Scarecrows 1988

Five paramilitary mercenaries and war criminals—Corbin, Curry, Jack, Roxanne, and Bert—steal three million dollars from Camp Pendleton and take two hostages: Al, a pilot, and his teenaged daughter, Kellie, along with their dog Dax. The grim plan heads for the border, and the loot becomes a dangerous tether binding them all together.

As they fly toward Mexico, Bert steals the loot and parachutes into a dark field. Corbin and Jack parachute after him. Upon landing, Bert’s parachute gets tangled in a tree, and, after untangling himself, he discovers a scarecrow standing amid graves and an old, abandoned farmhouse in the distance. He escapes in a truck parked by the house, driving down a desolate road and pulling the loot back into the shadows. The truck, oddly, seems to lack an engine, and Bert tries to flee on foot with the trunk full of cash. Soon he finds himself in a grove of eerie scarecrows, and one of them animates itself and stabs him to death in a supernatural moment.

Meanwhile, Curry, Roxanne, and Kellie land after the plane’s arrival and reach the house, discovering Corbin and Jack inside. From the roof, a glimpse of the loot near three crosses appears, and the scarecrows that once guarded the field have vanished. Roxanne stays with Kellie while Jack, Curry, and Corbin head into the field to chase the money. They locate Bert’s abandoned truck and spot a scarecrow in the driver’s seat, then find Bert’s parachute bag hanging from a tree—its contents alarmingly blood-filled. Back at the house, Bert reappears, and the group engages in a brutal confrontation. The fight reveals Bert’s abdomen has been eviscerated, his body stuffed with dollar bills, yet he remains alive. Curry and Roxanne shoot him repeatedly, but the bullets prove futile. Corbin finally decapitates him, and Kellie flees into the field, discovering her father Al’s eviscerated body hung from a scarecrow post with barbwire. Corbin retrieves Kellie, bringing her back to the house, where Jack and Roxanne continue to extract the cash from Bert’s hollowed corpse. Corbin informs them Al is dead, and Kellie slaps Roxanne in the face, chastising them for what has happened.

Jack notices that more dollar bills have blown into the field near the house, and the group rushes outside to gather what they can. In a remote section of the field, Jack is murdered by a scarecrow, which dismembers him with a handsaw before stabbing him in the face. While searching for Jack, Curry finds three scarecrows in the field, but they vanish again. Curry grows convinced the scarecrows are possessed by the spirits of three deceased Satanist farmers—[Jakob Fowler], [Benjamin Fowler], and [Norman Fowler]—whose photograph hangs inside the farmhouse. Roxanne, Corbin, and Kellie decide to leave, but Curry stays behind, refusing to depart without Jack. The trio becomes separated in the field, and, while trying to recover loose dollar bills, Roxanne is viciously killed by a scarecrow. Corbin shoots a pursuing scarecrow and they flee toward the plane, though Corbin is wounded in the leg while crossing a fence. Kellie fires at two approaching scarecrows, buying them a narrow escape.

Back at the house, Curry discovers Bert’s severed head and limbs have reanimated, and he is confronted by a grotesquely deformed Jack who stabs him to death. Kellie then flies the plane out of the field with Corbin and Dax. Once in the air, a shocking twist unfolds as Corbin is stabbed by a repossessed Al, who had covertly boarded the plane. The vengeful Al attacks Kellie, stabbing her through the wrist, and a harrowing struggle ensues. Corbin manages to recover and the two begin fighting, ending with a grenade blast that kills them both. A morning-newscast voice-over reports the plane was found near San Diego, with the charred remains of two individuals being feasted on by Kellie’s dog, who must be tranquilized by a SWAT team, while Kellie herself lies unconscious in the cockpit, left in a state of shock.