Hey - you got zombie in my scarecrow movie!
It's kind of a weird thing when a movie is disappointing in the respect that you wanted it to be worse than it was. I had a couple of things that led me to wanting to watch a bad scarecrow movie... (1) My wife and I had just gone for our fall drive to look at the color (this is something that old people around here actually do) and I saw lots of corn/corn mazes, etc. (2) I wanted to watch something that I didn't like - I've been feeling like I've been a little too positive about the movies I've been watching lately. Unfortunately (or not?), Husk proved to be a pretty decent little flick, although it didn't fully scratch my scarecrow itch (not slang for a STD).
Very standard set up - 5 young folks are driving through endless stretches of cornfield on their way up to a cabin. Rather than actually getting to the cabin and having all of the bad stuff happen there, a couple of crows, presumably under a supernatural influence, divebomb their car (if you ever wanted to see what Birdemic would have been like with bird-gore, this part if for you). This causes them to crash and they end up stranded where way out in the middle of nowhere, were there is no cell phone service. They split up (of course) and wander through the fields to find help, only to have a supernatural force prey on them.
This movie seemed like it was going to be super generic - the DVD sleeve from Netflix says something along the lines of "the egghead, the jock, the blue collar worker" - you just assume that it is going to be your regular group of victims where you can't even see why they're friends in the first place. But writer/director Brett Simmons wisely circumvents any drama by making things go wrong pretty much right away. I expected 15-20 minutes of getting to know these kids and listening to them bicker (and perhaps a visit to a dilapidated gas station), so was pretty surprised by the jarring car crash a few minutes in.
What I liked
The overall concept of the thing/monster/killer is excellent. If you had to categorize the type, you'd end up with a scarecrow/ghost/zombie - it's really a cool mish-mash of ideas that works out quite well in practice. I won't spoil them, but The Rules for this guy are crafted in such a creative way that it allows for some good sneaky/suspense scenes as well as some intense attack scenes - but it's also set up so that there is also a legitmate chance for our friends to escape.
It's also pretty well shot. For some reason, cornfields have always been a bit menacing to me (being a city boy that's driven past a lot of corn). There's something about being able to walk through it, but still never being able to see what lies ahead. Kind of like a thick fog, except you have to push it out of the way. Husk uses this aspect of the cornfield well. There are some good suprise attacks and body-draggings through the corn... stuff like that is always scarier to me when it is mostly obscured.
And I think there needs to be a name for the type of scare where the audience sees something move in the background and the characters don't. (There probably is a name and I just don't know it.) Husk has some great moments like this, generally with scarecrows moving or dropping from their perches to track our friends.
And even though the group is pretty generic, the order in which they are dispatched was not. Normally, you get a pretty good idea of who is going to go and when, but this kept you guessing. The deaths actually play a role in the plot too - as in, someone disappears/dies/is-zombified and the other characters actually care - trying to save them is a source of tension in the group. Simmons says in the extras that he wanted to create a "what would you do" type of scenario - how important are saving your friends when it comes to saving yourself? I wouldn't go so far to say it is thought-provoking, but it's something a little different to set Husk apart.
Also, the bit with nails going through the fingers, to sort of use like claws, was excellent. Like a gory update of the Blue Hand - and great for slashing!
What I didn't like
Mostly, Husk is posited as a thrill-ride type movie - there is not a lot of meat on the bones story-wise. The build-up is non-existent, which is both a positive and a negative... you get right into the good stuff right away (and there is quite a bit of it), but you don't can't really care about the characters. You get neither "I'm sad to see you die" nor "I'm glad to see you die."
There are a couple of head-scratchingly odd choices from the characters about how to escape, but if you didn't yell "what the hell are you thinking!" at the screen at least once, you wouldn't have a horror movie.
Overall, Husk is a step above what I expected. Usually, when you see a bunch of kids driving and the car breaks down, you are in for a rough ride. The creative "monster" and slick direction make it just different enough to stick out.
Ultimately
I would recommend (but not glowingly) this film.
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