3. Scarecrows Are More Than Just Scarecrows... (Dark Night Of The Scarecrow: 1981 / Jeepers Creepers II: 2003)
Scarecrows aren't cool. They don't do anything. They're completely unremarkable. They're bundles of straw wrapped up in old clothing in the middle of a field, designed to 'scare' crows from attacking crops. Except when it comes to Halloween in the movies. Then they turn into vicious killers out to slaughter you all.
Dark Night Of The Scarecrow started the tradition of killer scarecrows back in 1981. A young, mentally challenged man, wrongly convicted of murder, is hidden by his mother in a field, disguised as a scarecrow. Killed for the murder he didn't commit, he is (naturally) resurrected as a monstrous killer scarecrow, out of revenge and slaughtering the inhabitants of the town he came from. A great little TV movie, it spawned many more killer scarecrow films to come.
Night of the Scarecrow (1995),
Scarecrow Gone Wild (2004),
Psycho Scarecrow (200)...I can't promise that any of these are actually good...or made it past the 'straight to video' stage. Still, sometimes killer scarecrows can be done really well.
Supernatural's season one episode 'Scarecrow' is one of the most chilling episodes in its early run. More than 20 years later, we had it again, back to the movies, with the surprisingly fun
Jeepers Creepers II, with a killer scarecrow on the hunt once again during Halloween. Admittedly, the killer isn't actually a scarecrow, but he certainly acts like one, luring one of his victims into the field where he stands before striking. Cool, real-life scarecrows might not be, but in the movies, they'll slaughter you in a heartbeat! Taking something so mundane, so ordinary and making it terrifying, that's what makes them so good!