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*** This review may contain spoilers ***
What this movie does well is not showing too much. This could had easily turned into a cheesy monster-flick, in which you see a guy dressed up as a scarecrow killing people. The scarecrow actually isn't shown until the very end it is being implied often in the movie that the killer is not a ghostly scarecrow rising from the grave to take revenge upon his killers but a normal person of flesh and blood who has their own motivation to kill the bad men.
It relies further more on a very simple plot but due to its approach it works out original and effective nevertheless. Not that the movie is a very scary one but it still turns into a creepy and atmospheric one, when you're not fully knowing what is going to happen next. The movie is definitely less worth and cheesy than its title at first sight might suggest.
You could say that the movie doesn't show much and doesn't has any gore in it because it's a cheaply made for TV movie. That might be so but however the movie simply uses this to its own benefit. In this case less is more within this movie.
Director Frank De Felitta actually directed a couple of more made for TV horror movies like this throughout his career and it's short of a shame that he never really broke through. Although I don't know if his movies would had been better though if they had a bigger budget and a global world wide theatrical release. He actually made one big movie in his career, starring Sharon Stone which did flopped.
The movie doesn't feature the world's best actors (though Charles Durning has done some good things throughout his career) but this suits the movie and its atmosphere and style well. It is a surprising sight though seeing Marlon Brando's older sister Jocelyn Brando in this. It also was weird seeing Larry Drake in this, as a retarded man, who can only think and act like a child. It was weird seeing him as this, since Larry Drake to me while always be that tough criminal Durant from the "Darkman" movies.
A movie really worth watching.
7/10
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