Return of the Scarecrow (2017)

After spending the first 25 minutes of the movie in flashbacks that could be quickly covered by telling the legend of the scarecrow, we cut to present day where a group of friends is heading into the woods to camp. When they stop at a bar, they’re warned it’s not safe, but as in any horror movie, they decide to go camping anyway.

Two guys from the bar decide they’ll scare the campers by dressing as scarecrows, but end up getting separated.  When one of them bumps into the real killer scarecrow, he thinks it’s his friend and spends the rest of the movie hanging out with it while trying to scare people.

This is supposed to be an 80s throwback horror comedy. However it doesn’t evoke any feeling of the 80s and the jokes fall flat. I only laughed once, which was when a mob was trying to fight the scarecrow and one guy kept repeatedly trying to stab it with a plastic fork.

One of the problems with the film is there are too many characters being introduced for no real reason.  Not including the people in the first twenty five minutes of the film, we have: 

• the bartender and former bartender
• the four campers 
• the two guys who dress as scarecrows
• a cop and a receptionist 
• A priest in a car with a passenger
• A couple at home
• Partying teens and a kid on a bike
• A couple kids
• A person reporting a mob to the police

How many of these people matter? Not many as you could get rid of most of them without any real difference in the movie.  The cop is only there it take phone reports about the scarecrow and ignore them because he thinks it’s a prank. Even though he gets multiple calls, one from the priest, he says nope, not going to look into it.

Another problem is the tough chick isn’t tough, but just an unlikeable woman with anger issues. Is it the actresses delivery, the dialogue or both? It’s always odd when movies have characters who are jerks but they seem to want you to root for them. Nope, they’ve got to be likeable or have some character arc where they learn a lesson. 

Ridiculous dialogue:

I have a gun and I’ll use it.

Oh yeah, well I have a stick and I’ll kick your ass.

Isn’t it a sin for a man of the cloth to participate in pranks on people?