6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Criminals hijack a plane and force the pilot and his daughter to fly them to Mexico. However, an unexpected landing finds them in a cemetery inhabited by killer scarecrows.
Starring: Ted Vernon, Michael David Simms, Richard Vidan, Kristina Sanborn, Victoria ChristianHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 11% |
Supernatural | 10% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
In his commentary accompanying this new Blu-ray as a supplement, co-writer and director William Wesley talks about the spark of an idea which ultimately resulted in Scarecrows, mentioning that part of his inspiration is that up until his 1988 film there had been no outings featuring killer scarecrows. Wesley evidently never saw 1981’s Dark Night of the Scarecrow or the even earlier 1976 entry The Town That Dreaded Sundown, a film which admittedly only featured a scarecrow- esque villain with a head swathed in burlap. Be that as it may, Scarecrows, while never able to fully escape from its more than obvious lo-fi roots, something Wesley and producer Cami Winikoff talk about repeatedly in their commentary, perhaps understandably proud that they managed to complete a film on so little money, still is often surprisingly effective. The film (perhaps due to budget constraints) wastes absolutely no time in setting up its premise. A gaggle of paramilitary crooks have made off with a huge fortune and have hijacked a private plane to make their getaway. They’re already mid-flight as the film opens, with some clunky but serviceable “broadcasts” filling the audience in on what has gone before. Soon enough it becomes clear there’s no honor among thieves, as one of the gang decides he doesn’t want to divvy up the booty. He tosses a grenade toward the front of the plane and makes a hasty exit out the door (with a parachute, of course). That of course throws the rest of the bad guys (and gal), not to mention the pilot and his daughter, into a panic, though the grenade is ultimately dealt with and the plane is set down so that the villains can find the “jumper” and take back the loot. Unfortunately for all involved where they land (in one form or another) turns out to be a bit problematic, as the titular entities shamble to life and begin hunting these so-called Crows (Wesley mentions this perhaps subliminal conceit in his commentary, stating that the characters are all dressed in black and descend from the sky, hence their “psychological” appearance to the scarecrows).
Scarecrows is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Legendary cinematographer Dean Cundey is sometimes referred to as the "prince of darkness" of contemporary cinematographers due to some of his shadow swathed collaborations with John Carpenter (oddly not including Prince of Darkness), but Scarecrows' DP Peter Deming, who has gone on to a rather illustrious career (The Cabin in the Woods, Oz the Great and Powerful 3D) might give Cundey a run for his money, at least as evidenced by the looming gloom running rampant throughout this film. Deming had only worked previously on Hollywood Shuffle prior to coming on board with Scarecrows, and so it's rather remarkable how facile his lighting is in what must have been rather difficult conditions. This is all to say that Scarecrows is often very dark, with a negligible amount of shadow detail and on several occasions outright crush where little other than faces manage to permeate the murk. Things aren't helped especially by the POV "night vision" sequences, all of them bathed in a sickly green which more or less eradicates fine detail (see screenshot 3). Grain is quite pronounced throughout this transfer, spiking appreciably in the darkest scenes, and unfortunately giving rise to some minor but noticeable compression artifacts. Elements are actually in surprisingly good shape, however, with very little in the way of even dust to mention. Culled from the MGM catalog, this has the look of an older master, but that said, bitrates are generally very high (quite often in the mid-30s or above). With an understanding of the lo-fi filming conditions and the fact that almost all of this film plays out in extremely dark environments, this high definition presentation, while not perfect, is quite good and should please the film's fans.
Scarecrows features both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 options, and both provide excellent listening experiences. The 5.1 track significantly opens up the excellent score by Terry Plumeri (why doesn't this guy have more major credits?) while also placing sound effects in discrete channels. Dialogue is well supported and generally well prioritized, though the 2.0 iteration tends to offer it a bit more forward at times. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range very wide in these problem free tracks.
Scarecrows is a surprisingly effective low budget horror outing, and it might have been a major box office blockbuster had it been graced with a top tier action star headlining the cast. William Wesley overcomes the deficits of a paltry budget with at times rather amazing finesse. The film tends to lose a bit of momentum as it goes along (strangely just when the scarecrows become most "animated"), but there's a palpably spooky ambience in this film that makes it rather chilling. Technical merits are very good (video) to excellent (audio), and once again Scream has assembled a nice supplementary package. Recommended.
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