Scarecrow Gone Wild (2004)

Apologies first of all, I’m suffering a bit of a problem with the internet at my house so reviews may come along left, right and centre in order to accomplish my normal eight posts per month. Or I might post any backlog next month, we’ll see what happens. Anyway, onto this post. So. There’s a third Scarecrow film. Again, there will be spoilers.

After the opening kill girl who fails to spot the Scarecrow despite being on an elevated haystack in the middle of a clearing, we find a group of jocks and their girlfriends hazing a group of students who want to join the…football team I think. However Sam (Caleb Roehrig) has a fit because of a medical condition and punches one of the girls in the face. The jocks therefore tie him to the Scarecrow, and apparently don’t leave until it turns into night. Sam falls into a coma and becomes the Scarecrow, once again going onto a murder spree.

And once again I have to go into the legend of the Scarecrow, since, again, the Scarecrow has come to life before, but ‘Scarecrow Gone Wild’ does NOT reference the previous films! Is it too hard to mention Lester? Or Dave? Or Karl? Coach (Played by former WWE/F wrestler Ken Shamrock) says that the reason he doesn’t want his team hazing people at the cornfield (That’s right, this Scarecrow is once again in a cornfield), because a hazing he did went wrong and unleashed the Scarecrow. Apparently all Scarecrows can do this. I don’t really have a problem with him dealing with a previous Scarecrow, it’s just, when asked how he stopped it, he replies “You can’t”, which means that there should be ANOTHER Scarecrow running around.

Also, if Sam is in a coma, then that means he CAN’T BE THE SCARECROW. You can only become the Scarecrow if you die, a coma means you’re still alive. Sam being the Scarecrow makes less sense than the Dave Scarecrow going on a murder spree. At least I can kind of see why Sam Scarecrow goes on a murder spree, he feels that everyone has betrayed him, most of all the best friend, Jack (Mathew Linhardt) who goes out with the girl, Beth (Samantha Asling) he knows Sam fancies.

And I suppose at least they stick with the dominant Scarecrow personality point that the second film raises. I do actually like how the film reverses the role at one, where the Scarecrow possesses Jack for…insert reason here, but then the Scarecrow possessed Jack somehow gains electrokinesis, again, for insert reason here. And then the Scarecrow decides to possess Jack, for insert reason here. I do love how whoever wrote the Wikipedia article put “and he does the most logical thing, he impales himself”. Not only that but this Scarecrow has teleportation powers! Which, I guess all Scarecrows have since the Lester Scarecrow randomly teleported at one point. Oh, and the Sam Scarecrow has a weird obsession with whistling.

Oh God look at me, I’ve declared myself an expert on the Scarecrow mythos. Let’s go onto something else shall we? The plot, okay, it’s your normal ‘Scarecrow’ film plot, someone dies (Or should have) and becomes the Scarecrow and goes on a murder spree. Not much has changed. There are the stereotypical jocks, the…somewhat social outcast, the…girls who are somehow in education. Speaking of which the main girl, Samantha, has an ex-brother-in-law, Ray (Jeff Rector), who is somewhat very fond of staying in touch with his ex-sister-in-law. The reason why he’s an ex relative is because he cheated on his wife with a nurse who apparently is contracted to show her boobs whenever she’s not in uniform. It just seemed odd, I think it would have been okay if he was her father and he cheated on ‘s mother (Not that I’m condoning adultery, I feel cheating is wrong no matter what) and he wanted to stay in touch with his daughter, but as an ex brother-in-law, it just seemed creepy.

The acting, when I look back at the previous two films, is actually pretty good. That’s not to say that the acting is great though, I mean, Toby Young in the first film was still the better outcast, but the acting compared to the other two, isn’t that bad. It’s not Roxanne Bine bad I’ll give the film that. But the film is still a career killer though, this is Caleb Roehrig’s ONLY acting role.

The effects, hmm. At least they’re not as stupid looking as the effects in ‘Scarecrow Slayer’. Well, except the sausages they used for intestines. That being said, the effects are still bad. Especially the electrokinesis. But here’s the thing, every single death is off screen. Well, the killing blow anyway. I am not even kidding. It’s as if they didn’t have the budget for on screen deaths.

Is it as enjoyable as the first ‘Scarecrow’?...Actually, yes. If not more so. I’d probably still name the first ‘Scarecrow’ as my favourite of the three, but this one is actually still entertaining. Is it a good film? Oh God no, but like the first film it’s so much fun to watch. There’s so much awfulness in this film; the acting, the effects, the dialogue, the flaws. There is one point when two characters run along the beach with the ocean on their right, and when we next meet up with them the ocean is now on their left, the group go to the cornfield during the middle of the day and yet they haven’t done much progress when night has fallen, why don’t the group take Sam to a proper hospital instead of one which hasn’t even been built yet? This and more will confuse you. And this film has one of the best moments in cinema history; Mike (David Zelina) throwing a bag at a random student while in a moving car.

This film is a huge improvement on the second one. Kind of. You know how much I liked the first one and how much I hated the second one, so the third film really is that entertaining, and is on par to being the ‘so bad it’s good’ film of 2004. If you’ve stuck with the other two films, I recommend you definitely watch this one. Hell, watch all three in one night with a group of people and drinks, it’ll be the funniest night of your lives.