Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Nigel P This is an effective, mildly graphic shocker of the 'Jeeper Creepers' variety where a selection of teens get themselves involved in the eerie ritualistic machinations of animated scarecrows eager to recruit more innocents to become like them. There is no CGI, the scarecrows are physical, solid creatures, and as such, provide a tangible and frightening threat.The location is beautifully shot and lit. The use of colour is especially worthy of note. The cornfield and decrepit farmhouse nearby provide a wonderfully creepy location for many of the events.The teens are a formulaic bunch. Johnny, the one who goes missing; Brian, the square jawed hero; Chris, the untrustworthy one; Scott, the one in glasses (he seems empathetic and witnesses an insight into the 'scarecrows' past), while talented Australian actress Tammin Sursok has the thankless role of Natalie,'the girlfriend'. And that is where I find this film lacking. There are no jokes in this film – just posturing performers with whom we only sympathise when they begin dying. That isn't to specifically knock 'Husk', which is an extremely well made and well-paced film – but just how more involving (and scary) would it have been for audience if they were actually invited to be invested in the main characters? It is very effective, throughout much of the film, that the ongoing pattern of the spirit's plan continues relentless, no matter what our heroes try to do. One by one they are strung up and killed, become infected by the 'curse' and, zombie-like, lurch towards the upstairs farmhouse room to fashion themselves a new scarecrow mask. It is through the mask that their possession is complete. When that is removed, their spirit then animates another in the ever increasing army. The ending is as open-ended as any can be, and provides a real punch-the-air moment. It seems Chris is on the verge of rescue by two passers-by, even though another scarecrow is lurking in the foliage nearby. Fade to black.

David Arnold A group of five friends - Johnny, Chris, Scott, Brian, & Natalie - are on a road trip together when suddenly on a remote road in farm country, a flock of crows hits their car causing them to run off road. Johnny wanders off through a cornfield to seek help but seems to just disappear. Brian & Scott decide to cross through the cornfield to see if they can find Johnny and it's here that they spot an old house so they decide to head towards that. After not hearing from them, Natalie decides to go look for her boyfriend, Brian, but is dragged off by someone...or something. A little while later Johnny is found, but something has happened to him and when Scott starts to have visions of the horror that unfolded at the farm house it's here the group realises something is very, very wrong.Upon quick reading about it, Husk seems like a cheesy horror flick i.e. killer scarecrows, but in actual fact it's not altogether that bad, and some of it is quite creepy. Plot wise, it's not too deep (obviously), but you do start to think that there's nothing much here...group crashes car, heads to find help, killings ensue. There's no real back story, until about just after halfway through the film the back story starts to unfold on what has happened and what IS happening, and it's here that it starts to pick up a bit.All the characters are pretty likable - apart from Natalie, really, as you get tired of her and her continual "baby" talk - that you actually wouldn't mind seeing them all survive. How many times does that happen when watching a horror movie? There are some of the usual horror clichés dotted about, but I guess it wouldn't be a horror film without them really. Although it would be good to watch a horror without them just for a change.Anyway, asides from that, Husk is a decent, watchable horror flick. Nothing amazing but it's not the worst hour and twenty five minutes you'll see.

michaelsme615 When I marked this movie to record, the 1988 Scarecrows came to mind, and made me come up with a small checklist of things which I would like to see: the scarecrow would have to have a good design (they have to look pretty decent, or no one would take this movie seriously), and a decent plot and back-story. More so, the main characters have to be realistic enough as to not make me sigh in pity for the movie. The camera angles aren't too crucial, nor the music, but they do have the potential to add to a movie. This movie had all the requirements I would have liked, though some of them could have been improved. The scarecrows had my approval of being threatening, malevolent beings. Their make- up/costume was pretty cool, I think. The back-story behind the scarecrows was interesting, though why only the nerdy characters could see the flashback, I don't know. Also, for the most part, the actors played their parts pretty well. One of the things I think that this movie does quite well is the avoidance of the normal cliché slasher-movie characters. There's no blonde-haired girl who's messing with three guys' affections or a shy, well-behaving female who survives the onslaught. This just has four males and one female, and they all get along with each other decently well. I found this rather nice for a change. As aforementioned, I didn't care too much for how we found out about the origin of the scarecrows (via flashbacks that only one character could see), but I can try to look past that. Also, the chess analogy with such little evidence concerned me a bit, but it wasn't too big of a plot point, so I can deal with that also. Gore-wise, this had some pretty painful-looking deaths and injuries, but as I only saw an edited version, I don't know how much total bloodshed this had to offer. Overall, I feel that this movie is something that a horror movie fan should be able to watch without grimacing. 7.5/10, rounded down to 7 to fit IMDb.

thekarmicnomad I only found out about this film as it was a question on a movie quiz. After watching the movie I realised why I had never heard of it.It is not bad by any stretch of the imagination, in fact it is painfully average.The acting is good, as is the script and camera work and the premise is good also. The corn field has been used in horror movies of the past to great effect. The rustling leaves, the disorientating walls of corn stalk; being both isolated and exposed at the same time. Scary stuff.This film doesn't really attempt to capitalise on this, it uses the corn field as a simple barrier to hem the characters in.Some of the scenes in the farm are spooky, which is the high point in this middle-flat-line film.One of the reasons I am writing this review is to remind me I have seen this movie as I am sure by tomorrow I would have forgotten it almost entirely.