Scarecrows

When we came across this on the movie list, I asked Alex if he thought it would be too bad, or just bad enough. He said just bad enough at least, so we took a shot at it.

This crew of mercs or something stole a payroll from a military base, then hijacked a plane (with just the pilot and his daughter) to get them to Mexico. One guy bails out with the money, the others following in hot pursuit. Although their pursuit ain't so hot, considering he's long dead before they find him. They end up around some cabin surrounded by scarecrows, three of which come to life and begin killing them, for reasons that eventually sort of become clear. They're also able to imitate the voices of all the characters to lead them in circles, again for some reason.

Yeah, this fell firmly in the "too bad" category. I actually got my hopes up a little right at the start, when they did an establishing shot of the cast through the night vision goggles the traitor was wearing. My initial thought was this was going to be one of those found footage movies, which are very commonplace now, but as this film is from 1988, it would have been a little more unique. (I feel like Blair Witch Project usually gets credit for popularizing that style, although I highly doubt it's the originator). But no, it was just a temporary bit, showing us the surroundings from that character's view. They use it a few other times when characters wear night vision goggles, but otherwise that's it.

Beyond that, the bit I found most interesting is that the pilot's daughter is convinced at one point that she's safe, because she's not like the mercs. Which is how it turns out sometimes, the innocent are spared. This is one of those cases where it isn't the case, she's not off-limits, but that feels more unusual in a movie where someone actually expresses the opinion that they will be safe for that reason. Usually characters only figure that out at the moment the monster could kill them, but opts to ignore them, which didn't happened here.