Backlogging Again: The Messenger 2

Messenger 2: The Scarecrow

Staring: Norman Reedus, Heather Stephens, Claire Holt, Richard Riehle, Darcy Fowers, Matthew McNulty

Directed by Martin Barnewitz

Written by Todd Farmer

There was nothing amazingly spectacular about this movie. Just the opposite, actually. I can see where real critics would have had a field day on it. The plot was pretty thin, it didn't make sense in a whole lot of places -- Stay With Me -- It was predictable "Hum ... look the kid can drive the tractor even as mom keeps telling dad 'stop teaching the kid how to drive the tractor ...’ wonder if that will come in handy later?"

John Rollins is losing his farm, his crops, his wife to another man, all his security, his children ... nothing could possibly go worse as the bank comes after him, the crows eat his crops, his credit is pulled, his irrigation system breaks. It is looking pretty damn bleak until he finds the hidden closet in the barn storing an ancient and ugly scarecrow that his neighbor assures John will change everything.

And it does. With a few dead bodies adding up, some sexual aggression, failure to hold onto the children he holds dear ... it really is a no win situation that is explained by the little ghost girl "The Scarecrow doesn't protect the man. It protects the land."

And you know what? I loved this movie. I really did. Yeah, it got a little too spooky for big, tough me while I was home alone in a dark house in the middle of nowhere. There may have been a time or two when I suddenly had to get a drink of water. Use the bathroom. "Opps, I better transfer that load of laundry right now."

But what this movie may have lacked in Academy Award nominations it made up in something so much better. It was fuuun. I had fuuun watching this. And I watched it again. And again. I recommended it. Yeah, it's not the greatest of horror films, though it scares you here and there, but man, what a great way to spend the night. Fun. How many things are just that much friggin' fun? I loved it and appreciated every frame of screen time.