Husk - C-

Quick Hit: A smaller film that tries admirably with some decent small scale effects, but fails in its larger endeavors.

"Killer" Tag Line... Haha

It seems to me that there are different kinds of average films. There is the film that had a good idea, but nobody seemed to care (actors, directors, etc). There is the kind where the crew (camera men, effects personnel) that worked really hard on a film with a silly idea. And there is also this film, where the limitations in story hold back a decent acting job, along with some good small scale effects work.

Welcome back to DoubleFeaturePreachers.com for another spooky Halloween day. I’m currently outside of Boston on work travel, and that was an extreme disappointment when I watched Husk, because it takes place in the middle of a cornfield. Now I know this is pretty much poor planning on my part (because it’s fairly obvious that it is going to take place like this), but it still didn’t help set the mood as if I would have been in my own home where corn is just a short walk away. Husk is a smaller film, part of the After Dark series of films, which are extremely hit or miss. Husk seems to fall somewhere in the middle between the two extremes – it has some good ideas, but poor execution.

I found out during my research for this film that it is actually a remake of a film from 1988 called Scarecrows. Not only had I never heard of Scarecrows, I don’t know anything about it, so that cannot really play any part in my review. I hope that they did the original justice if it was a good movie though.

Husk follows a group of teenagers as they are driving. A bunch of crows hit their windshield, causing them to crash. They walk through a cornfield to find help, only to start being picked off by demonic, possessed scarecrows. Later, we determine that these people are the possessed forms of former occupants of the farm.

Here, for me, the movie started to falter (Funny right? I was on board with killer scarecrows, but it fell apart in the backstory…). There just seemed to be too much trying to be told, and nobody’s heart seemed to be in telling the story of the poor abused Corey (I think that was his name). The actors’ performances ranged from being marginally effective to overly camp, but I think at times this added to the effect of watching a movie in this range. As I highlighted in my Quick Hit, the effects are decent, particularly in the scenes where the possessed person is sewing. I don’t necessarily understand the reason for the nails in the fingers, but hey: a job well done is a job well done.

Overall, there are probably better small scale movies that you could watch this Halloween. If you can’t tell, Shannon and I put together this list of movies to specifically highlight movies that were A) currently in theaters or B) relatively unknown. Hopefully you’ll find something worth spooking you.

I’m going to give Husk a “C-“.

For more on this film, check out IMDB.