By Phil Herman
Director/Writer Geno McGahee brings us the old school style RISE OF THE SCARECROWS: HELL ON EARTH. This low budget, fun flick centers around a young writer, Mitch (Eric Michaelian), returning to his hometown.
Shortly after he finds out the Scarecrows are alive and raising Hell on Earth.
Geno McGahee returns to a movie he made in 2003 (RISE OF THE SCARECROWS) and continues where he left off. It’s from his beginnings and now he makes something nostalgic and important to him.
With his mom gone and his father, Ben (Brent Northup) dealing with the loss, the writer decides this will be the perfect place to write and take care of his saddened Dad. While there, he learns that his dad and the town folks have a pact with the evil lurking, the evil being 3 horrific scarecrows. The scarecrows won’t harm the residents if sacrifices are made to please their thirst for human blood.
In between the blood and murders provided from wandering passerbies through very cool and creative kills our hero falls in love with the local who takes care of his dad.
Of course we need victims and a done padding and we get that. A group of campers played by Sharon Marr, Tom Hebert, Matt Hebert, Jesse Delta Ariel Waegelein-Hall and Brandon Macey meet our lovely couple, Mitch and Stacy (Lorrie Bacon), and party a little with promise of more. Death falls upon our campers as they become victims of the sacrifice they are unwillingly part of.
It doesn’t take look for the writer and his girlfriend to put 2 and 2 together and discover the horrible secret being performed. The secret his dad and family partake in willingly. Who will survive this carnage and will the curse over this town be resolved?
What you have here with RISE OF THE SCARECROWS: HELL ON EARTH is an homage to the good ole days of SOV movies with a dedicated cast and crew and buckets of blood. Writer/ Director, Geno, knew what he wanted and what type of audience he was attracting. The attention that was given to the Scarecrows is just amazing. They are actually living and breathing Scary as hell Scarecrows. There is an unmasking scene that gave me nightmares.
The Scarecrows while the center of attention do phenomenal. The supporting cast really grasp there parts and add a great mix of satisfying scenes.
Camera work, lighting, sound and editing is way above the usual level of this type of filmmaking. It was beautifully pieced together with a lot of love and respect of the genre. A heavy metal soundtrack works well throughout and just makes it all better.
I see Geno moving onto bigger projects but I hope the passion and professionalism shown throughout this tidy lil gem stays in his soul.
You can catch RISE OF THE SCARECROWS: HELL ON EARTH on Tubi.
Phil Herman is a filmmaker, actor, producer and much more – Check out his IMDb!
