October Horror Challenge: Day 12: “Husk”

Scott (Devon Graye), Brian (Wes Chatham), Chris (CJ Thomason), Natalie (Tammin Sursok), and Johnny (Ben Easter), find themselves hunted by killer scarecrows motivated by the vengeful spirit. It seems that when any member of the group is killed, something possesses the dead body, forcing the corpse upstairs in one of the rooms to operate a sewing machine, creating a scarecrow mask. For instance, Johnny is missing after a flock of suicidal crows bombard the windshield of Chris’ SUV causing a serious crash. Brian and Scott are able to find the farmhouse by passing through the ominous maze of cornstalks, encountering the dead body of Johnny operating the sewing machine, nails in his fingers, eyes white and lifeless, yet some evil presence motivates his hands into sewing that scarecrow mask. Before long Natalie is taken next, with boyfriend Brian unable to accept her death, this unwillingness to let her go offering possible grave consequences. Chris is thinking about one thing—survival. Brian finds a Chevy truck he believes can crank, and Chris wants the three to leave immediately, yet Natalie’s memory will not fade. Meanwhile, the trio—Scott, Brian, and Chris—attempt to strategize on how to escape the cornfield and killer scarecrows.

Lame. For a killer scarecrow movie, “Husk” doesn’t get a lot of things right. Though the film is well acted and gorgeously shot, the story is a bore. It doesn’t know whether it wants to be a bloody slasher (killer scarecrows everywhere) or a supernatural tale (the brother who was killed and made into a scarecrow who now “haunts” the land). The characters are useless and the deaths aren’t nearly as interesting as they should be (though one impalement is pretty damn sweet). Overall, it isn’t a bad film just one with too much ambition. Maybe there are worse things after all.

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3 thoughts on “October Horror Challenge: Day 12: “Husk”

  1. It isn’t terrible and is definitely good for a jump or two. I just thought they could have done a lot more with the premise. That being said, it is a masterpiece compared to Slash.

  2. I’ve been itching to see this one for a while. Killer scarecrows are a personal favorite of mine. Night of the Scarecrow, Dark Night of the Scarecrow, Jack-O, Psycho Scarecrow, Hallowed Ground, Scarecrow (it’s less interesting sequels Slayer and Gone Wild), and Scarecrows all had the ability to entertain me. This review doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, but I’ll probably still check it out anyway…it can’t be as bad as Slash.

  3. Really enjoyed it. One of the better recent horror films – the sewing machine sequences are spooky.

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