I found myself stuck in the middle of an almighty clash between Reedus Season and my Inner Movie Snob as today I watched The Messengers 2: The Scarecrow.
I did see The Messengers in the cinema but I can remember very little about it so the unnecessary straight to dvd prequel did not register on my radar until quite recently - if it wasn’t for Reedus Season The Messengers 2 would have passed right by me.
PLOT: John Rollins (Norman Reedus) and his family risk losing their farmhouse as their crops are failing and they are falling deeper into debt. After John finds a scarecrow in the crawl space of an old barn he puts it up in the middle of his cornfield and his luck begins to change.
The harvest improves however John doesn’t become as jolly as a green giant as people around him begin to die in suspiciously unaccidental accidents.
John enjoys his run of good luck. John’s son is scared of the scarecrow. John no longer enjoys his run of good luck. John is scared of the scarecrow. For want of a better description John is raped by a ghost. There is a hoedown showdown in the barn. END PLOT
The plot of The Messengers 2 was exactly what I was expecting yet it also managed to be quite different.
In most conventional horror films it’s either the mother or the child who take the lead role in dealing with whatever creepy entity is harassing them with the father being either absent or relegated to the doubting cynic who is killed at the beginning of the third act. The Messengers differs from norm as the story is told solely from the fathers point of view with John Rollins being in almost every scene.
The Messengers doesn’t go down the route of a typical scarecrow themed slasher film ala Jeepers Creepers (although I do love these films) and plays as a purposely slow moving thriller.
There is an episode of the show Supernatural called Scarecrow - with the Scarecrow being a pagan god who brings life to an orchard in exchange for a male and female sacrifice once per year. There is a hint of the supernatural running through the film and a brief mention of black magic although the black magic theme or potential paganism aren't developed in any great detail - instead the film plays on the notion that John may or may not be going crazy due to his financial stresses. Was this the right decision? Maybe....
I did see The Messengers in the cinema but I can remember very little about it so the unnecessary straight to dvd prequel did not register on my radar until quite recently - if it wasn’t for Reedus Season The Messengers 2 would have passed right by me.
PLOT: John Rollins (Norman Reedus) and his family risk losing their farmhouse as their crops are failing and they are falling deeper into debt. After John finds a scarecrow in the crawl space of an old barn he puts it up in the middle of his cornfield and his luck begins to change.
The harvest improves however John doesn’t become as jolly as a green giant as people around him begin to die in suspiciously unaccidental accidents.
John enjoys his run of good luck. John’s son is scared of the scarecrow. John no longer enjoys his run of good luck. John is scared of the scarecrow. For want of a better description John is raped by a ghost. There is a hoedown showdown in the barn. END PLOT
The plot of The Messengers 2 was exactly what I was expecting yet it also managed to be quite different.
In most conventional horror films it’s either the mother or the child who take the lead role in dealing with whatever creepy entity is harassing them with the father being either absent or relegated to the doubting cynic who is killed at the beginning of the third act. The Messengers differs from norm as the story is told solely from the fathers point of view with John Rollins being in almost every scene.
The Messengers doesn’t go down the route of a typical scarecrow themed slasher film ala Jeepers Creepers (although I do love these films) and plays as a purposely slow moving thriller.
There is an episode of the show Supernatural called Scarecrow - with the Scarecrow being a pagan god who brings life to an orchard in exchange for a male and female sacrifice once per year. There is a hint of the supernatural running through the film and a brief mention of black magic although the black magic theme or potential paganism aren't developed in any great detail - instead the film plays on the notion that John may or may not be going crazy due to his financial stresses. Was this the right decision? Maybe....
The performances of the cast are all fine - the interesting thing about The Messengers 2 is that there is actually very little dialogue with the vast majority of the movie being played dialogue free and the score is pretty much non existent.
Despite being shot on a $2million budget the movie does not look cheap - The Messengers 2 has a great wide open independent feel to it which I am falling more in love with, with every Reedus Season film.
For a horror/thriller the action is pretty much non existent although there are the traditional jumps and scares. I will admit that once Norman Reedus picked up an axe and stated running through the cornfield my Walking Dead fangirl was awakened as the dude pulls of the "running with purpose whilst holding an axe" look like no other.
Norman Reedus wielding an axe automatically makes everything 10x better.
Overall The Messengers 2 is not a great film but neither is it a bad. If they had strengthened the supernatural element or ramped up the tension of John’s perceived insanity it may have served the film better.
The Messengers 2: The Scarecrow gets a solid 5/10.
Reedus Season 1 vs. Inner Movie Snob 0.
**Thank you to my fellow Vixen for finding me the screen cap!!**
sound intriguing might have to watch it. thank you for thee post and info god bless
ReplyDeleteNever heard about "MESSENGERS" movie, maybe in Italy it's not yet arrived... or maybe, as usual, it's been distribuited with a nonsense title like "Nella vecchia fattoria ya-ya-aahrghhhhhh" (transl.: Old MacDonald had a farm, eee-yi-eee-yi-aaaaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhhh!!!!)^_^
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading as always Roy!!
ReplyDeleteHi Angelo thanks for reading. It was released straight to dvd in 2009 so chances are you have passed it in the dvd isle and just not noticed it - I know I did!