Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Review: Scarecrow County


Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019
Images from the Internet


Scarecrow County
Directed by John Oak Dalton
Midwest Film Venture
75 minutes, 2019

I firmly believe that one day, when we are looking back at John Oak Dalton’s film career at a retrospective, people will comment that either his early films were better, or this was just the start of his career and he’s grown so much. Directors like David Cronenberg and George A. Romero go through this all the time. No, I’m not comparing this film to theirs, but the philosophy is the same.

Andrew Britt
Oaks started off strong with directing his first feature, The Girl in the Crawlspace (2018). I also believe, in part, that this strength comes from three places: the first is that he has written a number of scripts before and has had the chance to initially grow in that way; second, he has been involved with the filmmaking process for a while with various directors so he’s had the opportunity to learn the craft; and third, he is under the mentorship of his producer, Henrique Couto, who has been making films in the Midwest for at least a decade (much as Gene Wilder did with Mel Brooks). This release was mostly shot in and around Farmland, Indiana, though filming was done as far as Dayton, Ohio.

It’s easy to tell that Dalton’s strength, at this early part of his directorial career, is in the screenwriting more than the helming of it, but that will take some time and practice to catch up the two together. What I particularly like about the script is that the characters are more fully developed than most indie films, the dialog doesn’t talk down to the audience, and the plot is both simple and nuanced at the same time.

Small town librarian Winnie (Chelsi Kern, coincidentally a perfect last name for a character dealing with text, may I add) gets ahold of a diary of a gay teen who had died, which of course leads to a series of events related to that occurrence. Meanwhile, there is the mysterious titular scarecrow that is going around killing people. While you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know these events are related, it’s how it all works out that is the focus of the film.

Tom Cherry, Chelsi Kern, Rachel Redolfi
Scarecrows are certainly not new to the horror audience, but Dalton has taken a common trope and played with it enough to make it interesting with the story’s own psychological drama.

The film is populated by a large and complex cast, including Winnie’s schizophrenic and agoraphobic cartoonist sister Zoe (Rachael Redolfi) whose drawings speak to her (using the very identifiable voice of Erin R. Ryan), Zoe’s promoter with the multicolored hair (Manic Panic?) Marlys (Erin Hoodlebrink), the pent-up angry Prentiss (John Hambrick) who has recently returned to town after a two-year service in Afghanistan, and lots of the character’s dads and friends (few moms involved that are living, apparently, despite the female-heavy cast).

Erin Hoodlebrink
Being an independent film director, Dalton wisely uses his budget in many ways, such as going to where the particular actor is rather than bringing them necessarily together in a room, and much of the interactive dialog is done over the phone: Zoe talks to Marlys and Winnie often using the device; most of the dads connect that way, including one to his girlfriend / sponsor (up-and-comer Joni Durian who stars in Couto’s latest, Ouija Room). 

Another way he wisely saves some money on the production is holding off on prosthetics and digital SFX. In other words, as this film is strongly story-oriented, all of the killings are done off-screen. I commend this, even as I like some blood in my meat, but again, if the story holds up as this one does, it becomes almost unnecessary (even if noticeable).

That being said, the scarecrow looks kind of cool. It’s mostly in the background, and often when a kill is about to happen, it and the area around it are filled with blue smoke and lights. It telegraphs what is going to happen, but honestly, it’s pretty obvious, even with a few good jump scares.

If there is anything I would to complain about, it’s the cheesy and stereotypical electronic music. Just does not work for me, as it was a bit of a distraction from what’s on the screen.

Much of the cast of The Girl in the Crawlspace has returned for this new release. The acting is mostly decent, especially among the female leads and the occasional male ones, but most of the wooden portrayals are from those with the Y chromosomes. Again, this is still in Dayton’s early stages. Have you seen some of the performances in early Cronenberg’s work? Makes this look like Best in Show in comparison.

Henrique Couto and John Oak Dalton
What compels this film especially to be worth watching – beyond the editing, which is quite good – is the writing. Sure, there are some really cool nuggets, such as the mention of the band the Dead Milkmen (saw them play at Maxwell’s, in Hoboken, NJ, opening for Salem 66; but I digress…), and even some dark humor thrown in here and there.

For a second feature, it’s pretty obvious that Dayton can have a solid future in both writing and directing. Let’s support that, and check out his films as I’m sure they are bound to be floating around the festival circuit. I know The Girl in the Crawlspace is about to get a wide circulation on various media, and it probably won’t be long before this one will, as well.

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