Review

Burkitsville Indiana, one year ago. A young couple, Vince and Holly, are leaving a petrol station with instructions from the overly friendly locals on how to get back onto the interstate. Never a good sign, and we soon find that our fears for the couple are well placed. Once on the road and in an isolated area, the couple experience car problems and are forced to pull over. There’s a light on over at what looks to be a farmhouse, but first they have to go through the orchard that dripped blood to stay in the light. Of course, they don’t make it.

We find out it was in fact John Winchester calling the Bros last episode, with the instructions not to try and find him, and to go check out Burkitsville. This leads to a major confrontation between the brothers on the road, with Sam wanting to go find Dad, and Dean wanting to follow instructions.

The brothers break up, with Sam hitting the road for California and Dean continuing on to Burkitsville. Sam meets a hot blond chick in his travels, who is clearly more than she appears, while Dean discovers that couples have a tendency to disappear around Burkitsville at the same time each year. Dean further discovers that while the region is going through something of an economic slowdown, the orchards and businesses in the Burkitsville region are thriving on high crop yields.

Further research confirms the townsfolk of Burkitsville are offering sacrifices to a Pagan god in the form of a Scarecrow, and Dean is soon down on the list to do his part for the Burkitsville commercial development league. Much creepy atmosphere ensues, ready to talk a bite out of one bad apple?

Scarecrow gets under way with one freaky orchard scene, which probably does nothing for those living on fruit-bearing properties. Director Manners constructs one hell of situation for the audience, and nails the opportunities inherent in the concept. We get way cool background lighting – did I detect the use of blue filters? – the fog machine is used to create the atmosphere, and the scarecrow itself is one cool visualisation. Naturally, this being a TV show, we don’t get over-the-top gore going down, but that scythe the creature was carrying looked all business.

Sam and Dean's different outlooks come to a head in this episode, which coincides with Dean almost loosing his.

This episode sees the tension between the brothers finally erupt into a separation, and I was grinning from ear to ear with the development. About bloody time we have a plot arc being finalised and laid to rest. Naturally, since one arc is gonzo, we have another in the character of Meg being introduced. I’m happy with the development, as this series does need an injection of freshness and to get moving in the direction of new developments. Clearly it’s envisaged that Meg will be a regular on the show, and that promises to be a hoot. Loved the character, and Nicki Aycox delivers on the role.

One of the problems I had with the episode was a bit too much reference to John Carpenter’s signature villain behind an unaware victim. Even Carpenter used the effect sparingly in Halloween, but here Manners seems simply to love the whole thing, and features it liberally throughout. This is offset by a pretty cool scene in the orchard, when Dean asks Sam to check if the scarecrow has moved, and Sam asks “What scarecrow?”. That was a nice touch, and had me nodding my head in approval.

Manners also gets the best use out of his sets and you have to love a Director with an eye to making the juxtaposition between the major sets really stand out, and capture the feeling he/she is after. Burkitsville is “our town” USA, and a quintessential hometown feeling has been made to work with it. Who would have thought the locals were heavily into Pagan worship with the apple-pie feeling of their small hamlet? Against this, the orchard is dark, creepy, and simply full of dark recesses where who knows what could be hiding. Well okay, we know what, but you get what I’m trying for here, right?

As usual with each episode, the Producers are throwing a wink at another genre movie, and leaving it up to the viewer to work out just what flick that might be. I was calling Jeepers Creepers 2 on this one, with the scarecrow on the pole thing. Reference the first scene in the movie to see how similar the look and feel is between both outings.

Music-wise we are well and truly catered for after some pretty low counts in the previous two episodes. Bad Company hove into sound distance with “Bad Company”, and we also get “Lodi” by Credence Clearwater Revival. Okay make that quality over quantity, but I was a happy camper with the soundtrack side of this twisted yarn.

The writers of this episode certainly did their research when it came to using a Norse mythological creature as the basis for the scarecrow. The “Vanir” were a group of wild fertility gods believed to bring protection and prosperity to those who worshiped them. Either an effigy of the “Vanir” was placed in croplands, hence the scarecrow, or a sacrifice was made which included one male and one female victim, hence the basis for the episode’s major plot device. From memory, my hometown went for more of the effigy concept than sacrificing people.

Loved the episode, got down and dirty with director Manners’ visuals, and had a lot of fun as things hit the fan pretty quickly. A new character was introduced, Meg, and one of the plot arcs was finalised, so you can’t ask for much more would be my call. Things are simmering away nicely on the overall series plot front, and another superb episode keeps you wanting to check out further outings.

Guess we are now at mid season with 11 episodes behind us, and a further 11 episodes to come. Thus far the lowest rating ScaryMinds has handed out has been a 6 for Bugs, and a perfect 10 is the high mark on two episodes, Phantom Traveler and Bloody Mary. The average rating through the first half of the season is a good 8.45.

Another episode, another recommendation; we might just have to say watch the whole season to avoid having to make each episode a must-watch experience. Plenty of atmosphere and plenty of drama make Scarecrow well worth dialing into.