Psycho Scarecrow (1996)
Dir: Steve Galler
Canada
90min
New York City, Halloween night: A young woman’s body is
discovered on the pavement beneath the shattered window of her apartment
several floors above, supposedly a tragic suicide. Two detectives are assigned
to the case – cynical, jaded Hammond (Tim Vince), and his more open-minded,
idealistic younger colleague Jones (Joe Parro). Hammond finds a tape recording
in the woman, Sheila’s (Tracy Rankin) apartment. On the cassette, Sheila
narrates the events of the previous few days leading to her demise. She, her
best friend Karn (Leanne Simms), Karn’s boyfriend Eric (Douglas Kidd) and their
friends Spider (Richard Lee) and Floyd (Mike Upmalis) had driven upstate for a
wild weekend. Floyd, considered a weird nerd by the rest of the group, knew of
a disused farmhouse they could crash at. Eric’s car breaks down a short
distance from the house, so they walk the rest of the way, via a vast and
isolated cornfield. Sheila senses a foreboding, almost evil, atmosphere as they
cross the harvest, an impression that isn’t helped when Floyd mentions several
centuries previously, settlers who were refugees from the New England witch
hunts placed a satanic curse on the land to protect the cornfield. Nor does the
sight of a particularly grotesque looking scarecrow they bypass in the centre
of the field. Once at the farmhouse, the gang kick off with some customary
beers and joints around the campfire. Things turn sour when Floyd snaps a picture
of Sheila and Spider making out. Hyper-macho Eric takes particular offence to
this, punching, kicking and taunting Floyd. The particularly savage beating
turns out to be fatal. Sheila and Karn are upset, however a nonchalant Eric,
who’d always seen Floyd as a loser, declares that his corpse will be stuffed
inside the scarecrow: “The secret will die with us”. Spider adds “Floyd’s an
orphan anyhow, we can just hide his body and no-one will care.” Unknown to
Eric, something that will happen much sooner than later. In the dead of night,
the satanic curse resurrects Floyd’s corpse. And Floyd, cocooned within the
ghastly effigy of the scarecrow, is hellbent on revenge against years of being
used and abused by his so-called ‘friends’. Brandishing an axe, he stalks and
hunts his prey one by one, until only Sheila, his unrequited love who laughed
when discovering his crush on her, remains...but was her death caused by
suicide, as Hammond intently believes? Or was it the “Psycho Scarecrow”?
At face value, Psycho
Scarecrow appears to be an overall simplistic and formulaic, extremely low
budget horror effort, peppered with a number of tried and tested elements inspired
from various genre titles. However, as a ‘Scarecrows in Cinema’ entry, the
utilisation of classic scarecrow imagery and legends as the catalyst in a
tormented young man’s brutal revenge against the perpetrators adds an
intriguing dimension to the film. The classic trope of the bullied outcast
(Floyd) gaining diabolical vengeance on his 'cool' friends by way of
supernatural forces is notable. The screenwriters have done their homework in
scarecrow lore – indeed some scholars believe that in ancient times, the
scarecrow was used in some societies as an effigy for some deity or power, and
that human sacrifices would be offered to the gods in return for protection of
the harvest. (Canfield 2016). Obviously in this story, the scarecrow guarding
the cornfield was the effigy for the black magic practicing settlers, and the
spell cast to ensure a prosperous harvest unleashed something far more sinister
than its initial purpose – whether this was deliberate or not is unknown. Floyd
is the only one of the group who takes the story of the satanic curse seriously
– the others all typically scoff at him. Even Shelia, despite feeling an
uncanny presence in the field, pays little attention to its significance.
Perhaps this is why Floyd was ‘rewarded’ with the gifts of resurrection and
superhuman powers upon his death, rather than just simply being used by the
demonic forces as a sacrifice. Then in turn, Floyd gives back to the forces by
providing them with more sacrifices i.e. his former friends. Though, it could
be suggested that the evil spirits are also using Floyd solely for their own
purposes, as once he eventually satiates his lust for revenge, he’ll be forever
stuck in purgatory. The reanimated anti-hero Floyd’s hideous appearance,
dressed in the scarecrow apparel and Jack O’Lantern pumpkin head, menacingly
brandishing a sharpened axe, is more than enough to shock the hell out of the
usually too-cool-for-school alpha male, Eric.
The
trope of the stereotypical alpha male NOT being the hero of the day and in fact
being the catalyst for disastrous consequences is utilised both with the
contrasting characters of Eric and Floyd, as well as Hammond and Jones. Floyd,
with his awkward manner, permanent goofy grin and overgrown boy appearance, is
the obvious fifth wheel of the circle of friends. He’s merely tolerated as he’s
used for various things such as the farmhouse, and as Sheila points out, “he always
seemed harmless”. Floyd is seen as a nerdy beta male, a pushover who’s
incapable of fighting back or standing up for himself. He stays with the group despite this poor
treatment because he’s so desperate to fit in somewhere. An orphan with no
other family, Floyd internalises his rage and frustration. In contrast, Eric is
the archetypal alpha male – dominant, confident, cocky, the ‘cool guy’ who’s
extremely popular with women. To bolster his self-confidence, he bullies those
he sees as weak and beneath him. Because
Floyd has been letting his anger bottle up for years without any outlet, the
evil forces feed on this negative energy, encouraging him to take out his
revenge to the ultimate extreme – murder. Notably
Psycho Scarecrow was released a few
years previous to the Columbine High School massacre. Bullying leading to violence in high schools became
much more of a prominent topic in the international media following the tragedy
and thus much more openly discussed. Of course bullying is something that’s
always been of concern, but it was the Columbine mass murders that really
propelled the toxic, sometimes fatal effects of prolonged harassment into the
public conscience. Not just in high schools, but also in other environments such
as college, the workplace and sporting clubs. This has also led to a growing
acceptance of the beta male as a capable leader and possessing desirable
traits, rather than having the alpha male as the default ideal of what a man should
aspire to be like. Writer Harry Mason notes: “Accepted wisdom states that nice guys always finish last. But as time
goes by, that tide seems to be turning. Being beta has always been a quiet
little act of rebellion, but lately it is speaking louder than ever. As gender
assumptions are slowly dismantled, and society’s idea of the perfect man shifts
from John Wayne to Benedict Cumberbatch, one thing seems certain – the future’s
bright. The future’s beta. Now there’s more room for scrawny Edward Nortons
amongst all the brawny Brad Pitts.” (Mason 2015).
This is also reflected in the alpha/beta pairing of the
detectives. Hammond, with his alpha attitude, bulldozes Jones with his opinion
that Shelia was a used-up junkie, that the recording was entirely based on
drug-induced hallucinations and she suicided due to this. Every time the Jones
expresses his doubts that it was suicide and in fact murder, and that he
believes Sheila’s story (he being the more contemplative, sensitive Beta male),
Hammond doesn’t want to know, because being an alpha he’s certain that he and
he only is right, in control and in charge. Essentially Psycho Scarecrow does side with the beta males because in both
cases the alpha males are made to look like boorish fools. Interestingly the
film’s final shot features some classic alpha male imagery – Floyd roaring off
into the night on a motorcycle, still in scarecrow garb but also clad in a
leather biker jacket. As it’s Halloween
Night, he’ll have no problems blending in with the revellers on New York City’s
bustling streets in his Alpha Scarecrow ‘costume’.
Although Psycho
Scarecrow doesn’t break new ground in originality, the use of the scarecrow
as a plot driver adds an interesting dynamic to the film. It is through both
the evil powers emanating from the cursed effigy and its alarming appearance
that the downtrodden beta Floyd is able to frighten, intimidate (and later murder)
the alpha male who had been long undermining him. Also by film’s end it is
obvious that beta Jones assumptions about the case are correct, and alpha
Hammond is presented as being stubborn,
closed minded and inept. Though the actions of Floyd in ‘Psycho Scarecrow’ mode
are of course heinous, essentially the film is on the side of the underdog, the
beta male. In both cases of beta triumph, the usually stereotypically revered
and admired models of ‘manliness’, the alpha males have the tables turned on them.
I’ll leave the final word with writer Lori Rotenberk: “No matter their cultural roots,
scarecrows worldwide were conceived of to perform a specific task: to frighten.”
(Rotenberk 2014).
References
Canfield, N. 2016, June 27, ‘Halloween Symbols and Their Origins’. Holidappy. Retrieved 27 June, 2017, from https://holidappy.com/holidays/Halloween-Symbolism-Where-Did-These-Things-Originate-Bats-Scarecrows-Skeletons-Etc
Mason, H.
2015, April 12, ‘The Rise of the Beta Male’. Cuff Magazine. Retrieved 28 June, 2017, from
http://cuffmagazine.co.uk/2015/04/12/the-rise-of-the-beta-male
Rotenberk, L. 2014, May 28, ‘Hay, Man: The Curious Life and Times of
Scarecrows’. Modern Farmer. Retrieved
28 june, 2017, from http://modernfarmer.com/2014/05/scarecrow-history-effigy
