving on to work on films like Hellboy, Death Becomes Her, From Dusk till Dawn, and more.
With a reported budget of only $425,000, finding Cabrera and Deming at the beginning of their careers was a huge win for this movie, making it easy to see why Scarecrows has a cult following. It’s a simple, yet ambitious plot full of bad guys getting offed by more terrifying bad guys, but none of that matters much because the scarecrows are so cool. And extremely violent. It’s easy to look the flaws when a film nails its monsters and atmosphere, and Scarecrows does it in spades. I think it’s long past time that these killer monsters get their own sub-genre.
